Page 35 | OK, this isn't funny any more. Where's the army?

marieantoinehairnet · 29/09/2021 15:27

Petrol wankers, that's who

Ploorfuzzle · 29/09/2021 15:29

@GreatPotato

Amazing how many people think this isn't what the Army is for when their own website and their recruitment literature specifically states that dealing with a crisis at home is exactly what the Army is for

Nah they just go to war and then twiddle their thumbs don't they?!

Mamamia7962 · 29/09/2021 15:37

OP - But loads of people can get milk. Even before COVID and brexit if I went to the supermarket at the end of the day, on some days there might not have been milk on the shelves, it's to do with supply and demand. Some days more people just happened to be buying it. It didn't mean there was a shortage.

antoniawhite · 29/09/2021 15:44

I think milk is just being used as one example of more general and widespread shortages.

Original poster

Orangejuicemarathoner · 29/09/2021 16:07

@Mamamia7962

OP - But loads of people can get milk. Even before COVID and brexit if I went to the supermarket at the end of the day, on some days there might not have been milk on the shelves, it's to do with supply and demand. Some days more people just happened to be buying it. It didn't mean there was a shortage.

I dont expect not to be able to buy milk day after day after day. There has been no delivery. I don't expect to be feeding dog food to my cat, because there has been no delivery of cat food for weeks.

I don't expect my school to be partially closed and to be teaching from home - because there is no fuel for buses, and the roads are so gridlocked in places that even the few buses that were running can't complete their journey

It’s not a crisis

really @Blossomtoes? Exactly how much worse does it get before you agree the word "crisis" applies?

OP posts:

NotMyCat · 29/09/2021 16:18

A car set on fire outside my house today
My dad "is it petrol or diesel? I mean it's a write off so shame to waste it..."

notimagain · 29/09/2021 16:28

@GreatPotato

Amazing how many people think this isn't what the Army is for when their own website and their recruitment literature specifically states that dealing with a crisis at home is exactly what the Army is for

“Military aid to the Civil Authorities” (MAC) was always part of the military job spec..for a genuine crisis.

Certainly it can be used in the event of a Force Majeur such as a major Fire services strike (as happened as I recall it in the very late 1970s), on other occasions more recently to cover for “acts of God”,, for want, of a better term - e.g. helping with flood relief operations……

However I think what many don’t realise is that HM Forces are already overstretched with the day job already, which is preparing for operations/deployment or actually being on operations.

HMG having to resort to using the provisions of MACA to cover events that were possibly cause by mismanagement or panic buying doesn’t really engender confidence in the way the country is being run…it should actually be a bit of a worry.

Margerine78 · 29/09/2021 16:39

@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?

Adults within 6 miles to walk? What! I'm not unfit (I work out 3x times a week), but it takes me 30 mins to walk a mile (I've short legs but walk fast), so that would be a 3 hour walk there and back if you were just inside of the 6 miles radius.

AND that would mean on the way back walking back in the dark as a woman.

Original poster

Orangejuicemarathoner · 29/09/2021 16:46

As I said upthread, the 6 mile rule was as much to discourage staff who were trying to walk further, as to encourage staff who were reluctant to walk a reasonable distance

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Pazuzu · 29/09/2021 16:51

So you're expecting the intelligentsia who refused to wear their masks because you know, their human rights, to cooperate with the army?

Caffeinette · 29/09/2021 16:57

I hadn’t put in fuel for the past couple of weeks but faced having to drive my sister somewhere today which would have taken me a couple of hours. I had less than a quarter of a tank of petrol so drive to our local Tesco fuel station and ended up spending 50 minutes queuing. It’s crazy out there. I suffer from anxiety and occasionally have had panic attacks and having to sit in a queue which wound itself all around the perimeter of Tesco car park then went back on itself to reach the pumps was extremely scary. Luckily I managed it and filled up £30 worth of fuel. DH had assured me last week that the crisis would have eased by the end of the weekend. How long is this going to go on for? 😣

Original poster

Orangejuicemarathoner · 29/09/2021 17:10

@Pazuzu

So you're expecting the intelligentsia who refused to wear their masks because you know, their human rights, to cooperate with the army?

No- I would simply like the army to deliver fuel.

Which I believe they are now doing

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justmaybenot · 29/09/2021 18:59

@DameFanny

Lorry automation may be a while off but for years the job's been paying less and less, trucker facilities have been closing and not replaced, and it's still physically demanding work that yet makes it hard to stay physically fit, keeps you away from a family and makes it hard to eat healthy food.

