Lots of non league matches getting PP this week due to the shortage of fuel , caused by morons / simpletons

Are Barnet postponing their next game due to a Kewell shortage?  ;)

Quoted from It Bites

Lots of non league matches getting PP this week due to the shortage of fuel , caused by morons / simpletons

A very apt description of our current government.

I drove up to Aberdeen today and every garage I passed had fuel today, which was contrary to the BBC reports this morning that 90% where empty, some had signs outside and where limiting customers to £30, as usual the media blow everything out of proportion and whip the population into a frenzy, if people are sensible and act normally there is plenty to go around.

Quoted from Maringer

A very apt description of our current government.

The morons are the haulage/fuel distributors for coming out with these "shortage" statements and joe public reacting in their typical selfish manner.

The news is full of interviews with people saying they need petrol but can't get it because other people are buying it, and without knowing the circumstances of the next person in the queue.
Once again we're all on each others backs, divide and rule and we fall for it every time.

We won’t be getting postponed as I passed the Town team coach heading south past me on the M11 this afternoon about 4pm .

Quoted from GYinScuntland

The news is full of interviews with people saying they need petrol but can't get it because other people are buying it, and without knowing the circumstances of the next person in the queue.
Once again we're all on each others backs, divide and rule and we fall for it every time.

Perfect assessment.

Quoted from louth_in_the_south

We won’t be getting postponed as I passed the Town team coach heading south past me on the M11 this afternoon about 4pm .

Did you pass them or did they pass you or did you pass each other. Was it you or them or both heading south or when you passed where you going in the same or opposite directions  

Quoted from Azimuth

I drove up to Aberdeen today and every garage I passed had fuel today, which was contrary to the BBC reports this morning that 90% where empty, some had signs outside and where limiting customers to £30, as usual the media blow everything out of proportion and whip the population into a frenzy, if people are sensible and act normally there is plenty to go around.

Bristol is empty, we can’t take the kids to school tomorrow

I went down south today mainly M1. Nearly every station was empty of fuel

I don’t think there is any one group of people to blame for this particular crisis but politicians, the media, oil companies, hauliers and the general public all share some of it. For anyone who is desperate though I filled up at Esso in Ming this afternoon - no queue, no limit on how much I could put in and I was the only person there 🤷‍♂️.

I got a full tank last week before it all kicked off fortunately.

The media should know by now that when they use the words "don't panic" then the public panic.

It's nothing to do with Brexit though as we get 5000 drivers from them.

Quoted from Azimuth

I drove up to Aberdeen today and every garage I passed had fuel today, which was contrary to the BBC reports this morning that 90% where empty, some had signs outside and where limiting customers to £30, as usual the media blow everything out of proportion and whip the population into a frenzy, if people are sensible and act normally there is plenty to go around.

was in Wembley/Greenford/Northolt today - saw only 4 garages open during my 8 hour shift/125 miles covered and around every one of them was traffic chaos - junctions and roundabouts blocked; queues hundreds of metres long

think it's probably a mainly urban thing - Aylesbury is also 'dry' but minimal queues in the smaller towns  (Buckingham, Winslow, Tring)

In theory panic buying will be short-lived as people can only fill their tank. By definition, if they’re panic buying the tank isn’t empty to start with. And hopefully, as they’re panicking, they’ll eliminate unnecessary journeys and reduce their overall consumption.

Just fuelled up at Tesco for tomorrow’s trip, all fuels available, no queue.

My daughter, bless her, must be the only driver in Sheffield to have been oblivious to the fuel panic. Her mum rang her to ask if she had enough fuel to get to her work tomorrow as many local fuel stations were closed. 'What fuel shortage?' she said.  She's a bright, sociable 36 year old who had a busy weekend seeing friends, family, and attending a Charity function at Hillsborough Stadium. Her fuel gauge was on red and she had to roam north Sheffield to get a fill up rationed to £35 only.

I don't know whether to be worried or proud that a media fuelled national 'crisis' had passed her by!

No surprise that the south east, by far the most populous area of the country, is the one with the shortages. Most of the refineries are in the north as well, I believe?

Oh, and we don't appear to have strategic reserves, unlike most countries. Would make sense to have one down in the south east somewhere for just such an issue as we're seeing now.

We don't do infrastructure and planning very well in this country.

Quoted from Croxton

My daughter, bless her, must be the only driver in Sheffield to have been oblivious to the fuel panic. Her mum rang her to ask if she had enough fuel to get to her work tomorrow as many local fuel stations were closed. 'What fuel shortage?' she said.  She's a bright, sociable 36 year old who had a busy weekend seeing friends, family, and attending a Charity function at Hillsborough Stadium. Her fuel gauge was on red and she had to roam north Sheffield to get a fill up rationed to £35 only.

