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?

Today 10:44 threatmatrix

Because I never joined a queue and wasted those precious moments of my life. I needed fuel yesterday so went to Costco and queued behind a long line of ‘one’ car in front of me. There was NO shortage of fuel at any time.“

Walked past three queues of approx. 1/2 mile at petrol stations in our medium sized NW coastal town today.

Both of our stories are anecdotal 🤷‍♀️
Just means it depends where you are, not that there is no fuel in some places. Doesn’t matter if there’s no shortage: if it’s not reaching the tanks, the result is the same, people can’t get fuel.
Abysmal lack of forward planning is the root cause. The industry (and others) has been warning the Government this was coming for many months. Government chose not to put mitigations in place and this is the result.

As a former soldier I can tell you we are good at exactly that but absolute shite at ...... petrol tankings

Who the hell do you think dealt with getting fuel to all the military vehicles when deployed? Some sort of fuel fairy?

Or perhaps the fully qualifed and experienced fuel-driving, depot-running RLC?

Whose job it is to do this sort of stuff. And who, like any other part of the military can be called upon for MAC-P tasks

Latest update: Army will be used to drive fuel tankers later this week as queues continue, business secretary confirms
The fuel industry says there are signs the situation at the pumps is now improving (17.12 post)
The AA says London and the South East have been hit hardest during the crisis (20.03 post)

Petrol stations could face disruption for up to a month - report (6.49 post)
27% of petrol stations out of fuel, says Petrol Retailers Association

Disruption for a month?! What would that mean for the Economy??

Can't quote, but didn't say 6 miles was reasonable! A PP said a couple of miles was too much. I do this every day, and have a job that involves being on my feet all day, up and down stairs and walking between different buildings. I'm used to it, and wouldn't consider walking two miles unreasonable 🤷🏼‍♀️

2 miles is a piece of piss

I think someone in government was talking about 6miles….but i might have made that up

[quote Tommika]@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[/quote]
Well considering we came to their aid when Hitler invaded their country that was not unexpected - they would do everything to defeat the Nazis: helping us with Enigma and providing excellent high scoring pilots in the Battle of Britain and other brave stuff too.

Doesn't detract from my point - free movement of people came too soon. The economic community was OK, but when the European Union came along (& Maastrict) and things started to look like becoming a United States of Europe with the countries of Britain mere states or counties within a larger bloc, I was happy to be given the chance to vote for Brexit. Especially to regain control of our borders and laws and money....

I just wanted to post an update for the posters who were kind/understanding about our issues re: getting DS to Uni this weekend.

We've still not been able to get petrol, but my parents (who live vaguely in the direction of travel) managed to get a full tank of Diesel today which is enough to get us easily there and back from their location.

They've kindly offered to put DH/I on the insurance of their car and luckily it's big enough to fit all the stuff we are taking.

We've got enough in the tank to do a round trip to them (plus 20 miles or so), so if all else fails we've got a back up plan to drive to my parents and swap cars and in the meantime we've insured them for our car so they can get to local shops and if possible get petrol as it seems it's a little easier to come by where they are (and as they are retired they are more flexible about when they can get to petrol stations/time spent queuing).

Feel so much better now we have a fall back plan even if it means going out of our way and a longer journey and glad I've got such lovely parents.

Thanks again to those of you who were kind and sympathetic

I was happy to be given the chance to vote for Brexit. Especially to regain control of our borders and laws and money

The UK always had control of its borders, famously was never a member of the Eurozone, so not under the European Central Bank, and only voted against European laws 56 out of 2,604 times so you never really had many laws imposed on you.

Glad its worked out bread

Thanks Rufus

The AA says London and the South East have been hit hardest during the crisis

Hence the lack of urgency from the government. Just as the public health housing and homelessness emergency, which is only now starting to get attention now that it is spreading across the country. London in particular has been totally fucked over in so many ways for several decades.

And also unsurprising - seeing as the Insulate mob are still blocking the M25.

@KrisAkabusi

I was happy to be given the chance to vote for Brexit. Especially to regain control of our borders and laws and money

The UK always had control of its borders, famously was never a member of the Eurozone, so not under the European Central Bank, and only voted against European laws 56 out of 2,604 times so you never really had many laws imposed on you.

Exactly. For how many years and in how many ways does basic shit like this need to be explained?

@marieantoinehairnet

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

Many a true word……...

Now that HMG have realised that they have the power deploy forces personnel to fix a problem caused at least in part by industry (low driver retention/poor manpower planning), not just to help on the event of flood, famine, natural disaster or Covid, well, anything is possible..

Stand by for Operation “Save Christmas”…….

They’re still wondering what the problem was about the Polish being here

Well there's the fact that, rather than being here out of choice, it was desperation...due to membership of the EU failing to offer good job opportunities in their own home communities.

Some people love travel and have a wanderlust. Many others however don't really want to leave their families and support networks behind. See the recent articles about Cornwall and other beauty spots with locals bemoaning house prices forcing them to leave their local areas.

It also left Poland drained off its youth and workforce. Whole villages and towns were left with only the elderly and children. Which is why Poland launched iniatives such as tax breaks a few years ago to lure them back.

Personally I don't see anything to celebrate about (global) exploitation of cheap labour.

A Christmas reprieve for the turkeys perhaps. Nut roast can be very tasty.

the government has deployed the "reserve tanker fleet" whatever that is

@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..“

Oh what a load of bollocks. My mum was born in October 1939. Her dad was a Somme veteran and a fire warden in London during the Second World War.
She was appalled at the result of the referendum vote, as was her sister, (15 years her senior and thank providence with us still).
They know without a shadow of a doubt that my grandfather would have been appalled at Brexit too.

The army can do little Christmas hampers for us all, each one comes with the leftovers from the Houses of Parliament Christmas shindig.

Last few days I've been delayed to work and school drop off by either the petrol wankers or the climate wankers.

This country is the pits

I have a few days off work, but can’t do what I’d planned because then I couldn’t guarantee that I’d have enough fuel for work next week (I do community visits)..

We seem to have 2 out of 5 fuel stations getting deliveries atm but they sell out pretty quickly still (s wales)

Supermarket food delivery for this evening just cancelled . Doesn’t give a reason but I assume fuel or driver availability . It’s fine. I will do a shop later but then again I don’t have a lot of fuel myself.

Just listening to a programme comparing now with 1978/79 and there are some uncanny similarities. Its the lack of predictability which is tiring, constantly having to have back up plans for everything , not knowing whether I am going to be able to get to planned meetings next week, will so be able to take my dm away as planned. Will my shopping turn up .

Furlough ending will only kick starting the real recession, businesses will now be faced with closure/redundancies, we've not seen anything yet...

@marieantoinehairnet

Furlough ending will only kick starting the real recession, businesses will now be faced with closure/redundancies, we've not seen anything yet...

Unfortunately I think you’re right. As for what I call a crisis @Orangejuicemarathoner, well I was an adult in the 1970s. Check out what was happening then and think about how it might compare with a few days when it’s difficult to get petrol.

As for what I call a crisis @Orangejuicemarathoner, well I was an adult in the 1970s. Check out what was happening then and think about how it might compare with a few days when it’s difficult to get petrol

I really don't get your point @Blossomtoes. I was also an adult in the 1970s. What of it? Nothing like this happened then

Nothing like this happened then

I remember it did, so went off and googled to check. It was following the 1973 OPEC crisis

Sales were frequently limited to a gallon, but there were still queues and fights.

news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/witness/december/15/newsid_4065000/4065969.stm