LETTER: Price at the pump

Sir: I remember the time, before we had found our own oil, when I would join the long queue at "the last petrol station in England" and fill my car to the brim with the stuff before boarding the Dover-Calais ferry. On the journey home, like many others, I ran the risk of running out in order to arrive at Calais with a virtually empty tank so that as little French fuel was used as possible.

Last week I drove back through France and saw long queues of British- registered cars waiting to have their tanks filled up in Calais. I did the same. It was worth it. It cost exactly six francs a litre for unleaded petrol, around 15 per cent cheaper than I could buy the stuff in England, even before the most recent increases.

We are told that it is because of the rise in crude oil prices. Have the French negotiated their own special deal with the OPEC countries? I think not. Aren't we being conned?

Everything seems cheaper in France. Can someone explain why?

BOB REEVES

Bristol