I don't know whether to be worried or proud that a media fuelled national 'crisis' had passed her by!

Mine was the same, she lives in Stockport and on Saturday morning news a reporter called Phil McCann (yes that was actually his surname) was broadcasting from Stockport about a garage with no fuel. I called her as she works in the community with the elderly and she didn’t have a scooby. I really with I could be that oblivious to the stupidity that’s holding society at the moment.

Quoted from louth_in_the_south

We won’t be getting postponed as I passed the Town team coach heading south past me on the M11 this afternoon about 4pm .

I hope Hurst and Doig were pushing, don't want to knacker the players

Real strange one this - panic triggered by the news that there might be a shortage of fuel if people were to begin to panic buy; cue the great British public. That's not fair actually, whilst there will always be the odd nobhead who goes too far, you can't really pin this one on the public, as predictable as the reaction has been.

What is the correct individual response to panic buying? Not to panic buy? All well and good, but less so when you realise your moral high horse isn't going to carry you to work or take your kids to school. Once a few start doing it, there's an inevitable ripple effect and even the most measured and sensible of society have to join in with the madness like everybody else.

I caught wind of this on Thursday evening so went out to fill both mine and my wife's cars up so that we'd have enough fuel to see us through to the end of this week. I was the only one there at that point. My prediction was, and still is, that things would go temporarily batshít but that any panic buying of this nature can only last a few days - the fundamental issue is an artificial surge in demand, not supply (as was the case in the 2000 fuel crisis). Right now, an overwhelming majority of cars in this country have close to a full tank - supplies will replenish and those who need more should be able to get it without much drama within the next couple of days.

A totally contrived situation whipped up by mainstream media. I get that journalism is a tough gig these days, and clicks are king, but there's also a responsibility that comes with the power these news outlets naturally possess. There should be ramifications for individuals and / or networks who irresponsibly promote stories which in and of themselves cause stress and harm to many. Shysters, the lot of 'em.

It came out this morning that this was a problem just with a relatively small amount of BP stations.

What was of concern but no surprise was that it was initially discussed at a cabinet meeting and then leaked to the press who as they tend to do in this 24 hour broadcasting age repeated the same news over and over again.

The tabloids have also had their usual alarmist approach with the Sun (no surprises) going completely OTT.

What didn’t help was that this came to light at the start of a weekend when many people have free time on their hands.

No different to the start of the pandemic, when people were asked not to panic buy in supermarkets. Cue people buying 400 loo rolls and 20 loaves of bread.

Bit like like lemmings heading towards the cliff the one heading in the opposite direction is the odd one out.Panic buying is a logical rational response to a perceived shortage.It's those who cause the perception of a shortage who are to blame.

Quoted from blundellpork

No different to the start of the pandemic, when people were asked not to panic buy in supermarkets. Cue people buying 400 loo rolls and 20 loaves of bread.

I had to throw away 400 loo rolls and 20 loaves of bread out of my garage to make room for my 10 Gerry cans of petrol.  I can't stand people who panic

Quoted from rancido

The morons are the haulage/fuel distributors for coming out with these "shortage" statements and joe public reacting in their typical selfish manner.

Talking to a lorry driver today that I know, he said it is the haulage industry creating this problem as they want the Government to ease restrictions on EU migrants so that they can employ cheap labour again.

Quoted from golfer

I had to throw away 400 loo rolls and 20 loaves of bread out of my garage to make room for my 10 Gerry cans of petrol.  I can't stand people who panic

And when you opened the garage doors, all that co2 escaped too.

Quoted from arryarryarry

Talking to a lorry driver today that I know, he said it is the haulage industry creating this problem as they want the Government to ease restrictions on EU migrants so that they can employ cheap labour again.

The fact is, there aren't enough lorry drivers. There was a shortage of lorry drivers before the media and politicians started talking about Brexit.
This isn't about cheap labour, it's about trained labour.

Panic buying is down to those members of the public who went out to buy petrol unnecessarily. The problem was only with one network, but people still rushed out in numbers much higher than normal.

The root cause of the problem is a lack of qualified drivers working. Whether that’s through age (the age profile of the industry is comparatively high); unattractive conditions; unsociable hours; pay; Covid. It’s made worse by the fact our labour market got suddenly less flexible in January. It didn’t need to be like this, even with Brexit. A phased changeover could have been delivered if the government wanted to. Just another of the self-inflicted injuries.