And it costs a fortune to train. Yay, let's all be HGV drivers...

Add to that - expecting EU drivers to come for 3 months when the facilities are so so poor compared to the continent, and who are all too aware of the drivers that had to spend last Christmas in a lorry park in SE England! For those thinking there's no fuel crisis, maybe you are not recognising how scarcity works in capitalist economies - this is the free market in action. Famines don’t happen because of a lack of food, they happen because of how the food is distributed.

BatshitCrazyWoman · 29/09/2021 19:22

The average woman walks a mile in 14-22 minutes, apparently. So barring lack of pavements and lighting or disability, a couple of miles to walk to work takes longer than driving but is doable.

justmaybenot · 29/09/2021 19:27

@BatshitCrazyWoman

The average woman walks a mile in 14-22 minutes, apparently. So barring lack of pavements and lighting or disability, a couple of miles to walk to work takes longer than driving but is doable.

But 6 miles seems excessive. I know you said lighting as well, many places that drivers live (eg rural areas necessitating a car) are not well lit.

marieantoinehairnet · 29/09/2021 19:39

@BatshitCrazyWoman

The average woman walks a mile in 14-22 minutes, apparently. So barring lack of pavements and lighting or disability, a couple of miles to walk to work takes longer than driving but is doable.

You don't get your name for nothing fo you?

Also put kids up a chimney?

Original poster

Orangejuicemarathoner · 29/09/2021 19:46

I find people response to the idea of walking a perfectly normal distance quite bizarre - we have become exceptionally lazy

OP posts:

RufustheBadgeringReindeer · 29/09/2021 19:48

What do you do that 12 miles a day on top of a full time job is ‘normal’ orange

RufustheBadgeringReindeer · 29/09/2021 19:50

Apologies walking 12 miles….

Original poster

Orangejuicemarathoner · 29/09/2021 19:54

@RufustheBadgeringReindeer

What do you do that 12 miles a day on top of a full time job is ‘normal’ orange

I'm a teacher. I walked 8 miles each way each day throughout covid. It wasn't ever the plan, as I expected to take the bus my whole career, but buses were unusable during covid because they had a much smaller maximum capacity, and I could very rarely get on.

I can't currently get the bus because the local buses have run into trouble with fuel. I tried to cycle ( its a 10 mile cycle ride as I can't take my bike down the same short cuts that I walk)/ But it didn't work due to road blockages, cars driving down the wrong side of the road, etc

OP posts:

RufustheBadgeringReindeer · 29/09/2021 19:56

You really can’t be saying that covid was ‘normal’

Normal changed completely and utterly with covid

Thatsjustwhatithink · 29/09/2021 20:28

@Snoozysnoozy

What have we got an army for?

To close with and kill the enemy.

Thank you for saying this. As a former soldier I can tell you we are good at exactly that but absolute shite at fire fighting, driving petrol tankings, dealing with riots from teenagers and looters, and any other civil task that isn't closing with and killing the enemy.

Stop panicking dear public. Like the bloody loo roll disaster in the pandemic.

Original poster

Orangejuicemarathoner · 29/09/2021 20:36

@RufustheBadgeringReindeer

You really can’t be saying that covid was ‘normal’

Normal changed completely and utterly with covid

true

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MrsSkylerWhite · 29/09/2021 20:41

Onlinedilema

MrsSkylerWhite that's an interesting post.
I can only imagine driving for a living is awful.
The roads are so, so busy.
When dh lost his job he took a job as a delivery driver, he absolutely hated it.
It wasn't anything like they had told him.
He couldn't deliver in the time allocated, 3 minutes per delivery in covid tines too, so he had to park up, walk with all the parcels, the person taking the delivery would say oh can you walk round to such and such door and take it all in.
In one instance he was expected to lift a 60kilo package by himself without a sack cart!!!!!

He couldn't leave until all his deliveries were done.
Apparently they are still recruiting for the position he left, several people lasted merely hours, leaving at lunch time it is so bad.“

Not at all surprised. I was also genuinely shocked to hear that most drivers don’t get paid for repeated attempts to deliver, just one payment per parcel, even if they have to go back 3/4 times.

Everyone who’s moaned on previous threads about delivery drivers either aren’t aware or just don’t care 🤷‍♀️

marieantoinehairnet · 29/09/2021 20:44

Just you wait, the army will be called back in to pluck the turkeys at Christmas