Complaining about the price of petrol has gone spectacularly out of fashion. It wasn’t long ago — only nine years, in fact — that the country was so furious at petrol prices of 80p a litre that protests broke out and refineries were blockaded. How times have changed. The cost of a litre of fuel now averages 109p, according to PetrolPrices.com, 35 per cent more expensive than in 2000, yet there is barely a whimper of discontent.

With a Pre-Budget Report imminent, and a budget deficit the size of South Africa’s entire economy to fill, such apathy can mean only one thing — significant increases in fuel duty are on the road ahead.

Motorists already face a 2.5 per cent increase in fuel costs when VAT goes back to 17.5 per cent in January, along with a 1p above-inflation increase next April. Assuming that oil prices do not increase in the meantime, which is a big assumption, this is likely to force petrol to about 115p a litre, only 4p less than the record high of November last year.

Of course, part of the reason that fewer people are willing to complain about fuel costs is the fear of being labelled eco-selfish. But moral outrage over the threat of climate change should not be exploited by lazy politicians to implement bad policy.

Despite petrol and diesel prices having increased by more than 50 per cent in the past seven years, the amount of fuel sold in the UK has remained virtually unchanged, at 47 billion litres a year, according to the UK Petroleum Industry Association. The problem, of course, is that most people do not have a credible alternative to using their cars. The majority of the population need to drive to work to earn a living and to the supermarket to feed their family, and they will still have to do so no matter what the level of fuel duty.

The UK has one of the highest fuel tax rates in Europe but it has one of the least efficient and affordable public transport networks. Only this week the first £1,000 train fare in the UK was announced — a turn-up-and-go, first-class return from Newquay to the Kyle of Lochalsh. Who would have thought that it would be cheaper to fly to Australia than to take a train the length of Britain?

The sad reality is that further increases in fuel duty are unlikely to have any significant impact on carbon emissions. Tax penalties on the manufacture of highly-polluting cars is likely to be a more equitable, and indeed more effective, policy.

Green taxes can be a legitimate way of changing behaviour but only if there are credible alternatives. Otherwise they are nothing but a cash cow that achieves little but to further the public’s growing cynicism about climate change policy. And that, ultimately, could be very bad for the environment.

Don’t worry, be happy? It helps if you have money

Money, we are forever told, cannot buy you love. However, it can buy you happiness — at least, that is, if you read The Times.

Over the past week we have been asking our readers to vote in an online poll to tell us whether money makes them happier. We ran the poll in response to another one of those studies that suggests that increases in national income have a negligible impact on a nation’s happiness. (The research, published this week by the Legatum Institute, a think-tank, indicated that Finland, the country with the sixth-highest suicide rate in the world, is the best place to live.)

Either way, a quite convincing 63 per cent of our readers said that money does make them happier. That’s one in the eye, then, for the do-gooder brigade who believes that if we eschewed the trappings of modern life we would become more emotionally fulfilled.

In most cases, the economists or politicians who criticise economic growth and advocate the virtues of alternative measures of prosperity have plenty enough money already.

You certainly don’t see many people on the minimum wage arguing that more money would bring them more problems.

The Legatum Institute, incidentally, is based in Mayfair, and is funded by, among others, Legatum Capital, the investment fund manager.

Of course, nobody would deny that the greater our wealth the less important small increases in income are to our happiness.

And only a fool would think that riches are a short cut to contentment.

Nonetheless, money does help to provide a more comfortable, and healthier, life. But, as Times Money readers, you knew that already, didn’t you?

Let’s raise a festive glass to the taxman

Good news from HM Revenue & Customs is rarer these days than a next-day delivery from Royal Mail. Yet even the taxman showed that he isn’t a total killjoy by announcing this week that pubs, clubs and restaurants open past midnight on New Year’s Eve can continue to charge VAT at 15 per cent until they close, or until 6am.

VAT was due to increase to 17.5 per cent at 00.01 on January 1.

Of course, the logistical difficulties of raising prices at such a time meant that this was the only sensible decision. Nonetheless, let’s for once raise a glass to the taxman. Cheers!

Follow Andrew Ellson on Twitter at www.twitter.com/andrewellson