We’ve had decades of refusal to act on pay and conditions (“allow the market to set them” has been the mantra). The party in government were the biggest foot draggers of them all. CONSTANTLY opposing EU directives limiting working hours, opposing controls on the transport industry and working conditions*, opposing the introduction of the minimum wage and successive rises in it. They broke the power of the unions. Allowed the growth of do-called self-employment to undermine workers ability to get statutory employees’ rights.

* even when they accepted them they didn’t resource the policing of them properly. One of the reasons east European drivers preferred working here was because, unlike Germany, they could work all the hours God sends so they can speed up their saving and settle home again with a nest egg. In the process endangering other road users because they were knackered.

Quoted from wigworld

The fact is, there aren't enough lorry drivers. There was a shortage of lorry drivers before the media and politicians started talking about Brexit.
This isn't about cheap labour, it's about trained labour.

According to my mate, it's about poor pay and the way he was treated as he may not likely return to lorry driving.

It took Mr Fenty the best part of 20 years to empty BP.
The British public managed to do it in one weekend.


Hang on…

The Conoco hats…

Shel(l)ton Fenty…

Five Star (Fish) - the purest 100 octane petrol designed for high performance motors (a scratched £80k Aston Martin for instance)…

Several Exxon alimony payment plans…


Hmmm, those fraudster friendly business deals John was involved in May have been his first steps into the murky world of hydrocarbon exploration. GETYOURFRACKSRIGHT!

I went to a garage earlier today and there was a guy there who was not only filling up his car but weirdly he was also buying boxes and boxes of San Miguel, what appeared to be all the ingredients for a paella and a sombrero. Thought to myself "ah yeah, Hispanic buying."

Quoted from Knut Anders Fosters Voles

It took Mr Fenty the best part of 20 years to empty BP.
The British public managed to do it in one weekend.


Hang on…

The Conoco hats…

Shel(l)ton Fenty…

Five Star (Fish) - the purest 100 octane petrol designed for high performance motors (a scratched £80k Aston Martin for instance)…

Several Exxon alimony payment plans…


Hmmm, those fraudster friendly business deals John was involved in May have been his first steps into the murky world of hydrocarbon exploration. GETYOURFRACKSRIGHT!

The wife said to me the other day there's a panic down at BP, I thought Fenty had bought his shares back. 😕

Nobody thinks they are panic buying but most people buy a bit more, the cumulative effect of which is increased demand. A bit like most people think they are a better than average driver.

I've just swapped a doctors appointment for 2 gallons of petrol

Quoted from Maringer

No surprise that the south east, by far the most populous area of the country, is the one with the shortages. Most of the refineries are in the north as well, I believe?

Oh, and we don't appear to have strategic reserves, unlike most countries. Would make sense to have one down in the south east somewhere for just such an issue as we're seeing now.

We don't do infrastructure and planning very well in this country.

The shortage, as with the supermarkets, is with drivers, not fuel. Post Brexit the Poles, who backfilled these jobs, began getting taxed both here and at home, making it no longer viable for them to come over.

We have shitloads of fuel in tanks, and there are tanks down south to supply locally, just not the manpower to get it delivered.

One of two things need to happen here, either the government offers retraining to people, either currently in work or on the dole, to fill the shortages, or a deal needs striking to get the Poles back on board, and I dont mean on short term visas. I wont hold my breath..

Quoted from coddy60

The shortage, as with the supermarkets, is with drivers, not fuel. Post Brexit the Poles, who backfilled these jobs, began getting taxed both here and at home, making it no longer viable for them to come over.

We have shitloads of fuel in tanks, and there are tanks down south to supply locally, just not the manpower to get it delivered.

One of two things need to happen here, either the government offers retraining to people, either currently in work or on the dole, to fill the shortages, or a deal needs striking to get the Poles back on board, and I dont mean on short term visas. I wont hold my breath..

I would have thought it was the Oil Companies and suppliers who had a responsibility to train and have a adequate suply of drivers rather than the Government just like any other business staff need to be trained and paid the going rate in order that they are retained and attracted to the job, the relience on less expensive overseas staff has lead in part to this issue.

Quoted from coddy60

The shortage, as with the supermarkets, is with drivers, not fuel. Post Brexit the Poles, who backfilled these jobs, began getting taxed both here and at home, making it no longer viable for them to come over.

We have shitloads of fuel in tanks, and there are tanks down south to supply locally, just not the manpower to get it delivered.

One of two things need to happen here, either the government offers retraining to people, either currently in work or on the dole, to fill the shortages, or a deal needs striking to get the Poles back on board, and I dont mean on short term visas. I wont hold my breath..

