Panic at the Pumps in the UK.

Personally I think the media is more to blame than the Government.

The media are the ones overplaying the rather benign and sensible comments from the Minister and it is the media is the one running back to back coverage of the "panic", despite there being obviously no actual panic and just drivers topping up more than usual, just to be sure you won't get caught out later on.

It's made even more of a mess by the fact it is still a while off any potential strike and even that isn't confirmed, yet the media (I am watching the News at work and have been all day - we have too) who is drilling it into the public's mind that there is a panic, causing the very thing they are reporting...

Everyone would be all over the Government if they said not to stock up or prepare, or they appeared to be sitting idly by. Now they are getting it in the neck for telling people to plan ahead! Are we that stupid that the idea of planning ahead is frowned upon?

Don't know if anyone has posted this info...Got a txt off my friend on Anglesey...it's DRY!

Rainbows
Jane

reply to post by stumason


Rolling 24 hour news again. Lets see if we can work out what else they have stirred up in the last decade it has been going:

Iraq
Iran
Afghanistan
Christianity versus Islam
Fuel strikes
Global economic crisis (could list that for another 3 or 4 pages, repeatedly)
Any murder case
Elenin
Doomsday

Any other suggestions? They need sorting though as they do make life difficult for everybody.

Crisis over before it even started! The governments moronic idea to use this crisis to distract attention from some decidedly corrupt practises is now backfiring. Morons don't read history books if they did then they would avoid making stupid mistakes.......

good the warmongering UK public deserve this.

reply to post by mkgandhas


We are in the middle of an early spring heatwave here in the UK and we Brits are notorious for behaving strangely after baking ourselves in the sun.

If this is as bad as things get then I'm sure we'll be fine.

Now, what exactly was the point you were trying to make by calling all Brits 'warmongers' or was it just yet another insult and part of your anti-UK / English biggoted agenda?

reply to post by Freeborn


Hahahahaha see you bit. I have been sitting on my hands so i don't have to!

reply to post by woodwardjnr

I've been getting petrol just fine and am yet to see anything that could be passed off as a long wait for it...

The only thing that pee's me off about all this is that the people who probably use there car once a week, if that, have rushed out and filled their tanks. Sheer stupidity!

It's just bog standard journalism for you. Fear mongering. They F-ing love it!

its hilarious around here with the silly queues which people probably waste more fuel sat in a queue than what they would of needed for their journey, now just wait for the supermarkets to mention 'not' panic buying and the only thing left of the shelves will be the price labels as you see people walking out with 1000 litres of long life milk 'just incase the strike lasts for more than a week'

Out of interest, which parts of the UK are you guys seeing this happen in? I work in Slough just outside of London and every petrol station here is open and operating as normal. Further south towards my home I saw ONE petrol station which had ran out, more likely because it was the cheapest around by 5p a liter! I cant believe im yet to even see a queue!!

On any given day, how many tankers are off the coast waiting for the right numbers of $'s for them to come in and unload. It should be criminal to hoard in tankers and manipulate the market. A few catching .....uh, I won't go there.... The same with the speculators in the stock market driving up prices with pennies on the dollar to buy it. They should have to pay full and take delivery. If that happened the prices would fall like a lead balloon.

www.google.com... -tankers-still-sitting-off-the-coast-waiting-for-oil-prices-to-rise%2F&ei=Zdd1T_SUJIfgtgel68z2AQ&usg=AFQjCNFiEfKuh1BPAfU0Co--MimHm6Dv5Q

reply to post by LacunA


On the way to work this morning, all stations appeared normal. One Shell Garage had a small line of 3 or 4 cars, but that happens normally anyway as this particular garage is on a busy A road.

In short, not seen any evidence of "panic" buying, aside from the repeated clips on the News showing the same forecourt over and over with a dozen or so cars filling up.

