Fat cats 1 - man on the street 0

This week BP announced that its annual profits soared by 39 per cent to £18.1 billion. This is a week after Shell announced profits of £13.9 billion. Now that strikes me as obscene on a number of levels. I know business needs to make a profit - that is after all what business is about, but 39% for crying out loud. If my salary went up by 39%..... well it wouldn't would it because that's not the real world!! But more concerning is the fact that this profit was made in a year that saw oil prices reach record highs - surely if the oil companies are having to pay more per barrel of oil their profits should drop or am I being too simplistic here? By my reckoning it means that at a time of spiralling energy costs the big corporations were capitalising on things and making a profit at our expense rather than limiting their profits to a reasonable increase and allowing us to pay less at the pumps! Who says polluting and destroying the environment won't pay?