Already queues at the the pumps

[adrian29uk]

Cycled past two garages this morning looks like trouble at the garages already, so many cars and so many people being greedy at the pumps I reckon these garages will be bone dry by Thursday if they block the refineries.

Problem is a 95% if people will be filling up to the top and not bothering to think of the people who really need it, ie Ambulances, Doctors, Fire, Mini buses to carry disabled people which is a joke.

We have become so reliant on Cars that the slightest mention of strikes everyone starts shitting themself.

 

[HampshireSeagulls]

Cycled past two garages this morning looks like trouble at the garages already, so many cars and so many people being greedy at the pumps I reckon these garages will be bone dry by Thursday if they block the refineries.

Problem is a 95% if people will be filling up to the top and not bothering to think of the people who really need it, ie Ambulances, Doctors, Fire, Mini buses to carry disabled people which is a joke.

We have become so reliant on Cars that the slightest mention of strikes everyone starts shitting themself.

Don't panic about filling up. The garages may introduce a minimum purchase rule to stop people who are 95% full putting the extra 5% in. Part of the snag last time was people doing sheep impressions and joining the queue because everyone else was in one.

The blockade is for Wed/Thu/Fri, and there should be enough at the garages for people not to have to panic buy. If the egos involved with the organisers don't cause the whole event to self-destruct again, then those that have a requirement to drive will be able to fill up on production of proof of job/id, etc.

The panic buying scenario is driven by a certain area of society who like to elevate this sort of event into a national crisis, but if I mention them London Irish will think I have a vendetta against them! Suffice to say that I think brain-vacuum tv such as GMTV should stick to covering staff weddings and not try to provoke problems purely so it gives their crap reporters something to report on the next morning.

 

[Icy Gull]

Thanks for the heads up, back in 20 mins if the queues aren't too long

 

[Pavilionaire]

Front page of today's Daily Mail reads "Panic At The Petrol Pump".

 

[Virgo's Haircut]

Speaking of Petrol Stations, does anyone know why the 2 Esso stations in Brighton (Lewes Road & Hollingdean Road) have closed down?

 

[CHAPPERS]

Speaking of Petrol Stations, does anyone know why the 2 Esso stations in Brighton (Lewes Road & Hollingdean Road) have closed down?

Because that massive BP meant nobody used them anymore? I used to like the one on Hollingdean Road, you never had to queue.

 

[HampshireSeagulls]

Front page of today's Daily Mail reads "Panic At The Petrol Pump".

Yep - whereas, of course, there isn't. This is wishful thinking on behalf of the Mail who want to send all their reporters out to report on punch ups at filling stations, take stock photos of "No Fuel" signs and hope and pray that someone can't get to hospital in time because they ran out of fuel. Vultures who are creating a story that they can report on. If they didn't report like this, then there would be no crisis - the stations should hold easily enough to get people through the three days providing they are not encouraged to wedge their tanks full when they normally wouldn't bother anyway.

 

[Deano's Right Foot]

Yep - whereas, of course, there isn't. This is wishful thinking on behalf of the Mail who want to send all their reporters out to report on punch ups at filling stations, take stock photos of "No Fuel" signs and hope and pray that someone can't get to hospital in time because they ran out of fuel. Vultures who are creating a story that they can report on. If they didn't report like this, then there would be no crisis - the stations should hold easily enough to get people through the three days providing they are not encouraged to wedge their tanks full when they normally wouldn't bother anyway.

Yes, a classic case of the media making the news, rather than reporting the news. The Mail really is a hateful little rag.

 

[Pavilionaire]

Surely queues at the pumps, a planned blockade and record petrol prices combine to make it a real story?

 

[Deano's Right Foot]

Surely queues at the pumps, a planned blockade and record petrol prices combine to make it a real story?

Maybe, but I think that the front page of the mail is adding hundreds of people to the queues, quite deliberately.

 

[Pavilionaire]

There are other stories to report on - Israel pulling out of Gaza, Loyalist chaos in NI, A-Day...

 

[Barrel of Fun]

And BPs profit that was announced this year? £8.7bn

 

[Wardy]

I think people recall what happend last time and do not want a repeat performance. Blackpool and back on fumes last time was not great fun I can tell you.

 

[HampshireSeagulls]

Surely queues at the pumps, a planned blockade and record petrol prices combine to make it a real story?

But there were no queues at the pumps until the Mail printed the story to imply that there were! The queues will start to arrive because people will watch GMTV (despite GMTV not being able to show a fuel queue) and then see the headlines on the way to work. They will behave like sheep and pull into the next available garage and put £2.50 of petrol into their already full tanks. Other sheep will see them, and assume that they know something, and pull in behind them. As soon as you get seven cars in a garage, they will all start calling their mates, or sending stupid emails around work, and you will have queues at pumps, and the Mail will be right - but not because it was reporting a story, but because it was generating one.

The planned blockade is about the fourth attempt - the first one worked but fell over when the egos of the organisers were competing, and the last few attempts have been the same. Messrs Spence, Greene, Park and Handley cannot agree on a plan of action because they all want to be the leader! They end up with the regional organisers slagging each other off, and no-one getting involved in what they seem to see is their own personal crusade. Record prices are there - but the "queues at pumps" doesn't reflect this - the headline should say "record fuel prices" then?

A quote from the Sun - A petrol station boss in Birmingham said: “We could be out of fuel in 96 hours if supplies are disrupted.”

96 hours is FOUR days. So, if people weren't stupid, the three days of strikes WON'T MATTER!

 

[adrian29uk]

Like I said earlier it really is pathetic when everyone starts queuing for the pumps.

I am lucky in that I can cycle to work everyday.

The only time I need the car is when I go up to my girlfriends in Luton but I am thinking of getting the train hell it takes 2 hours to get there from brighton, but at least I wont stop start stop start all the time and wont see those stupid signs on the Motorway that say queue at next junction grrrrrrrrrrr.

Secondly I live in Peacehaven so I could always cycle to Brighton station or Newhaven. Ok its going to take an extra 1h 30m but at least I am hoping wont get so stressed and I will also get extra excercise in the mean time.

 

[HampshireSeagulls]

The only time I need the car is when I go up to my girlfriends in Luton but I am thinking of getting the train hell it takes 2 hours to get there from brighton, but at least I wont stop start stop start all the time and wont see those stupid signs on the Motorway that say queue at next junction grrrrrrrrrrr.

Get a girlfriend who lives closer. Problem sorted.

 

[Muhammed - I’m hard - Bruce Lee]

what blockade?

 

[Tooting Gull]

To be honest, as long as the emergency services get what they need, I've got no problem with huge queues, protests etc for a couple of days if it actually gets the message over.

On a recent holiday in the States I and my fiancee hired a car and did around 1,400 miles in a fortnight - and it's only by doing that you realise just how ripped off we are over here.

Even my rough estimates of how much we'd spend on petrol (just because you have in your head what it costs over here) were way over, and there was money left for more enjoyable use.

On a sort of back-of-an-envelope stylee calculation, I reckon if you drive a reasonble amount you're probably paying at least £3-4,000 a year MORE here than a Yank for similar mileage . That is a hell of a lot of money, almost lifestyle changing (holidays etc) on a small scale.

Regardless of your politics, that is a scandal.

 

[Simster]

I'd have no problem with paying lots for my petrol if the money raised was directed into public transport, yet for forty years, successive governments have diverted petrol tax elsewhere.

 

[Biscuit]

!!!!