OK, this isn't funny any more. Where's the army?

[Orangejuicemarathoner]

One quarter of staff and students late to school this morning, and 10% didn't get there at all. It has been announced that, excepting physical disability, any student within 4 miles or adult within 6 miles will be expected to walk in, but Its expected to be worse tomorrow with a good chance we will be closed by Wednesday.

AA reporting over 100 "incidents" on the road within a 10 mile radius of the school - mostly roads blocked, and mostly by queues outside petrol stations.

I struggled to get home by bike, because of the chaos on the roads - I got off my bike and walked several miles of it.

I called in at a supermarket on the way home. The shelves were more than three quarters empty. No bread or milk. So I'm sitting here drinking black tea planning rice for dinner instead of cheese on toast.

I know its not a catastrophe that I spent an extra hour getting home, and dont have milk in my tea, but what is that saying about the state we are in?

AIBU to say the army should be called in. What have we got an army for? Surely, an organisation of thousands of fit, capable, organised individuals, with vehicles and capacity and skills in logistics is exactly what we need to be utilised in this situation right here right now.

PS, is it ok to feed dog food to cats? does anyone know?

@WearsideBridge

Where's the army?

Did you miss the cuts to the defence budget that the Tory's made under austerity.

Army? What army?

This country is dire especially post Brexit.

Ah yes there's zero army personnel left, best not tell the Russians.

I am currently in France, no issues here.
This is not down to COVID. It’s down to Brexit.

Get rid of the government. They are basically responsible for the whole f#cking mess.

waterlego - So everybody's got to be miserable have they?

I got diesel today, thankfully. I think the situation is improving.

Firkinhavingalaugh - I was referring to the construction industry in 2009.

Granjeanne how do you propose we get rid of the government? We can't just rock up to the House of Commons and tell them "on yer bike".

@Granjeanne

Get rid of the government. They are basically responsible for the whole f#cking mess.

Through a coup or do you have another suggestion..?

@Mamamia7962 Not at all. I’m glad some people are having a great time. But it’s not especially helpful to have to listen to smuggery on a thread in which lots of people are having a shit time. 🤷🏼‍♀️

It reads a bit like you’re trying to convince yourself/others that Brexit was a good thing 😂

Excuse the complete ignorance ... but what do Army and the other forces personnel do when we aren't "at war".

I don't mean those that have active jobs eg radar monitoring, but those who's job isn't needed unless we are actually in a conflict

Nothing like that here in my part of central Scotland

Please remember in 2024 to vote. Unless you want the worst Prime Minister in history to remain in office.

@Muchmorethan

Excuse the complete ignorance ... but what do Army and the other forces personnel do when we aren't "at war".

I don't mean those that have active jobs eg radar monitoring, but those who's job isn't needed unless we are actually in a conflict

Training, peacekeeping, humanitarian aid.

We also have the territorial army - the reserves. I used to work with someone who had joined up.

@HaudYerWheeshtYaWeeBellend

There’s no fuel shortage and no empty shelves, media needs to stop telling lies.

Eh? There definitely is a fuel shortage where I am. I've been trying to fill up my work van and all the petrol stations nearby have cones out and signs saying no fuel!

@Yayhelen

I am currently in France, no issues here. This is not down to COVID. It’s down to Brexit.

I think Macron might disagree. Unless he likes being slapped and having eggs thrown at him.

Things aren't so perfect anywhere.
In France, the yellow vest protests are still happening.

@pontypridd

London is really bad. Loads of teachers didn’t make it to school today - where I work and at my kids school.

Yeah London has a massive shortage of buses and trains, so understandable that the teachers had no alternative means of transport to get into work.

There isn’t much of a regular army left. The government in its wisdom is basically going to replace most of it with reserve forces (Territorial Army).
Not everyone in the military is HGV trained.
I’ve no idea why people think there’s lots of spare soldiers doing nothing all day.

Crikey.

No fuel or food shortages where I am. No queues at petrol stations either.

Is it really a surprise that we have a shortage of drivers when A LOT of people currently have a mentality of "I'll work however many hours I want wherever I want for work/life balance". Very ironic that those people are now complaining (from the comfort of their home office) that another industry is short of people wanting to work unsociable hours as drivers.

Can someone please save me 26 pages of reading and explain to me what triggered this stockpiling? I dont live in the UK and am apparently horrible at googling. I hope this doesn't gaudy, I'm genuinely very interested.

Although I was at a restaurant the other day and duck was off the menu and they were blaming brexit for that.

I survived though and had lamb instead.

In reply to my criics.... All I know is that the French would be rioting if this were happening in France. We all need to make our discontent public. The current government has proved time and time again that they are incompetent. They could be unseated by a parliamentary vote of no confidence. This will only happen if enough MPs are aware of public feeling.

@patkinney

too many old veterans from WWII must have wondered why did we bother saving Britain from invasion in 1940 as now thanks to free movement anyone could come here under freedom of movement rules anyways....

They’re still wondering what the problem was about the Polish being here after they were the ones who brought us the Enigma that they had cracked and was used to inform our code breakers on its workings as the Germans upgraded its cogs, then the Polish squadrons in the Battle of Britain etc

Have you anyone decent to replace them though?

@BlijEi

Can someone please save me 26 pages of reading and explain to me what triggered this stockpiling? I dont live in the UK and am apparently horrible at googling. I hope this doesn't gaudy, I'm genuinely very interested.

There has been an ongoing shortage of lorry drivers, variously attributed to Brexit; covid; chaos at the DVLA who issue licences; and poor terms and conditions.

This meant that a small number (maybe half a dozen?) of petrol stations had to close last week.

A government spokesman said, "Don't panic! Everyone - don't panic!!"

Everyone panicked.

Vast numbers descended on petrol stations, filling their cars to the noses, and sucking them dry. That meant others couldn't fill up, leading to more panic, and more frantic buying of fuel whenever it appeared.

The official line is that there's plenty in the depots, and plenty of lorry drivers to distribute, and this is all the fault of selfish, greedy drivers filling up when they don't need to.