I would have thought it was the Oil Companies and suppliers who had a responsibility to train and have a adequate suply of drivers rather than the Government just like any other business staff need to be trained and paid the going rate in order that they are retained and attracted to the job, the relience on less expensive overseas staff has lead in part to this issue.

Quoted from arryarryarry

Talking to a lorry driver today that I know, he said it is the haulage industry creating this problem as they want the Government to ease restrictions on EU migrants so that they can employ cheap labour again.

Being a lorry driver he would know the inner workings of the government and their future plans I'm sure!
Oh to be in such a privileged position to have an ear into No 10 Downing Street, do me a favour mate!

From what I've read, lorry drivers have to put up with really shitty working conditions for distinctly average wages. Any job where you have to excrement in a plastic bag then sleep in your cab without the chance to wash or shower isn't going to be a great deal of fun. The Dad of my friends at school (a few decades ago now!) was a lorry driver and I remember he was rarely at home. However, it was a decently paid job back then and they lived in a nice detached house in Clee. It seems that things have changed a lot since then.

Quoted from wigworld

The fact is, there aren't enough lorry drivers. There was a shortage of lorry drivers before the media and politicians started talking about Brexit.
This isn't about cheap labour, it's about trained labour.

Theirs thousands of class one/two licences not being used ,I know of several lads who don’t drive anymore and the reason is simple the hours the pay the work home life ratio the lack of facilities on the road are all excrement. Greedy supermarkets and hauliers thought it was correct to pay shelf stackers the same and in some cases more than lads driving 44 ton lorries  bringing the goods in. The moral of the story is treat people like excrement and they will find other work / careers

Quoted from Azimuth

I would have thought it was the Oil Companies and suppliers who had a responsibility to train and have a adequate suply of drivers rather than the Government just like any other business staff need to be trained and paid the going rate in order that they are retained and attracted to the job, the relience on less expensive overseas staff has lead in part to this issue.

Yeah, I wouldn't argue with that in regards to the oil companies. When I said the government, I was more referring to getting some of the sick lame and lazy off the rock and roll.

We are destined to a fuel fate that deserves to be mocked.

Quoted from dapperz fun pub

Theirs thousands of class one/two licences not being used ,I know of several lads who don’t drive anymore and the reason is simple the hours the pay the work home life ratio the lack of facilities on the road are all excrement. Greedy supermarkets and hauliers thought it was correct to pay shelf stackers the same and in some cases more than lads driving 44 ton lorries  bringing the goods in. The moral of the story is treat people like excrement and they will find other work / careers

This.. a lorry driving used to be a well paid job, the conditions have never been great and certainly not moved with the times, around seven years ago an old school friend left the industry, said he asked for more pay as they hadn’t had a rise for years and was told to leave if he wanted, an agency was ready to fill his job with a Pole the next week, so he left.  There was no incentive to train up new drivers or invest in better facilities and now it is coming back to bite the industry.

Sounds like some motorists are trying to outcompete each other for stupidity:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/sep/27/petrol-station-chaos-worsened-by-motorists-filling-up-with-wrong-fuel

I wonder how many are dim enough to think they might as well give a different fuel a try? After all, what could possibly go wrong?!?

I did not have a scooby-doo, don't watch or listen to news anymore, 24 hours of the same stories over and over again, the reporting in crap, seems anyone can get on the news these days.

It was only when my lad rang me, panicing, he had drove around doing 40 miles trying to find a station with diesel, as he is a tradeperson needing to fill up for work this week.

Manage to find a garage on Sunday night the Shell garage at the Laceby roundabout. no queue's, limited to £30 per vehicle.
I got a strange look from the cashier when I went to pay for my fuel,"you know you can put upto £30", I had only put in £20 which was enough for the week for me. She told me earlier in the day an ambulance filled up (more than £30 limit) and another customer starting shouting abuse at the crew, if I was there I would have decked the nob.

The news I will be able to watch over and over again, is next year when we get promoted back to the EFL.

Quoted from Maringer

Sounds like some motorists are trying to outcompete each other for stupidity:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/sep/27/petrol-station-chaos-worsened-by-motorists-filling-up-with-wrong-fuel

I wonder how many are dim enough to think they might as well give a different fuel a try? After all, what could possibly go wrong?!?

You just couldn’t make it up, unbelievable stuff.

Quoted from dapperz fun pub

Theirs thousands of class one/two licences not being used ,I know of several lads who don’t drive anymore and the reason is simple the hours the pay the work home life ratio the lack of facilities on the road are all excrement. Greedy supermarkets and hauliers thought it was correct to pay shelf stackers the same and in some cases more than lads driving 44 ton lorries  bringing the goods in. The moral of the story is treat people like excrement and they will find other work / careers

It’s almost as if it doesn’t work if you allow the market and people who own the capital to dictate everything in pursuit of more profit. Who’d have thought it?  

