To be amazed at how quickly this country turns to chaos at the mention of a strike.

[Downnotout]

5 petrol stations and 2 hours later I have finally managed to get some diesel!

It is chaos here with massive queues forming at petrol stations. Some are closed and some have only a few pumps open. Nearly all of them are out of diesel and the ones that do are rationing how much you can buy.

I only had 14 miles worth left in the tank and the school run is a 12 mile round trip. I wouldn't have been able to get there tomorrow if I hadn't got any tonight.

And they're not even striking yet! I really think the govt have caused this by telling people to stock up.

The government should have said "we are working to resolve the issues" rather than the crap about filling up/storing fuel (which I know they have retracted now but to late)

I needed petrol today and had to queue because idiots where buying when they didn't need it.

Blame the Government

Yep. Dumbass Dave has probably never seen a jerry can, let alone knows how much it holds. Retracting it makes it even worse. Never seen such a thinly veiled attempt to make trades unions look bad. Can only hope it will seriously backfire on the government (it hasn't yet - awaiting the spin) and prove them to be the numpties they are.

I didn't panic buy - now I have no fuel. More people should be responsible and fill up as usual instead of listening to the media hype. It's a fuel shortage, not a plague ffs. Where has everyone's common sense gone?

Stop it or you'll make me giggle over my days as a rail commuter & the "wrong kind of rain" platform announcements.

I still haven't quite worked out why we are seemingly the only country in the Northern Hemisphere that grinds to a halt cos it snows a bit in the winter.

Yet we also have some of the most creative designers and talented scientists on the planet doing amazingly innovative clever things every day.

Hopefully the supermarkets in big cities have sorted their distribution for the strike or not told the politicians they may be facing disruption to prevent further panic.

The whole fuel thing has confirmed my belief that our countries leaders aren't really fit to be trusted with the weekly grocery shop, much less the running of a country. How could they make an announcement like telling people to stock up on fuel while being unaware of legalities of doing so? .

bochead - well said

Unite must also give 7 days notice of a strike - and no such strike has been decided upon. People behave like sheep in this situation. See a queue for fuel - oh well they know something I don't - join queue.

Sirzy how do you know they didn't need it

There's some theory or other they says it takes 3 days for a civilised society to disintegrate into lawless chaos. I can well believe it.

2shoes it's a fair assumption that Sirzy made, based on the increase in demand. Whether they were idiots or not is another debate :)

I went to get some fuel at 3pm (i needed it though, my light had come on) and it was quite quiet there, didnt have to wait (i'm in north east) I did put an extra £10 in "just incase" so £30 instead of £20.

Well I have never had to queue for so long to get petrol before, nor have I know that station to ever sell out like it did last night (other than the first blockade years ago) so I think it's pretty safe to guess a large proportion of those getting fuel were being sheep and filling up because everyone else was rather than through genuine need for petrol.

Also huuuuge boost to the Exchequer with all that delicious additional fuel duty. We'll pay off the deficit in no time!

The guy in the petrol station I finally got fuel at had to call in extra staff to cope with demand. Another petrol station was telling customers it was getting a delivery at 8 and that they should come and queue then.

I also know someone who "acquired " a load of red diesel today with the intention of selling it on for profit.

And all because some idiot advised the public to fill their jerry cans yesterday and then today changed it to keeping your petrol tank half full today. And I remember what happened last time when there was a fuel crisis, supermarket shelves were emptied. It doesn't take long does it?

Last time there were petrol shortages, police stopped many of the local cars to check for red. It's illegal other than in a farm vehicle.

mayaswell has said it already - wait a great way to boast the end of financial year income for the government especially with the local elections due in May......

The "so called" fuel crisis was going to happen weeks ago when Petrolplus went
Belly up but because it's not "green/environment friendly" the government didn't bail them out unlike the dodgy banker w@nker friends they bailed....
A reality check by all me thinks .....