All hands to the pumps
STRUGGLING to get the banks off Euro- tunnel's back, Sir Alastair Morton is per- forming a labour of Sisyphus, and I am here to help him. Last month, so I see, more than 200,000 cars, lorries, coaches, motorised car- avans and so on came to his tunnel and shut- tled through — but not before the drivers and passengers stocked up with the usual duty-free supplies of drink and cigarettes. One necessity bears a heavy rate of duty on both sides of the Channel but was not on sale to them. Where were the duty-free pumps? Where can the Brits charge their tanks for the quick dash to Reims for lunch? An instant sum suggests that selling ten gallons to every passing driver would boost Eurotun- nel's profits by a net £3 million a month. It would also save Continental customers from running out of fuel on the motorway to Lon- don, as they discover, far too late, that there is nowhere to buy it.
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