The convoy had descended on the city early that morning in an attempt to block the streets and government buildings. The police didn’t allow that to happen, but the massive traffic protest made its point loud and clear. London’s signature red double-decker buses ground to a halt. Ticket collectors were left with little to do but look for a cheap place to get their cuppa (tea). The trucks left the city the way they had come-slow driving to create as much of a disturbance as they could. “It usually takes about half-an-hour to get into central London,” said driver Phil Canning, “but today it took us four hours.”

Glen Kelly, another trucker who had parked his vehicle on Park Lane, said that the truckers have had only a positive response from the public-and the unscientific evidence pouring into radio and TV call-in shows supported him. “When we were driving into London,” Kelly said. “People were coming out on their front doors clapping and giving the thumbs up-I felt like I was in the army.”

There was no mystery about what this fuss is about. Britons pay perhaps the highest price for gasoline in Europe-nearly $5 a gallon. With fuel prices soaring as the price of crude oil rose from $10 a barrel to more than $30 a barrel in the past year, what really galls consumers in Britain is that 76 percent of the price of petrol is paid to the government as taxes. The same is true across the European Union, where taxes comprise between 60 percent and 80 percent of the price of gas at the pump.

Europe’s late summer of discontent broke out last week in France, when fishermen and truckers snarled major highways and ports to protest gas prices. The French government caved, and pledged a small cut in gasoline taxes. When the protest moved across the Channel, Prime Minister Tony Blair was determined not to follow in Paris’s footsteps. On Tuesday, following emergency meetings with the police and oil companies, Blair said he had worked out a deal whereby oil-company tanker trucks would, under police escort if need be, begin moving in and out of oil refineries where truckers had set up peaceful protests. By Wednesday night, some 500 tankers had left refineries along the British coast. But very little of these supplies can reach the public soon. They will go first to emergency services such as ambulances. In the meantime, most British gas stations remain bone dry-or nearly so.

Though protesters are adamant, they have remained mostly peaceful. On Wednesday afternoon, at Europe’s largest oil refinery in Southampton, Hampshire, truckers dispersed after police asked them to move their vehicles. As seven tankers left the refinery about 5 p.m. GMT, bystanders stood up and applauded. But the truckers’ determination to win a cut in taxes remains unchanged. “Haulers are going out of business every day. Meanwhile, the petrol tax keeps going up and up,” says one driver. “We should get some concessions.”

The crisis continues to disrupt life throughout Britain. Schools in rural Wales are facing closure and some hospitals have canceled all but essential procedures. Health officials warn that patients’ lives are at risk. And a spokesman for Tesco, one of Britain’s leading supermarket chains, says that though the stores have not seen any panic buying yet, they are busier than usual. “Our mid-week shopping has definitely seen an increase,” says Tesco’s Simon Soffe. The company’s trucks have enough gas for the next few days and deliveries at this point are operating as normal. Tesco has gasoline pumps at some store locations, but those pumps have dried up, like many around the country. “We have petrol in our pumps only for emergency services vehicles at this point,” Soffe said.

The mail system is even facing problems-warnings were issued that in some areas, the postal service has enough gas only for one more day of deliveries. Meanwhile, the country’s Royal Automobile Club warned drivers to keep driving to a minimum. “This is by far the worst crisis we’ve had in 25 years,” says Jonathan Simpson, a spokesman for the auto club. “The government has to step in immediately.” At 6:30 p.m., the eerie quiet on Park Lane had been replaced by incessant honking of the trucks horns. But these weren’t protesting drivers, just commuters setting down the road for home.