How do you get the public to accept the military on the streets? Fuel crisis.

Hi ATS,

Really, really quick thread with an idea which came to me as I was contemplating the fuel crisis here in the UK. For those who don't know, we've been experiencing a shortage for a couple of weeks now, people have been getting desperate - and now? The government is putting the military to work, delivering tankers of fuel.

Now I know this is highly speculative, but if you wanted to familiarise the public with the presence of armed military on the streets of your nation in the run up to winter in the midst of a Covid-19 scamdemic, wouldn't the use of troops in delivering the fuel we're so desperate for be a great way to do it? If they are armed when they're delivering the fuel, then we will know for certain that they are deliberately conditioning us to accept their presence.

Australia is practically a fascist police state now, the protests are being ruthlessly crushed - as it's a Commonwealth nation, there's every chance that the same could unfold over here during our own winter season. The Aussies of course are just ending their winter season in the next month or so, hence when we roll into our winter season - can we expect armed police or military on the streets?

Possibly.

a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

Much as I utterly despise the Johnson Administration for being about as useful as a chocolate teapot, we are talking about a few hundred Squaddies delivering fuel to the areas of greatest stupidity, not martial law.
The Army has been about on the streets before, when the firemen were on strike years ago, so it's nothing new.
I'd say keep calm and carry on - whilst realising that Johnson & Co are utterly useless.

a reply to: AngryCymraeg

Is UK even out of the EU? at this point? everything what the Johnson Administration had being over there is 100% the upside. The EU is in favor of vax mandates and other measures UK follows it with ease.

Hard to see how we have managed for for almost 2 years since Brexit with no driver shortage, until now.

Maybe it is just about the greedy petroleum industry drumming up demand to get rid of surplus stock caused by the pandemic, before they bring in the new E10 and other E fuels.

a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

The military won't be on our streets they'll be in their cab or on forecourts delivering fuel , they won't be armed and I doubt they'll be in uniform.

The army logistics corps have well trained HGV drivers , at the moment we need well trained HGV drivers to alleviate a problem caused in part by a lack of HGV drivers , it makes sense to use the resources we have.

a reply to: AnInvisibleCorner

It was a combination of things - EU HGV drivers going home and realising that they were better treated and paid there, visas expiring, lockdowns, Government being short-sighted idiots, rinse and repeat.
This was flagged up as being a possible outcome of a hard and idiotic Brexit. BoJo and his moronic friends just refused to admit that this might happen and are now performing more U-turns than a stunt driver.

a reply to: HawkEyi

The UK had a completely different approach to handling the pandemic than the EU.

Your post is just complete and utter fantasy and displays total ignorance of what is actually going on here.

a reply to: AngryCymraeg

It was a combination of things - EU HGV drivers going home and realising that they were better treated and paid there, visas expiring, lockdowns, Government being short-sighted idiots, rinse and repeat.

I agree with that but I don't think this is about Brexit , there is currently a HGV shortage across most of Europe caused in part by working conditions in the haulage industry and added to by the lack of training of new drivers caused by the pandemic.

I believe Romania is the only EU country to have seen a rise in driver numbers with the rest of Europe seeing a decline.

a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

Panic buying lasted one weekend in the vast majority of the UK before sense prevailed.
I haven't witnessed any queues of any sort during the last week or so.

The only area that still seems to have any fuel shortages etc is S.E. England.....and anyone who knows the UK will not be surprised by the selfish attitude shown by many down there.

No Army on the streets.

The UK has faced far, far worse than this before in the past and we've never descended into any sort of police, fascist state....and it isn't going to happen any time soon.

And that's despite Boris and his gang being a complete set of twats.

Nothing but hyperbolic scaremongering.

a reply to: AngryCymraeg

Sounds reasonable.
I wonder if there will be shortages elsewhere in the world.

I recently saw a video of a guy in America literally filling up the back of his pickup truck lined with a tarp.

Not sure when this actually happened tho.

a reply to: gortex

I'd suggest that if anything the driver shortage is due to EU membership; EU nationals were working in the UK for less pay thus bringing wages of UK drivers down or at best freezing pay.
Brexit has just highlighted how unattractive a career option HGV driving is for most people.

