[News] There's no need to panic buy petrol

[Marty___Mcfly]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nR0lOtdvqyg

 

[Pavilionaire]

Shortages - the only thing there's not a shortage of.

 

[Bry Nylon]

...there appeared to be some fisticuffs about to start as I went by as someone was running towards a car shouting all sorts.

Breaking news: Sussex police have just released an e-fit of a suspect:

 

[Baker lite]

It's my genuine hope that one of these queuing bellends has gone out because they are on fumes and burnt off the fumes in the queue, with the resulting breakdown keeping all the other queuing cars stationary until the RAC can find a way to rescue him.

Bonus points if they're all Brexiteers.

It is generally remainiac loons that morph in hysterical fannys during any sort of media induced panic.
There are actually grownups that have convinced themselves that there is a food shortage in the UK also.
How do these idiots get themselves dressed in the morning [emoji2371]

 

[B-right-on]

The media needs more regulation.

This kind of sensationalism is dangerous.

It's created a problem where there wasn't one.

There should really be repercussions - but even the BBC wasn't innocent of this, having been pinged on my phone in the morning warning of an issue.

The media have a lot of responsibility for this 'crisis', whipping up fear.

But that's their 'job' - well in their own eyes anyway.

The time to have brought in regulation was after the phone hacking scandal but policians were sh1t scared of falling foul of the media after the expenses scandal. 'Freedom of Speech' shouldn't include the right to alter facts at will. But how do you police it?

 

[nickbrighton]

It is indeed sensationalised, and it has indeed led to people panic-buying fuel - BUT the fuel supply had already started to run out before the headlines were published because of logistics problems, and it is a problem that, if not necessarily of this government's making, certainly one that they have appeared to ignore until now. I posted earlier on this thread the first couple of paragraphs from the FT's article about impending problems due to a shortage of lorry drivers, an article published on the 9th May this year https://www.ft.com/content/4d6b3be1-...5-91da326cabdc

"An exodus of EU lorry drivers from the UK since Brexit has left the British haulage and logistics industry facing an acute staff shortage and a looming crisis for industrial and retail deliveries, the sector has warned.

Industry associations and leading UK freight companies said that unless urgent steps were taken to address shortages, strains now visible within the industry would become evident to the public by the end of the summer."

Read that last line again - this has been on the radar of those who can do something about it for over four months. And yet it is only today, after supplies are running out and people are queuing round the block for petrol, that the Transport Minister announces all these new measures to speed up testing for HGV drivers.

If they'd actually done their job, responded to the calls in the spring from industry associations and freight companies to do something about it, then maybe we wouldn't have these shortages today, and hence wouldn't have these headlines in the papers.

Im certainly not saying the government haven't ****ed up in planning however the simple truth is there is NO FUEL SHORTAGE, only a very few petrol stations are closed due to lack of drivers, and that has been the case for a few weeks. The AA have said that "thousands of forecourts are operating normally with just a few suffering from temporary supply chain problems" they go on to say that this has been the case for a few weeks with basically no one noticing, and its a manageable problem. There are about 8300 petrol stations in the UK with about 1% closed

Its only because the BBC and others sent out breaking news alerts ans media headelines screaming petrol stations closed that has caused a minor problem to escalate.

What difference if the BBC and the Sun and Mail had put the headline 8000 out of 8300 stations open as usual and receiving normal deliveries in big bold headlines. Would all the muppets topping up their cars with £7.50 worth of petrol still have done so?

There are massive issue facing the transport system at the moment , running out of fuel wasn't one of them till the media decided to make it one

 

[MJsGhost]

It is generally remainiac loons that morph in hysterical fannys during any sort of media induced panic.
There are actually grownups that have convinced themselves that there is a food shortage in the UK also.
How do these idiots get themselves dressed in the morning [emoji2371]

It really is amazing what (and whom) some people will believe

 

[Billy the Fish]

The most annoying thing is the blocking of the roads. Haywards Heath train station was jammed earlier. I went home via the back roads so I couldn't get snarled up again.

I got lucky with this as I put 3/4 in on Tuesday and been at home the last couple of days. I can also work from home if needed. I feel sorry for everyone who relies on it for work. If I was desperate and had something important this weekend I'd be compiling a list of nearby 24hr garages and just go for a drive at 5am.

 

[The Andy Naylor Fan Club]

Popped into Adsa at the Marina around 13:00 to get some food, it took me 35 minutes to drive around and get out without getting any food. Fecking ridiculous. They should send all the paniky buyers around behind the casino/ bowling alley and queue there to go in. Would save a hell of a lot of stress

 

[dazzer6666]

London Road in Burgess Hill almost blocked with queuing cars - for BP one side and Shell the other. Tesco and Hickstead petrol stations closed.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

The media is self regulating at the moment, which is why they get away with this dangerous sensationalist shite.

