Fuel crisis.

[Leicesterbaggie]

It appears that the fuel crisis was not caused by Brexit or Covid but by the change over from E5 petrol to the greener E10 on Sept 1st. According to Brian Madderson of the Petrol Retailers Assoc. forecourts had reduced their stock of E5 by 25% to accommodate the greener fuel and obviously when panic buying kicked in stocks of E5 diminished more quickly, thus creating the shortage.

[phild]

I read that as well LB but I'd go further and say, without question, that all these shortages are stage managed by this Government. There's always a reason why its done and its not always what you think it is

[mickd1961]

I read that as well LB but I'd go further and say, without question, that all these shortages are stage managed by this Government. There's always a reason why its done and its not always what you think it is

I agree with your last sentence Phil but shortages are never a good look for a government.

Here in Harrogate we’ve had to hop from shop to shop even to find essentials like milk, shelves are bare in some of the local shops.

Stuff like this just gives the opposition ammunition.

[Leicesterbaggie]

Shortages appear to vary from area to area. My eldest son, who lives in London, says that there are quite a few shortages of various supermarket items down there. Here, in Leicestershire, the supermarketves appear to be stocked as normal. We've also had no problems with petrol for a few days now. It could be that it's because we are in the centre of the country and near to the vast storage depots at the East Midlands Airport. Just a thought.

[phild]

Frickin Mail again with its contrived headline

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html

[Leicesterbaggie]

I agree. It's not just the Mail though, the whole media have to take the blame for causing much of the panic up and down the country.

[WBA123]

I can tell you getting fuel down here in London has been a disaster.

I'm not too bad, I can work from home and get the tube into the office. But others who need to use their car, some of them have not been able to get to work because of the lack of fuel.

This Brian Madderson guy seems to be blaming delivery schedules and the Government. This is what he said on Thursday;

The Petrol Retailers Association, which represents independent forecourts, said 12% of filling stations in London and the south-east were still dry and 17% had just one grade of fuel. It said 71% of forecourts in the region had both grades, compared with 90% elsewhere.

The industry group said the shortage was proving harder to tackle in London and the south-east because there are typically more vehicles per station in the region due to the density of the population.

“The recovery is simply not happening quickly enough,” said Brian Madderson, the PRA’s chairman. “We are into our 15th day of the crisis. There needs to be an independent inquiry into the crisis so that motorists are protected from such acute fuel shortages in the future.”

He said forecourts in the capital and the south-east were reporting “chaotic delivery schedules”, citing one case of a tanker having to return to the depot full because it had arrived at a filling station that had just been stocked.

Madderson said the government’s decision to suspend competition law had been “a failed experiment”. The move allowed oil companies to share data to target deliveries to the areas hit hardest by the fuel shortage, but he said the PRA had not been involved in the information sharing.

Meetings are understood to have taken place between the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and specialist hauliers and oil companies.

“It is now time for the government to step back, reimpose competition law and restore market disciplines so that ordinary business incentives drive the fuel to the filling stations which need it,” he said. “The lesson for us all may be that, however well-intentioned the government is, regrettably officials do not have the ability nor the capacity to command and control a crisis such as this.”

[WBA123]

I agree. It's not just the Mail though, the whole media have to take the blame for causing much of the panic up and down the country.

So the Government get a free pass for the shortages?

Let's blame the media for reporting it...

[Leicesterbaggie]

Come on 123, are you that naive to believe that the media don't exasipate the situation. I'm not that stupid to believe that they cause it, but they certainly don't help. If you inform the public that there will be shortages then there will be and panic buying will be the outcome.

[WBA123]

Come on 123, are you that naive to believe that the media don't exasipate the situation. I'm not that stupid to believe that they cause it, but they certainly don't help. If you inform the public that there will be shortages then there will be and panic buying will be the outcome.

Aren't they just doing their jobs?

If they were suppressing it, wouldn't we be asking where our free press is and what they were trying to cover up?

Its the same old same old - always someone else's fault. Its the Tory / Brexit mantra.