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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

999 replies

Orangejuicemarathoner · 27/09/2021 18:53

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?

OP posts:
MurielSpriggs · 27/09/2021 19:29

@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?

Nostalgia in Brexitannia. Just wait until we get ration cards and powdered egg.
elbea · 27/09/2021 19:29

The army aren’t just sat at home waiting for you to call them up to deliver your petrol.

There are a limited amount of qualified HGV lorry drivers in the army is limited. Many of those will be on active deployment.

Georgyporky · 27/09/2021 19:29

I hate BJ, I'm very much against Brexit, but I could not blame either for running out of milk.

Shellfishblastard · 27/09/2021 19:29

I assume when people talk about brining in the army it’s to drive the HGV1 lorries to get fuel and food to shops?

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 27/09/2021 19:29

Do you realise how small the Army actually is? Compared to the population...

80,000 or so. Including all those currently abroad (Falklands, NATO, Cyprus, Estonia etc), on maternity and sick leave, in training, on resettlement etc.

Then how many petrol stations there are...

Then there's the simple fact the Army have no power over civilians or Police powers.

HotPenguin · 27/09/2021 19:30

We keep hearing the problem is caused by people buying petrol when they don't need to, but is there anyone who owns a car that DOESNT need petrol? If you have a collection of classic cars then ok, probably don't need to top them all up. But excluding the owners of multiple classic cars, who buys a car that they don't need? Surely the reality is we ALL need our cars, otherwise we wouldn't be shelling out thousands on them, and the number of people who can just forego petrol and wait for things to calm down is very very few?

nancy75 · 27/09/2021 19:30

@IvySneezes

I don’t know where you live but petrol stations are stocked here and shops too. Is this scaremongering just as bad as the fake news that started the run on petrol?
It’s not scaremongering when it’s actually happening. I’m in SE London, supermarkets have been noticeably under stocked for a few weeks, pubs are struggling to get gas, soft drinks & some other drinks, there is no petrol or diesel in any of the 8 petrol stations nearby. Just because you haven’t seen it with your own eyes doesn’t mean it’s not true.
WrongKindOfFace · 27/09/2021 19:31

This. What are the army going to do? They can't stop people buying petrol, how can you choose who needs it and who doesn't?? It'll settle down when everyone panic buying realises they're being melodramatic bellends.

They can distribute petrol and other goods though as they definitely have trained hgv drivers - although not sure how many trained tanker drivers they may have.

Hoppinggreen · 27/09/2021 19:31

@bizboz

I don't like the blaming the public attitude - standard Tory government tactic. Panic buying isn't helping but it is understandable in the circumstances and there is a definite supply/delivery issue.
I’m in a large town in West Yorkshire and I cant find any diesel at any of the petrol stations within a 3 mile radius of here. The roundabout at the end of my road was partly blocked by people queuing for the petrol station for most of today
Cherrysoup · 27/09/2021 19:32

No petrol in 6 garages me and my dh tried between us. Petrol light is on in my car and his bike. We’re screwed. Outskirts of London.

BatshitCrazyWoman · 27/09/2021 19:32

@shauabs

What a massive overreaction. Our local petrol station was open today, no issues, very small queue. I had a full ASDA shop delivered on Saturday, one substitution for cereal 🙄 Threads like this just fuel the ridiculous behaviour.
But none here. Full Tesco shop delivered though, with no substitutions. It's not the same everywhere 🙄
Hoppinggreen · 27/09/2021 19:32

Sorry, quoted the wrong person
My reply was to someone suggesting it was a Southern thing

SeaToSki · 27/09/2021 19:33

We have a very patchy food supply here in New England, so its not just the UK. We have shortages of dock workers to unload the container ships and truck drivers to get around the country. We arent completely out of anything, but most visits to the supermarket involve re jigging my menu plan. Costco have just put limits back on kitchen roll and cleaning products and you cant get a new car for love nor money. We do seem to have enough petrol at the moment (not holding my breath)

JustLyra · 27/09/2021 19:33

The army don't have the numbers of tanker or HGV drivers as people seem to be assuming they do.