OFCOM should really take on the regulation of printed and digital media as well. It works for broadcasting. They should be forced to be balanced and impartial, or risk fines or losing their licenses to print.

The papers in this country have always been dangerous and abhorrent to be fair. The country would be better if we did away with the lot of them, especially the red tops and Daily Mail.

To be fair, the initial irresponsible coverage of this story seems to have been on the BBC. I saw a ridiculous piece they showed yesterday afternoon, thought to myself this will only end one way and popped out to fill up as I had already put it off for a couple of days and was nearly on empty.
You aren’t allowed to shout ‘fire’ in a cinema (reality check for the freedom of speech brigade) so the media shouldn’t be allowed to shout ‘shortage’ about petrol or anything else. Totally irresponsible self fulfilling prophecy.

 

[biffo]

I think there should be a public enquiry into the media's role in both the Pandemic and now the reporting of various shortages

I am convinced that much of the confusion and problems with the lockdown and now fuel shortages were caused by the mainstream media deliberately sensationalising, and looking for eye catching headlines , and point scoring against the Government rather than trying to help the situation by providing clear and concise guidance and information.

The BBC long ago lost any pretence of impartial reporting and the majority of other news outlets weren't impartial to start with, its simply now a race to grab the headline and clicks and be damned with factual, informative helpful reporting.

The Media should not be just a mouthpiece for Government, but Public Broadcasters at least should have a duty to to be honest, and impartial , not to be going out of their way to sensationalise, and create fear and panic.

Shame on them all

well said

 

[Bry Nylon]

If I was desperate and had something important this weekend I'd be compiling a list of nearby 24hr garages and just go for a drive at 5am.

I saw on the BBC website that Wales has good supplies and minimal queues so I drove to Cardiff and filled up. Just got back after a six hour round trip and annoyingly I'm almost empty again FFS.

 

[vegster]

Im certainly not saying the government haven't ****ed up in planning however the simple truth is there is NO FUEL SHORTAGE, only a very few petrol stations are closed due to lack of drivers, and that has been the case for a few weeks. The AA have said that "thousands of forecourts are operating normally with just a few suffering from temporary supply chain problems" they go on to say that this has been the case for a few weeks with basically no one noticing, and its a manageable problem. There are about 8300 petrol stations in the UK with about 1% closed

Its only because the BBC and others sent out breaking news alerts ans media headelines screaming petrol stations closed that has caused a minor problem to escalate.

What difference if the BBC and the Sun and Mail had put the headline 8000 out of 8300 stations open as usual and receiving normal deliveries in big bold headlines. Would all the muppets topping up their cars with £7.50 worth of petrol still have done so?

There are massive issue facing the transport system at the moment , running out of fuel wasn't one of them till the media decided to make it one

Sadly there IS A FUEL SHORTAGE now! Thanks to the panic buying. 3/3 petrol stations I passed about 9.15 this morning were closed, coned off and with " Out of Use " plastic covers on the nozzles. I passed two garages this afternoon that had fuel but massive tailbacks.

So, if there were minor supply issues yesterday there are major supply issues today. A tanker driver can only do so many drops a day and they were already slowly falling behind demand before this new fiasco.

 

[Baker lite]

It really is amazing what (and whom) some people will believe

Looks like the actual figure is more than that now.
Winner winner, chicken dinner [emoji1303]
All done now, dry your eyes.


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[sparkie]

London Road in Burgess Hill almost blocked with queuing cars - for BP one side and Shell the other. Tesco and Hickstead petrol stations closed.

The BP one there was where I got my unleaded 4 hours ago. Only waited a minute or so for the pump but they were out of diesel and the unleaded was a constant flow of sales. I'm surprised they have any left.

 

[pb21]

All the media stuff I've seen shouldn't be encouraging people to panic buy, in fact they have been explicitly saying there is no need to panic buy.

Unless you are going to ban the media for presenting facts (some garages are running out of fuel primarily due to a lack of delivery drivers, but there is no shortage and you don't need to panic buy), then I don't know what you can do.

 

[nicko31]

The media is self regulating at the moment, which is why they get away with this dangerous sensationalist shite.

OFCOM should really take on the regulation of printed and digital media as well. It works for broadcasting. They should be forced to be balanced and impartial, or risk fines or losing their licenses to print.

The papers in this country have always been dangerous and abhorrent to be fair. The country would be better if we did away with the lot of them, especially the red tops and Daily Mail.

With 80%+ of print media government cheerleaders I think there's less than zero chance of that happening

 

[Wrong-Direction]

The media and government work hand in hand remember, they cause all the shit we suffer and then we blame each other

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[dazzer6666]

The BP one there was where I got my unleaded 4 hours ago. Only waited a minute or so for the pump but they were out of diesel and the unleaded was a constant flow of sales. I'm surprised they have any left.

When I drove past it did look like several pumps were out of action……the queue was back to the lights (with the back of the Shell queue also back to the lights)