Toilet Rolls - Now Petrol/diesel!

[ExSurveyor]

My dad was a pheasant plucker, I am his son

[Paul]

[floydraser]

When I were just a slip of a lad in the 1970's there was fuel rationing for a short time. I forget the reason, something to do with OPEC or whatever. I was serving on an old personal service petrol station, the limit was 50p each. The owner of the garage was standing with me when a Ford Anglia swung on to the forecort and as he did so, petrol poured out of the filler cap. The guy got out, unscrewed the cap and waited for service. The owner remarked we had just seen petrol splashing from the cap and the guy got quite agitated: "I don't care! I want my 50 pen'orth!".

The owner gave him a a mouthful and sent him packing!

As I said before, nothing new under the sun.

[ChrisB]

We don't have any queues, up here in the NE corner! Because there is NO petrol in the Cromer/North Walsham area at all.

[annv]

Hi You can fill a diesel with up to 50/50 paraffin dont take for MOT until all gone ,this was done in Germany in winter to stop waxing and when we had a FX4 for school runs we some times did this when tank was low as we didn't sell diesel only petrol and paraffin. John

[rightsaidfred]

2 hours ago, floydraser said:

When I were just a slip of a lad in the 1970's there was fuel rationing for a short time. I forget the reason, something to do with OPEC or whatever. I was serving on an old personal service petrol station, the limit was 50p each. The owner of the garage was standing with me when a Ford Anglia swung on to the forecort and as he did so, petrol poured out of the filler cap. The guy got out, unscrewed the cap and waited for service. The owner remarked we had just seen petrol splashing from the cap and the guy got quite agitated: "I don't care! I want my 50 pen'orth!".

The owner gave him a a mouthful and sent him packing!

As I said before, nothing new under the sun.

Yes remember that it was the Suez crisis.

Fred

[marshman]

I think the 70's issue was the price rises and restrictions by OPEC - I believe the Suez crisis was mid 50's!

[Paul]

The Suez Crisis could relate to both the 50's and 70's shortages, both were caused by the then ongoing Arab-Israeli wars, though the term Suez Crisis is more commonly associated with the 1956/7 shortages. I'm glad to say that I am not old enough to remember the first of those, but certainly can the second and the one big difference I notice this time is the attitude. Very interesting to read floydraser's post which suggest perhaps attitudes are not as different as I might have believed. 

I don't do much social media now, facebook is the only one I use and that increasingly sparingly. I'm afraid it is increasingly a platform for the dissemination of hatred and vitriol or simply a demonstration of what a self centered, egocentric bunch of good for nothing layabouts that many in this country have become. 

I do subscribe to a couple of "spotted" groups, or at least did until this morning but have become increasingly disenchanted with them. When first created they were very useful and carried lots of helpful community posts, such as "set of keys found in whatever street and handed in at the post office" or "can anyone recommend a good window cleaner" but sadly these have been swamped by people firing abuse at each other. 

The latest has come with the fuel crisis, and everyone stating their claims as to why they should have fuel ahead of everyone else. If I hear the phrase "key worker" one more time I swear I am going to erupt. So many people have weaseled there way in to "key worker" classification it would be easier and quicker to identify those of us who are not (and proud not to be) "key workers". We are treated to post after post stating "I'm a key worker, I don't have time to queue for fuel". I work 11 hours a day as an internet technician making sure your broadband stays up so everyone can work from home. I doubt you work longer yet I am can find time to queue for fuel, so can you. A lady I know very well in the village who tells everyone that will listen that she is a "key worker". She works one day a week from home as an administrator for a local care provider checking bills and receipts are correct before they go off to the accountants. She enjoys a blue light card with the discounts that affords. Throughout the pandemic she has used it to avoid queues at supermarkets. In my book a key worker is a Doctor, Nurse or someone who drives something with a blue light on it. The rest of us are all mucking in as best we can doing whatever we do to keep the country going. I appreciate that is an old fashioned outlook now. 

The worst I have seen to date is "the petrol station in the village has put petrol up 5p a litre, I simply can't afford all these increases. Milk has gone up too and they blame the cost of delivery, I have to buy lots of milk because my little Chardonnay won't drink anything else. Prices are going up my my universal credit is going down this month" ....... sent from my Samsung Galaxy Zip3 5G  ...... Simply hitting the like button to the lady who replied "If you can afford a £1000+ for a mobile phone 5p on a litre f fuel should be nothing to you, and if "Chardonnay" is thirsty give her water like we used to drink. She'll start drinking it when she realises there is nothing else."

Needless to say I am no longer  member of either group!

[Hylander]

When I went to shopping this morning I saw no queues whatsoever, just normal folk behaving normally.    May be just may be normality has returned to some of us.  The roads were very quiet.

[BroadAmbition]

The difference between paraffin and petrol?

Paraffin has two ‘F’s

Theres no Effin petrol 

Griff

 

 

[Hylander]

They keep saying the Army is on stand by,  may I suggest they get them off of standby and on to moving tankers toot sweet.    I cannot believe that people have filled watering cans and water bottles with fuel.   Dont they realise the dangers.

[floydraser]

Now I think the army thing brings in another theory of mine: this is all about funding for the BBC which Boris said he may review before he became PM. The BBC are trying to show that they are big in influencing the masses. Bringing in the army could be seen as an escalation of the problem and give more satisfaction to the BBC. I'm afraid as ordinary people this is our problem caused by us, and it's our problem to deal with.

