It's funny how (fuel shortages)

Soldato
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I'm not sure the government is at stupid as people think. They know damn well if they tell people not to panic, they panic. Same with the media.

Something tells me this was all planned.

Unless they really are stupid?

They are a heady mix of conniving/lazy/incompetent with a strong streak of personal and collective sociopathy.

They're not stupid. They just don't care about anything other than keeping power, so anything that can successfully denied, deflected or blamed on something or someone else isn't worth worrying about.
 
Man of Honour
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Me: "I'm not going to mow the lawn this weekend so we can keep the spare can of mower petrol. We might need that for the school run if we can't get any petrol for the car"
Wife: Mows lawn, proudly comes in to tell me she saved me a job
Me: "OK, how are we going to get the kids to school if shortages are still happening when the car is empty?"
Wife: Pikachu face

Sadly a true story :(
 
Soldato
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I think it's worse the closer you get to London.

This government is incompetent, not saying Labour would be better either. Grant Schaps (drives a Tesla) keeps saying there's no shortage, but every petrol station in Welwyn is closed, I'm confused.

Whats confusing? There wasnt a shortage but now there is...... in the same way there was a shortage of toilet roll last year for reasons I really shouldnt have to explain.
 
Soldato
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Yea that is worrying especially when people are working from home

With all the working from home heating gas/electricity is going to be in demand all day long instead of just evening and with offices half empty but still needing heating theres going to be increased demand for sure, could be a perfect storm this winter

I think it's worse the closer you get to London.
This government is incompetent, not saying Labour would be better either. Grant Schaps (drives a Tesla) keeps saying there's no shortage, but every petrol station in Welwyn is closed, I'm confused.

The entire SE at least pumps are bone dry down here if anything has a delivery theres massive queues until it closes again usually on the same day
 
Soldato
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Whats confusing? There wasnt a shortage but now there is...... in the same way there was a shortage of toilet roll last year for reasons I really shouldnt have to explain.

It's different than the toilet roll thing. That was completely people and media driven. There was no problem with toilet paper supply at all.

There are however some problems with petrol supply.

This started with BP saying they were struggling to get petrol to forecourts and meeting with the government to discuss. So there was in fact, a short term shortage in supply no matter how small it was. This was reported in the media and that lit the touch paper.

Despite persistent government denials, there are other medium/longer term problems with fuel supply. Stanlow refinery for instance, which supplies around 1/6th of the country's petrol is on the brink of receivership... https://news.sky.com/story/stanlow-...ancial-crunch-as-hmrc-deadline-looms-12410388
 
Man of Honour
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I don't think it's either. I just don't think they quite estimated how stupid the average Brit is.
But is it stupidity? A person can decide they aren't going to make the situation worse and not get any fuel but that doesn't stop everyone else emptying the pumps. Then the "sane" person is stuffed because they tried to do the right thing. It doesn't really matter whether the shortages are genuine, caused by human nature, or a combination of both. It was only ever going to end one way and trying to do the "right thing" will just result in you having no fuel while everyone else has fuel but moans about it.

If you're going to panic then panic early. Or at least panic before everyone else.
 
Soldato
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But is it stupidity? A person can decide they aren't going to make the situation worse and not get any fuel but that doesn't stop everyone else emptying the pumps. Then the "sane" person is stuffed because they tried to do the right thing. It doesn't really matter whether the shortages are genuine, caused by human nature, or a combination of both. It was only ever going to end one way and trying to do the "right thing" will just result in you having no fuel while everyone else has fuel but moans about it.

If you're going to panic then panic early. Or at least panic before everyone else.

Exactly.
 
Soldato
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Well it is stupidity really, as a full tank of fuel only gets you so far. That same person who rushed out to panic buy fuel will likely have to do it all again queuing 2 miles up the road for some fuel.

The situation could have been avoided if everyone was sensible and only filled up when they needed. Now the situation is 10 fold and we all will be queuing up for petrol until things get back to normal. Why do we do this to ourselves, it's like a self inflicted wound.
 
Soldato
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The situation could have been avoided if everyone was sensible and only filled up when they needed. Now the situation is 10 fold and we all will be queuing up for petrol until things get back to normal. Why do we do this to ourselves, it's like a self inflicted wound.

The media have a lot to answer for in my view. They shouldn't be allowed to whip up a hysteria over nothing only so they have something to report on. There's several big culprits any time there's a hint of a shortage even if it's isolated to one area they make it national news.
 
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