To be more scared now than I was of Covid?

[Thesupercosyquilt]

I know IABU. I need to get a grip.

I wasn't frightened of Covid. The first few weeks were scary, all the uncertainty etc. But once my kids school closed, life for our family kind of carried on somewhat normally. DH and I were both out working at that point. I never thought we would catch it, we're all relatively healthy. I understood people felt differently and was sympathetic towards that, despite some of the more extreme opinions.

But now, with fuel price hikes, food shortages and now petrol being rationed, I am actually scared. It feels like all the panic of March 2020 all over again.

Don't worry, I'm not going to panic buy five million loo rolls. But I have such a sinking feeling knowing this is the start of really crap times ahead unravelling right before our eyes.

I’m worried about the fuel bills more than anything. Then food prices. It looks like shit times ahead. Yet house prices still rising?

@Hihelp, this article may be of interest to you.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/26/boris-johnson-tories-economy-rising-house-prices-wages?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Try not to worry. Ive lived through bread shortages, sugar shortages and power cuts. Im still plodding on. I know many people who have lived through much worse shortages of things. I agree with people who say don't listen to the media, all they want to do is frighten the wits out of people so that they will buy their awful scandal sheets. Journalism nowadays is dire. Supermarket was fairly well stocked and our small Co-Op had some more items in. I do understand it's scary times but honestly , we will get through. Keep off social media for a while.

Oh dear, so now I have to put my usual comment , as an old biddy,. it was pretty bad in the war years too. ! I was born in the war years.

Project Fear turning into Project Reality. Thanks Brexiters, please remember this is mostly your fault.

Note to self: When awake at 4am having a panic attack - don't click on a thread that will make me panic more!
I will learn one day.

My gas bill has already gone up £20 a month. I am concerned about rising prices as we are Just About Managing. Food prices have already gone up loads this last year.

Not everyone uses petrol

This thinking every time there's a fuel issue cracks me up!

Yes you do!

Even if you don't drive you still eat, drink, get to work, buy stuff...

Goods and services require petrol for delivery to those needing them.

EVERYONE uses petrol if only indirectly.

Bp are not the only petrol company limiting what stations are open/being supplied, esso and others are doing similar

It's mainly due to lack of hgv drivers which this fucking useless govt are STILL mostly burying their heads in the sand about!

@MrsArchchancellorRidcully it's both. Loads of eu drivers have gone back to live in the eu plus many are either self isolating or actually ill with covid and so unable to work at present, add in the govts failure to plan for this effect for brexit in terms of ensuring recruitment and training etc and it's a perfect storm

@tttigress people ARE starving and have been for some years thanks to this utterly feckless and evil govt

We are planning a scaled back Christmas. I think prices are set to rise and because the media are stirring things up about possible shortages at Christmas, I guess people will start panic-buying and stock-piling.

Why do you think any of these things are due to Covid?

@AlexaShutUp

Don't know, but I genuinely need to buy petrol tomorrow as I'm running low, and I'm really concerned that all of the panic buyers will have bought it all up before I get there!

People can only buy so much petrol. It's not safe to store. If 'panic buyers' means people filling their tanks before they're empty then there are bigger issues at play!

@Macncheeseballs

Not everyone owns a car

Food delivery vehicles use fuel Ambulances use fuel Farm machinery uses fuel Essential workers use fuel to get to work

@Macncheeseballs

Not everyone owns a car

It's not about personal use. It's about insufficient fuel for buses, delivery drivers, ambulances etc as well as others who do use cars (and have lack of other options) so won't be able to get to work/ kids to school because BP (and other, less vocal fuel companies) don't have people to drive the fuel delivery trucks.

Yes, it's unrelated to COVID, that wasn't the OPs point. OP is basically saying, a pandemic didn't scare her, but a political situation of our own making is completely screwing us and does scare her.

I get you OP and I feel the same.

@ejhhhhh

Why do you think any of these things are due to Covid?

She doesn't.

She is comparing fear people felt about covid with fear she now feels about this situation.

In 2000, DH was able to buy petrol because he was military and involved in the response - he needed to show his MOD90 ID card to police to enter a petrol station. Other people simply couldn't.

If this sort of misrepresentation of BP needing to close a handful of its petrol stations continues, then yes there will be shortages, but it'll be because of that coverage provokes panic buying. That element of it isn't Brexit, and could be avoided

I’m generally fairly pragmatic, buts there’s nothing more anxiety enducing sometimes than going on mumsnet and reading the hysteria over almost everything. I can only assume many posters are so young that they have never experienced any kind of national crisis before.

It will pass.

The lorry driver shortage is due to numerous things and the haulage industry has been warning about this for decades. Brexit didn’t help and many drivers went home, but the main reason was our own drivers were an ageing workforce, the hours are long and tramping away from home was frequently the only wait to earn a decent wage. The learning and qualification process has become too long, expensive and arduous and divers are often treated like shit, by other drivers on the road as well as some employers.

So Covid and Brexit happened and the Europeans went back and the older drivers timed out and Covid stopped people being able to qualify and take their tests and there you have it. A driver shortage that the industry told the government would happen but they ignored.

Now the government is having to review all this because Noris probably can’t get his favourite munchies from Waitrose.