If you don’t have the money available to pay your labour (the ones who actually produce and provide all the value in a company, not the CEO who gets millions) a fair wage and good working conditions then you don’t have a viable business.

The comment below, from some wag, made me laugh.

Toilet rolls, pasta, bread, flour, fuel, common sense. All victims of panic buying that didn't need to happen. A shortage of common sense being the first thing to run out. I'd like to see panic buying of condoms so these hysterical people don't go on to bring children into the world who then end up like their idiotic parents.

Went to Morrisons this morning. No problem at the petrol station there, if anything it was less busy than usual.

Don't panic they said.

So I didn't.

Now I have 10 miles of petrol left and all of the many petrol stations within 10 miles of me are either closed completely or have no unleaded. On the odd occasion a petrol station gets a delivery, the Facebook mob descends in their 4x4s and strip it dry within a couple of hours. It has been like this since Friday.

Luckily I can work from home and have no care responsibilities etc but I can see why people who rely on their vehicles to live or work did panic last week.

It's going to take time to sort in our area because those that have 3/4 tanks will be unnerved into filling up prematurely as soon as a delivery arrives.

To be fair, around town I’m yet to find one that’s run out, some have limited it but they haven’t even run out of that expensive unleaded that’s meant to be better but no fornicator buys yet…

Both shell garages near my house had plenty, morrisons, Asda, and the ones down Grimsby/Cleethorpe Road.

I guess it does prove just how easily people are persuaded…makes you wonder if the last two years could’ve been a lot less than they were had people the ability to make their own mind up and not trust sensationalised media…

I filled up (E10 unleaded) at Tesco in Cleethorpes today. Less than a quarter of a tank so I thought I'd top up if there wasn't a queue. Didn't need to wait at all. However, I'm well aware that it is different in N.E. Lincs in comparison to many areas. My brother in law (Norwich) is struggling to get fuel and we were due a delivery at work from the south east yesterday which had to be cancelled because the driver couldn't get any fuel.

It all depends where you live, really. In N.E. Lincs, the vast majority of folk work very close to where they live. Due to our 'end of the line' situation due to geography and transport links, there won't be a huge amount of long-distance commuting going on in our neck of the woods. Once people have filled up, it isn't likely that many of them will need to again for a week or two so few issues with fuel. In heavily populated areas or places from where people do a lot of commuting, not the same situation.

You'd also hope that the refinery quite literally down the road might mean that restocking local filling stations shouldn't be too much of an issue!

Don’t worry. All those German expats are going to come to our aid. The ones with driving licences from before this century are eligible to drive 7.5 tonne vehicles. 😆

Besides, it’ll all balance out. Pretty soon because there aren’t enough agricultural and food processing workers there won’t be much food to transport so those drivers can be redirected to driving petrol tankers, and there won’t be anything worth driving to the shops for anyway.

It took the Soviets successive five year plans to achieve such shortages. Boris has done it in under two years. Stalin was half-baked by comparison. 😂

Three cheers for Comrade Boris and all his friends in the Red Wall. Fraternal greetings from Soviet peoples. We salute everything you are doing for the cause.

We were out on Saturday and driving home from Reading in about fifteen miles we passed eight empty petrol stations.

Here in the South the situation is far worse that anyone will admit. Anyone driving to Woking on Saturday I am working here this week, and this morning walked past three dry stations.

I wouldn't be surprised if Boris the great self-protector doesn't lock us down in the next few weeks citing Covid worries, but really just using that as an excuse for the lack of fuel and empty shelves in all the shops.

Crazy times.

Quoted from Hants.Mariner

We were out on Saturday and driving home from Reading in about fifteen miles we passed eight empty petrol stations.

Here in the South the situation is far worse that anyone will admit. Anyone driving to Woking on Saturday I am working here this week, and this morning walked past three dry stations.

I wouldn't be surprised if Boris the great self-protector doesn't lock us down in the next few weeks citing Covid worries, but really just using that as an excuse for the lack of fuel and empty shelves in all the shops.

Crazy times.

Nah…the army will sort it out…well that’s what they’re telling us.

Apparently there has been no fuel panic in Northern Ireland. I wonder why that is. It can’t be because it is still effectively part of the Single Market, because the driver shortage has nothing to do with Brexit.

Turkeys are a lot more relaxed about voting for Christmas this year.