EDIT: Oh, I live in Wokingham, Berkshire, so not far from you as it happens, probably 25 miles.

reply to post by LacunA


i'm in staffordshire and this is what its like around here and the people are queuing up causing loads of congestion since they seem to think to allow a car to get through them at a junction will cause them to lose their place

reply to post by Plotus


That is the nature of a free market, no one can force them to sell at a price they don't want to. Unless of course you're asking the Government to institute the DotR Act, that is, which would give them the power to do whatever they wanted.

Besides, as has been pointed out before in this thread an others, the largest part of the fuel cost is actually Government taxes and it is these that push the price of fuel up annually as Gordon Brown set in place a "duty escalator" that increases the price at a % ABOVE the rate of inflation. Thankfully, this Government has at least postponed these increases more than once.

The OECD said that the UK had entered into recession in the final quarter of 2011
UK is back in recession, says OECD

The 1st quarter of 2012 ends on Saturday 31 March.

Did the UK Gov try to stampede people to the pumps in an effort to raise spending and so not show as being in recession in a second successive quarter?

The Gov knew full well that Unions, by Law, had to give 7 clear days notice of any strike action, encouraging people to the pumps after strike action had been announced would not have been unreasonable.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were some truth in this idea, I look forward to seeing how close to recession the UK reports for this 1st quarter of 2012.

reply to post by stumason


Dude I have watched your posts and have conversed with you for a long time..

When did you start being a government apologist??

I thought you was all about direct democracy for the UK....

You know fine rightly that this was orchestrated...

Yet you defend it??

Im glad I pulled my own plug on Direct Democracy as the warning flags of not meeting up to discuss were prevalent and seemed just a spur of the moment bull crap..

I actually invested my own time and met up with many people to get it off the ground.. At my OWN expense.. And here.. All I see is some shill..

Prove me wrong..

Please...

reply to post by EvanB


Dude, chill out, not sure why you feel the need to launch so sternly into an attack on myself..

I'm hardly a Government apologist but calling it as I sees it. And this to me is a storm in a tea cup largely perpetrated by the Media...

As for the Direct Democracy thing, I actually put a lot of my own time into that and my own cash (still am as I had to register the domain name and the web space for 2 years!).

I was actually sat waiting on responses from you and more importantly Carol, who dropped so fast off the radar I am concerned she slipped off this mortal coil.

I designed a web site, had a forum set up, made a Facebook page and spread the word, only to find I was left holding the can after a few weeks when people stopped corresponding. I still have all the correspondence, e-mail addresses etc, the web page is good to go, the forum is closed but will only take 10 minutes to get a new one.

I didn't see the point in pursuing it any further as it wasn't me that seemed to have a "spur of the moment" thing as I did the bulk of the work, despite the fact I work 48hrs a week and have 3 kids. I know you did a lot in terms of trying to raise funds, but I never got anything concrete off you. I am actually quite offended at what you have said, to be honest.

A one man political movement is a dead duck, so I went back to working for the ED.

EDIT: And what the fudge (I am pissed off matey) are you on about with "the warning flags were up" about meeting? When was I ever asked for a meeting? In fact, all the mail trails I have were instigated by myself chasing others for what they said they would do... I would have met up, no problem, but I was never asked.

Let's be honest all this is the mess of Government.

There is a threat of a srike and the Government pushed this in order to embaress the opposition party who are largely funded by the Union involved in the strike action. Also they were hoping to deflect attention from their Millionaire's Budget.

The sooner Party Politics and Career Politicians are consigned to history, the better!!

Who cares. People act like gasoline is a basic human right, especially in America. We are such a spoiled nation, gas hits $4.00 a gallon and people act like the world is coming to end. This is no exaggeration. I'm sure we have plenty of friends on ATS in Europe who find this quite laughable.

reply to post by Cobaltic1978

The sooner Party Politics and Career Politicians are consigned to history, the better!!

Well that's four of us in this thread who are firm believers in abolishing the old, outdated, corrupt and unrepresentative party political system.