Some people I’m in this thread missing the point that if BP delivers less fuel to each station (rationing) so that each station still has some fuel then each station would in fact run out of fuel more quickly than they otherwise would. Maybe nothing to worry about if crisis is sorted out quickly (army drives HGVS for example) but presumably if it continues unaided it will be harder for domestic drivers to get fuel on demand. I presume areas like food production would be prioritised for fuel. The on going shortage of drivers coupled with the gas crisis means a reduction of choice on shelves for Christmas is almost inevitable. Yes, I feel sorry for people forced onto UC by the pandemic who will be hit by the UC cut and NICs rise at same time (as large proportion of people on UC are in work) Many will have tried to save on gas bills by going with one of these smaller suppliers who have just gone bust and be will hit by energy price rises to so triple whammy. Of course this will mean nothing to the ‘it doesn’t effect me so I don’t care’ brigade.

*Boris.

Ah, I think I misread the post! But yes, this is, over the longer term, a bigger issue than Covid. Ultimately, levels of poverty will increase (probably dramatically, if price rise predictions come to pass), and more people will die. If anyone struggles directly linking poverty to health, you haven't learnt much from the last 18 months. I do think we're in for quite a shit time ahead, and worryingly, the government don't seem to be up to the job of sorting it. And why would they, it's largely of their making, so taking the action necessary would be an admittance of failure. If poor people can't afford fuel and food, do they actually care?

I wonder how many of those commenting it’s scaremongering or that it’ll be fine and it will pass it’s media hype etc will actually be that affected by what’s happening as they can manage the rising costs without blinking.

Energy costs are rising that isn’t scaremongering it’s happening. On my dads local Facebook group lots were commenting on local petrol stations that were closed or on only a couple of pumps. Yes I know that’s not helpful for panic buying but it shows that that is also happening too. Not everyone has the transport/time to go from shop to shop if sticks are low to buy different items: that’s why supermarkets are popular.

I’m lucky I have disposable income, we have two average wages but no kids and a low mortgage so we can cope with rises( it may mean cutting back on fun things and savings) but people like my dad who is a pensioner who literally just copes with money now, it’s worrying and in the meantime we have a government that doesn’t give a shit.

I get where you’re coming from, OP. As an anxiety sufferer (clinically diagnosed and treated etc) I’ve come to learn a lot about how brains work in these situations. Collectively, our brains have “learned” to worry now. Covid has taught us to be scared and now we are wired into “worry mode”, just waiting for the next disaster and “over-reacting” (in a psychological sense, not that I’m saying you’re overreacting) when something negative happens. Our limbic systems - the bits of our brain that deal with fight or flight etc - still think we’re cavemen and is telling us that we’re under the same sort of threat as if we’re being stalked by a lion, when the reality isn’t that bad at all.

Honestly, things will be OK. They might be rocky for a bit but fuel shortages have happened before. Food shortages have happened before. Energy prices have been high before. It all goes back to normal in the end but right now we’re all looking close up at the current situation rather than taking a step back and seeing the bigger picture. It’s like standing too close to a painting, everything is blurred and out of context. (Of course, I’m talking generally here because I also understand that other people are on different incomes and financial situations).

The media doesn’t help, because dramatic stories sell advertising and papers, so maybe limit how much media you’re exposing yourself to (I did this during the dark days of Early Covid, and it really helped). If you’re interested in the psychology of anxiety, I’d really recommend Ruby Wax’s Sane New World - I read it when I was ill and it really helped, it helped me understand why I was feeling the way I was and it helped me be less scared.

its all very concerning indeed , i dont drive so petrol shortages wont bother me , but everything else does . obviously petrol is greatly needed in the bigger picture , and as a single parent who struggles through each month as it is ,i cant bear the thought of food , gas , getting even more bloody expensive than it already is , im pushed to the limit as it is . i hate those idiots who voted for brexit i really do . as brexit is responsible for this shortage of drivers at least if not more

I wonder how many of those commenting it’s scaremongering or that it’ll be fine and it will pass it’s media hype etc will actually be that affected by what’s happening as they can manage the rising costs without blinking.

I am extremely fortunate in that I can ride out the financial costs, but it wasn’t always like that. I absolutely do know what it’s like to know you can’t afford a price rise and not know what you’re going to do about it. But my earlier point is a general one about how we are all - collectively, as a nation - pretty mentally frazzled right now which makes a shit situation seem even worse to the point that even people who can ride it out feel like it’s a disaster.

OP- I hear you. These are frightening times. But, we will get through it and we will be OK. In the next hour nothing will have changed. Ditto in the next day. Take it day by day, tell yourself how well you are coping with unexpected change, praise yourself. By all means spend less and save if you have to.

Now might be a good time to look at solar panels and electric cars for the future. But, it’s going to be OK.

It's dire but it's not covid. You can thank brexit for the current shit show.

@Macncheeseballs

Not everyone uses petrol

Obviously not. Not sure what your point is.

BP Diesel, petrol are affected by lorry issues. Electricity and household fuel costs are rapidly rising.

You are affected whether you drive a diesel, petrol, hybrid or electric vehicle. Just in different ways.

Doesn’t matter what you car is