[JimmyAxod]

The media need to be held accountable here.

Everyone in the industry is telling anyone who will listen that there is no shortage of petrol (gas), and there is no shortage of drivers. Yet the media are still whipping the story because it’s selling papers/views/clicks etc for them.

This is yelling “fire” in a crowded theatre, when there is no fire. There should be prosecutions for this sort of behaviour. Lives will be put at risk or lost because of this.

And seriously, the public need to stop listening and believing the media. They have no morals, and they certainly do not care about truth.

To those downvoting: If there is still a “crisis” next week, I will eat my hat. There is no crisis. You know this. The media will have moved onto the next “crisis” they can manufacture.

From the article:

> Drivers queued for hours to fill their cars at petrol stations that were still selling fuel, albeit often rationed. There were also calls for National Health Service (NHS) workers to be given priority to keep hospitals open

That is just ridiculous. It’s so far removed from reality. Who queued for hours? Who in their right mind is suggesting hospitals might close? It’s just reckless reporting designed to make panic buying worse. And trying to link it to our decision to leave the EU years ago, is just utter desperation.

You all know this is BS, and that in a couple of days, once the story has peaked, and the media has moved onto something else, the “crisis” will be over.

[prof-dr-ir]

Your claim that "there is no shortage of drivers" according to "everyone in the industry" is incorrect. From [0]:

BP blamed the restrictions on “delays in the supply change which has been impact by the industry-wide driver shortages across the UK”.

Tesco said it had “experienced temporary supply issues caused by driver absences in recent days”, adding: “We expect the situation to improve in the next week and apologise to our customers for any inconvenience caused.”

[0] https://inews.co.uk/news/hgv-driver-shortage-bp-to-start-rat...

[JimmyAxod]

I’d suggest you should listen to what the drivers, refinery, and actual garage staff say. I think you’ll get much closer to the truth.

Tesco aren’t rationing petrol due to the “driver crisis”. They are rationing it due to the media telling people to go and panic buy petrol.

As you can see in the article, the only one with driver issues is BP. Other petrol stations have plenty. Yet they are all affected because of the media whipping consumers into panic.

And as you can see in the article, BP reports that “between 50 and 100 stations affected”. Out of 1200!!! That’s not even newsworthy, yet the media are whipping and whipping.

Can you see the issue with the following…

> Petrol stations operated by Morrisons, The Co-op, Sainsbury’s and Asda also said they had no current issues with their fuel supplies, the BBC reported.

> LARGE FONT ALL BOLD! ‘Rapidly worsening crisis’

> Jim McMahon, Shadow Transport Secretary, described the lorry driver shortage as a “rapidly worsening crisis” that required urgent Government attention.

So the petrol stations say it’s all fine, and the article shouts “RAPIDLY WORSENING CRISIS”. This, as I say, is disgraceful reporting, and is shouting “fire” in a crowded theatre where there is no fire.

[BoiledCabbage]

> Everyone in the industry is telling anyone who will listen that there is no shortage of petrol (gas), and there is no shortage of drivers.

If that were true, then there'd be no issue. But things were continuing to worsen before the media reported on it.

[JimmyAxod]

No they weren’t. Certainly around here, the order of events was exactly this: * Petrol stations all chugging along normally * Media start scaring people into panic buying * Petrol stations overwhelmed by idiotic buying

In a few days, it will all go away. The sky is not falling.