The oil price: Recoil

Painful though it is, this oil shock will eventually spur huge change. Beware the hunt for scapegoats

IN THE early 1970s a fourfold rise in the price of oil almost brought the world to a standstill. The shock of the Arab embargo left a deep mark in many countries: America subjected its cars to fuel-efficiency standards, France embraced nuclear power


This week French fishermen clogged up the port of Dunkirk and British lorry-drivers choked roads into London and Cardiff. Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president, suggested subsidising the worst affected and curbing taxes on petrol; Britain’s beleaguered government is being pressed to forgo its tax increases on motorists. In America falling house prices have left consumers resentful