Teribus, you're spot on in one thing and way off in another:

Spot on: The oil companies are not fazed by threats of boycott. In their experience such things do not affect them greatly. I know - I work for one. (By the way, C-Flat, the net margin for supply to other companies is actually higher than the retail margin, precisely because of the high taxation. Retailing fuel is no big earner, in fact without the shop sales its return would be a lot less than inflation. Were it not for the need to keep in the "public eye", many of the retail stations would lose their franchise).

Way off: Harvey lives in Shropshire, having recently moved there from Staffordshire, having moved there from Birmingham some time ago. No tax exile he, he certainly walks as he talks. And his "assumption" that higher direct taxes reduce the need for indirect taxes is a tenet of economics, not his own idea. The Norway example does not disprove the rule, it simply means that the government there has chosen not to reduce indirect taxation, but invest a lot more than the UK in infrastructure.

Which leaves us - where? Bugger me if I know, but Harvey's ideas are the most attractive to me. The difficulty is individual conscience (or lack thereof) and/or greed, otherwise translated into the well known "I'm all right Jack" and "I'm looking after my own, sod you" attitudes.