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?

[VanGoghsDog]

@HotPenguin

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?

People with electric cars?

Sitting pretty now, huh?

[DoomAndAllThatJazz]

I'm in Hants and can't get any fuel. Every garage has run out.

[Orangejuicemarathoner]

@rocklamp

You can't feed dog food to cats because it won't have some essential nutrients in like taurine. I suppose it's better than them having nothing at all, but only for a day perhaps.

Thank you

[Clymene]

Where are you OP?

[orinocosfavoritecake]

Electric car drivers must be feeling pretty smug.

[LadyDanburysCane]

@User5827372728

Huh? My whole school in; apart from the 40’with covid! No issues with traffic and supermarkets fine!

We had some pupils who were a little late (no more than 10 minutes) due to traffic jams caused by the queues. DS walked the four miles to college having got off the bus when it hadn’t moved from the stop where he boarded for 10 minutes. The bus never overtook him…..

It took me just under an hour to drive home (usually 15-20 minutes) as we have lots of fuel stations in the local area so there were queues all over the place. The local high street is basically a car park and buses have been diverted because they can’t get anywhere.

I watched the idiots next door unload five cans of fuel from their boot yesterday. They both work from home!

[Orangejuicemarathoner]

@Cocomarine

You can feed dog food to cats in that there’s nothing in it that will make them sick. However, it’s not nutritionally complete for cats as they need taurine - so long term you can’t. But this week - yes.

Thank you

[orinocosfavoritecake]

Especially when you think that the big argument against getting an electric car was the fear that you wouldn’t be able to refuel easily….

[Soupseason]

I did a big shop today, shelves stocked no problem getting everything I needed. Filled up on the way home it was busy but not to bad.

[Muselyforbreakfast]

@Marmite27

I’m in Leeds and it’s nothing like that here.

Nor in the next county at my parents.

Roughly which area because I’m also Leeds ( just) and can’t get any petrol within several miles. I need some tomorrow

[TheChip]

@nancy75 I was talking more so about the fuel situation, sorry. If there really was a shortage, then all of these people surely wouldn't have been able to fill up as they have been. It's a created shortage.
If people just stuck to their normal routine, there would still be fuel as normal no doubt.

As for the food situation, yes there are issues there. But remember, they did the same thing at the start of the pandemic and told us there would be shortages and caused people to panic buy. In reality, the shortages were caused due to those panic buying. Not saying that is the case right now as there are issues with drivers etc. But the fear porn certainly does not help.

[CraftyGin]

The army, among other things, are good at driving big vehicles.

But they are not generally trained in moving flammable materials from one place to another, and keeping the different grades of petrol, and diesel, separate.

[notimagain]

What have we got an army for?

Well one thing is for sure - they are not primarily there to fix government/transport industry screw ups on the domestic front

From the MOD website:

“ The British Army has many uses, though it is primarily a war-fighting organisation to protect the nation and, if required, fight the nation's enemies with absolute commitment.”

Everything is secondary to that.

[Sylvvie]

Given that people are syphoning fuel from other peoples cars I think it is about time the military step in with the police and ration it to key workers as a priority.

It's the only way these idiots will stop

[DoomAndAllThatJazz]

@CraftyGin but they have squadrons of soldiers that do. It may be a specialised trade but they do have the manpower.

[Hillary17]

All pretty fine where I am in the north west. A few queues here and there, but deliveries are normal and no major differences. I wouldn’t / couldn’t walk the distance to work and worth saying, not one of if my 50 person team lives within a 6 mile radius of my office. So we’ll all be back at home!

[FlorenceWintle]

You sound like you’re panicking just as much as the petrol buyers. Dig in.

[CoffeeWithCheese]

Where are the Army?
Most of the squaddies I know (and I know a lot through friends in the forces and spending a lot of time getting pissed on the base) are in the queue trying to get petrol for their own bloody cars!

It's not the shortages causing us bother - it's the fucking queue for the petrol station which is snaking back and causing bloody traffic chaos.

[dodobookends]

@LowlandLucky

You do realise that very few Army personnel can drive tankers

We know it is a specific skill. They were talking about it on the radio news earlier. Some of them can though. A handful would be better than none.

[DdraigGoch]

@lifeturnsonadime

I'm in the Midlands, most petrol stations have no fuel, the one that has has a queue a mile long. It's all well and good telling people not to panic buy but cars don't run on fresh air.

Supermarkets are definitely also in short supply.

I've just come back from France and can report that there are no problems either in Supermarkets or in Petrol Stations.

The denial that Brexit is part of the problem here is astonishing.

We have no shortage of ADR drivers. One of BP's contractors pissed off its drivers and they left but that only caused five stations to close. There is no supply problem, instead we have a demand problem.

Just like there was no shortage of toilet roll, only people hoarding five year's worth.

[CraftyGin]

I didn't think you could siphon modern cars. They have a mesh that prevents you getting a tube down into the tank.

Plus, I think very few people know the principles of siphoning.

[Seashell1234]

@colouringindoors

No fuel at all in my town. Traffic problems. So sick of our fkn government.

That's not the government, it's idiots in your town!

[LazyDoll]

I’m on the red now and down to last £20 in tank. Went to 3 fuel stations on way home from work. All empty.

[HotPenguin]

@VanGoghsDog good point, electric car owners will be laughing - until their energy provider goes bust and they are put on a million times more expensive tariff!

[JoborPlay]

@Talktalkchat

Plenty of petrol in manchester

Depends where in Manchester. 3 petrol stations near me are closed as empty.