 

[Hylander]

As tax payers we have already paid for the Army.    I am a forces daughter and the wife of an ex soldier.    They are not fighting wars so they can be deployed to help us out of a crisis, not caused by ordinary folk but by the press and your blessed BBC and others.

[Meantime]

The army have a very limited number of people trained to drive fuel tankers and even then they will need a few days training on the modern tankers used by the fuel companies and their procedures, so it would only be a very limited sticking plaster, however and its a big however, rather than just bringing in the army, why don't the greedy petrol companies who have underpaid their drivers for years, thus leading to a shortage of properly trained drivers, PAY the army drivers who are qualified to help them out of the hole of their own making.

[Oddfellow]

2 hours ago, Hylander said:

When I went to shopping this morning I saw no queues whatsoever, just normal folk behaving normally.    May be just may be normality has returned to some of us.  The roads were very quiet.

Well, the A149 through Repps has about a 1/2 mile queue trying to get into the filling station now. 

[floydraser]

And when we panic buy bog rolls because someone showed pictures of empty supermarket shelves, do we expect the army to step in again? 

[Ray]

13 minutes ago, Oddfellow said:

Well, the A149 through Repps has about a 1/2 mile queue trying to get into the filling station now. 

That's my local garage 🙄 Still have half a tank, still not joining a queue... But for all of us the inevitability of it creeps nearer the longer this goes on 🙁

[rightsaidfred]

2 hours ago, Hylander said:

As tax payers we have already paid for the Army.    I am a forces daughter and the wife of an ex soldier.    They are not fighting wars so they can be deployed to help us out of a crisis, not caused by ordinary folk but by the press and your blessed BBC and others.

Sorry but neither the Army or the Government can transplant brain cells to the so called intelligent populace that have behaved like Lemmings, as for the media hell will freeze over before they behave responsibly, despite the number of people openly criticising the BBC on their own news programmes they are still spewing out the same rubbish.

Fred

[RumPunch]

3 hours ago, Hylander said:

They keep saying the Army is on stand by,  may I suggest they get them off of standby and on to moving tankers toot sweet.    I cannot believe that people have filled watering cans and water bottles with fuel.   Dont they realise the dangers.

Probably having to pull them back from OPs or post deployment leave. Military MT are thin on the ground these days with much done by Civvies or reservists

[Paul]

[Wonderwall]

It really an insight into how the actions of some , can snowball into a panic.

I was in Glasgow today, a seriously populated area of Scotland. People really are just going about their everyday life. The panic buying has just not caught on up here. Yet I watch the national news , there are queues a mile long and people are filling up milk cartons!  Just what is wrong with these people, do they have not an ounce of common sense or community spirit?

 

Some of our supermarket shelf’s are a bit bare though. The country really is spiralling into a mess.

Thankfully we are apparently in good hands, otherwise I’d be a bit worried.

[CeePee1952]

The prime minister said panic buying of petrol followed a "slightly misleading" account of the shortages of lorry drivers which caused an "understandable surge in public demand".

That’s got to be the understatement of the century!!!  How about “the media have grossly misled the public!!”

Chris
 

 

[Mouldy]

41 minutes ago, CeePee1952 said:

The prime minister said panic buying of petrol followed a "slightly misleading" account of the shortages of lorry drivers which caused an "understandable surge in public demand".

That’s got to be the understatement of the century!!!  How about “the media have grossly misled the public!!”

Sadly and has been reported, the shortage of lorry drivers has been there for years, but hidden by the influx of drivers from the EU.  Remember that the average age of an HGV licence holder is somewhere between 55 and 57, which means that there have been very few young people entering the profession for years.

Logistics isn’t the only industry hit by shortages of available labour, care workers, fruit pickers and the hospitality sector have also been hard hit, especially since Brexit.  All of these sectors will have to make changes to their pay and conditions to try to attract British workers, who appear to not like long, antisocial hours, low wages and hard work, preferring office jobs with regular hours, a good salary and career prospects.  Increasing wages in these and other working environments will have an inflationary effect, as bosses will pass on the higher wage bills to us.

Just as a final thought, imagine a situation where you see a doctor, a dentist and a dustman standing side by side.  Most of us would respect the doctor and the dentist for their role in society, but who would most of us miss first?

I think we need to alter our perceptions of the importance of various occupations and see some of what many of us regard as menial work for their true worth.

[Ray]

2 minutes ago, Mouldy said:

Sadly and has been reported, the shortage of lorry drivers has been there for years, but hidden by the influx of drivers from the EU.  Remember that the average age of an HGV licence holder is somewhere between 55 and 57, which means that there have been very few young people entering the profession for years.

Logistics isn’t the only industry hit by shortages of available labour, care workers, fruit pickers and the hospitality sector have also been hard hit, especially since Brexit.  All of these sectors will have to make changes to their pay and conditions to try to attract British workers, who appear to not like long, antisocial hours, low wages and hard work, preferring office jobs with regular hours, a good salary and career prospects.  Increasing wages in these and other working environments will have an inflationary effect, as bosses will pass on the higher wage bills to us.

Just as a final thought, imagine a situation where you see a doctor, a dentist and a dustman standing side by side.  Most of us would respect the doctor and the dentist for their role in society, but who would most of us miss first?

I think we need to alter our perceptions of the importance of various occupations and see some of what many of us regard as menial work for their true worth.

Well said 👍

[Wussername]

6 minutes ago, Mouldy said:

 

I think we need to alter our perceptions of the importance of various occupations and see some of what many of us regard as menial work for their true worth.

Which of course will come at a price. Are you prepared for that.

Andrew