It's always highly amusing on here to see people saying that there are no issues simply because there are none where the live.

There are two petrol stations in/around our village. One is emergency vehicles only atm and the other has ridiculous queues. Someone random in hi-via gear actually took to directing traffic today because the queue was blocking the main road to the two schools.

Rather ridiculously they got a telling off from the police as you're not meant to appoint yourself to traffic management, even though school drop off/pick up would have been farcical without them.

Bhappy12 · 27/09/2021 19:33

YABU to think there's much the army can actually do about it tbh. Dramatic budget cuts to the army mean they haven't run many HGV courses for at least the last 2 years, and a very significant number of the army reserves are HGV drivers in their day jobs. There's very little the army could actually do atm.

Labracadabradoodle · 27/09/2021 19:33

Welcome to the 1970s

OverByYer · 27/09/2021 19:34

Where are you OP? It’s not as you describe where I am in Wales

TheChip · 27/09/2021 19:34

People just need to stop falling for the fear porn the media put out. It creates shortages when there wouldn't be one otherwise

Laiste · 27/09/2021 19:34

shauabs - What a massive overreaction. Our local petrol station was open today, no issues

What a massively shortsighted attitude! Midlands here and it's chaos. Looong disruptive queues at all the petrol stations in town with either one or no pumps working.

Even our little village one had a queue today! Shock

Coffeepot72 · 27/09/2021 19:34

I have no plans to panic buy, but I will run out of unleaded by the end of the week unless I fill up. And we seem to be out of unleaded in my area. It’s not good

TheGrumpyGoat · 27/09/2021 19:36

@Shirleyphallus

I have friends in the army who get a little frustrated at the “army being called in” to be the answer for everything.
Yes, as though they’re just sitting around doing nothing waiting to be summoned.
nancy75 · 27/09/2021 19:36

@TheChip

People just need to stop falling for the fear porn the media put out. It creates shortages when there wouldn't be one otherwise
So if I don’t believe the media shelves that I can see, with my own eyes, are empty will suddenly be full? The empty shelves are not because of panic buying, they are because stuff is t being delivered to the shops in the first place.
EcoCustard · 27/09/2021 19:37

Diesel in short supply in my part of Lincolnshire as in the few garages nearby have none at all. They do have unleaded though. I got all smug this morning pulling into a BP garage this morning to fill up only to realise the pumps were empty and only the shop was open. Down to 13 mile range and the closest garage is 6 miles away. Supermarket shelves been quite empty throughout the summer but have improved a little of late along with the shops getting good at packing the gaps with plastic storage crates. Plenty of crops left rotting over the summer in the fields too as few staff to crop, process and distribute.

forinborin · 27/09/2021 19:37

I’m in SE London, supermarkets have been noticeably under stocked for a few weeks, pubs are struggling to get gas, soft drinks & some other drinks, there is no petrol or diesel in any of the 8 petrol stations nearby.
Close to SE London, the horns at the petrol station down the road nearly drove me insane today. People literally seem to press them and release only when they get to the pump.
Haven't seen any serious issues with the supermarkets though.

TrampolineForMrKite · 27/09/2021 19:37

@CorrBlimeyGG

We need the government to come out and say, no one needs to panic, we have a solid plan to ensure the supply chain for fuel and food does not face issues. Except they've not, and they're not trustworthy. People have been conditioned to fight amongst each other, survival of the fittest. This is more of the same.
This! Wise words from @CorrBlimeyGG

The issue we have is that the voices saying there’s no shortages are well known for lying at this point and anyway, they’re not speaking very loudly. And we’ve just had a massive crisis that didn’t go the way we were told it would.... it’s understandable that many of us tend to be thinking the worst on this one.