Obviously you know more than most about this.

a reply to: FlyInTheOintment
Seriously? I doubt you will get any stars or flags from any Brit.
As Angry Cymraeg has already pointed out the military and Green Goddesses were rolled out back in the '70's when firemen went on strike over pay and work conditions.
What about all the policemen armed to the teeth at our airports and ports? Does that give you as much concern?
AnInvisibleCorner makes the best point in my view.
The whole debacle was blown up by the media. The whole fuel clusterf**k was promulgated by the media. If anything is to be learnt from this..... think twice and then once again before you listen to them.
All supplies have been tickety boo over the past 18 months. Did you not find what you needed for Christmas in the shops last Christmas?
A calm head is a wise head.
Rainbows
Jane

a reply to: Freeborn

Absolutely agree with that mate.

I think, if anything, the reporting of military on our streets is to provoke further fear than there already is. News sources seem to have one objective in mind and that is to stir up panic. My life was far less stressful when I did not read/watch the news.

I have been wondering if this has been a manufactured shortage. This is because my friend was working down in London for a week and just before returning home he went to a petrol station (Tesco I think) which had the pumps barrier end off. He asked what the score was and was told there was no fuel. He decided to get a bite to eat and a coffee since he was there and as he was sitting in the car having this, the staff member came and moved the barriers. He initially thought it was to let the people that had queued up through so they could just leave but then saw they were filling up with fuel. No tanker had arrived to fill the tanks. The guy at the desk didn't say the fuel isn't online yet but will be soon, he had said there is no fuel. So where did this fuel come from???

a reply to: CthulhuMythos
My father had a petrol and tyre depot.
Tanks are not run completely dry. In all likelihood a delivery was imminent and so there was enough to start selling again.
My local BP garage just off the M5 at J9 has been out of all fuel at least 4 times that I know of in the past month to 6 weeks. This has resulted in me going another couple of miles to the outskirts of Tewkesbury to a Murco garage who have had no issues. Make of that what you will bearing in mind BP is probably the biggest importer/supplier of fuel in UK, and the whole media fearmongering started with 'something' some 'journalist' overheard a BP executive say.
Rainbows
Jane

a reply to: CthulhuMythos

I believe it is all manufactured.

Just baby steps toward us accepting complete rule, without too much fuss.

We are much easier to control if we are poor and have to comply to make our pittance. Restrict movement by controlling our allowance of petrol.

Shortages in stores is a good way to reward and punish. Make you depend on the government. All you have to do is comply.

a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

Hate to rain on your parade but troops have been used for civil functions pretty routinely for about ten years now, exceptionally for even longer.

During the Olympics, I had a beer with some off-duty Marines who had been billeted on a houseboat in central London and thought all their dreams had come true.

When I had my first vaccine in February, there were soldiers in fatigues not just doing the jabbing but shifting boxes etc.

Soldiers are regularly used in times of heightened security.

The Sappers are the first to come down and help when there's flooding.

Going back a few years, I remember the Army using green fire engines to support the fire brigade in the late seventies.

What all these things have in common is not an attempt to control the population but a failure of normal civic services to cope. This isn't Bodger Johnson taking over so much as Broken Britain after eleven years of Austerity, Brexit and COVID.

Mind you, that's not to say that Johnson and Nosferatu Patel aren't likely authoritarians. Keep an eye on the public order legislation, often swept under the carpet by the MSM, and the way it's used to control dissent. Bodger might not have troops firing on people in British cities like his hero Churchill, but he would love to use water cannons to look strong. He'll start with easy targets, like Extinction Rebellion...

originally posted by: HawkEyi
a reply to: AngryCymraeg

Is UK even out of the EU? at this point?

Yes and no.

We are out of the EU on paper.

Most EU law from the last few decades is hardwired into our own laws. The stuff we are likely to get rid of eventually is individual rights and protections. The financial stuff will stay.

We still have a border down the Irish sea. Which is why Northern Ireland, in the single market, is not suffering what the rest of the UK is suffering.

We have finished the transition period but some transitional arrangements are still in place. Some are due to end in January - expect another shock to the system - and some have been prolonged indefinitely.

We are still part of the European Convention of Human Rights. That's independent from the EU.

Business still has to comply with EU law if it wants to do business in the EU. As well as compliance, we also have a small mountain of paperwork, often through pretty heavyweight intermediaries who still do not have a clue what is happening.

Ironically, the EU itself had a clear position and plan in place in the middle of 2016 and has moved on quite smoothly without us.

They are going to be on fuel courts, not the streets and there aren't that many of them either.