I remember fuel shortages in ex-Yugoslavia in the seventies. We had the system of even and odd plate numbers allowed to be on the road every second day.
I am not sure what is going on in London but I have been briefly for few days two weeks ago before rumours of fuel pumps going dry,
- They opened a Greg’s in North Greenwich station
- Tesco nearby was empty, so I ordered a deliveroo
I am bloody sure these two items means things are going downhill, this was way before fuel shortage news (real or imagined), my guess all this has to do with Liverpool score in the Premier League?
Fact is that these shortages may well cause civil unrest if the UK government can’t stop them or even stop those spreading panic about it. Panic is actually worse than the actual shortage in some ways.
This is about 1/3 as serious as the the media make it.
I pass 5 fuel stations on my route out of London most days.
Today 4.
One was closed due to no fuel.
That was the one yesterday that brought Essex’s busiest road to a carpark yesterday as hundereds of D!(£ heads queued and blocked a 3 lane carriageway to get the last few drops.
The other 3 had insignificant queues and fuel.
I have it on fairly good authority that Kent has it a bit worse but I don’t know a single person who’s particularly worried.
Peter wrote:
Much of the mainland does wish for the UK to go down the chute, because brexit has rocked the boat (I see the mainland media too) but it won’t.
Well I think it’s fair to say that there is now a generel view that brexit probably wasn’t such a great idea. Its not the same as wishing for UK to go down the chute though. There used to be here in DK a significant voice in the genereal public and parliament wanting to get out of the EU like the UK with much the same arguments. After brexit that voice has gone away almost entirely. Why? Brexit and the process associated simply doesn’t look good from outside UK. Is the media biased? Maybe, but in any case the fuel shortage story is just a continuation of that.
No one can call Brexit either way for 5 years.
Anyone thinking that the answer of success or fail in a lesser duration is short sighted.
Unfortunately the truth behind many stories is either lost, twisted, or delayed so long that the world moves on.
The media is so much more powerful than it was before the internet and the instant ‘fake news’ that we have now.
You need to be very close to the truth to see how much BS is around.
Take flying reported incidents, boating incidents or something that happens locally that you have the inside knowledge of, then remember to consider the same level of lies/Bs for other stuff too.
Often the truth isn’t ‘sensationalist’ enough to get the attention required if you’re hoping to be paid for it.
I genuinely don’t know if Brexit will turn out good or bad.
But this situation is only very thinly linked to brexit due to a reduction of cheap Labour, and Oil company greed.
Fact is that these shortages may well cause civil unrest
They won’t. This should be done in a few days; I have this from an industry insider. There is NO fuel shortage and there is NO driver shortage. This is a planted story to force the govt’s hand to issue long term visas for East European truck drivers.
The coverage of this in mainland media is even worse than here, but one would expect that, with brexit rolled into it for good measure. Curiously, the UK media, even the crap parts, don’t gloat if there is trouble in a country on the mainland.
Peter wrote:
This is a planted story to force the govt’s hand to issue long term visas for East European truck drivers.
If that is what it is, the originators and publishers concerned should be punished severely. And I mean not only forced to write a retraction but to be taken out of circulation for kindling civil unrest and punitive damages to put them out of business. That goes for the media outlets first and if there is big oil behind it for them likewise.
Peter wrote:
The coverage of this in mainland media is even worse than here, but one would expect that, with brexit rolled into it for good measure.
Well, it was always clear that the EU would try to launch an economics war on Britain to make darn sure that no other country tries the same. Media today are mostly propaganda tools, not really news outlets anymore. That imho is a main problem these days why society has become so confrontational.
To me it is frightening to what extent media today have totally departed their primary mission, namely to spread facts and news, in favour of political partisanship, propaganda and outright lies with the only goal to generate public outrage and through it clicks. This has to be stopped. If it is not, sooner or later we shall end up in a situation not unlike portrayed in the 1997 Bond movie “Tomorrow never dies” where a media mogul tries to kindle a war between superpowers to be able to report first hand and cash in on it. Unfortunately, this kind of “reporting” has done ferocious damage in recent years and is increasing to do so.
The media must not be allowed to continue on this path, otherwise they loose all the trust anyone still may have on them. The result is that all sorts of conspiracy theories and other garbage will run rampant in the absence of real news. And I would not be surprised if the next global conflict may be triggered by it, not to speak of civil unrest up to civil war and domestic terrorism which at the moment is a real danger through the media’s reporting of current crisis’.
The govt can’t do that. It’s hands are tied. They knew exactly how this was set up (even the guy sweeping the floor at a petrol station knew it) but a lot of the time in these things you can’t go open with what info you have. I recommend this for an overview of politics and no doubt it will apply everywhere.
It does make me sad that even the BBC reports the most banal crap, especially as the mainland of Europe ends up reading that and other websites (the Guardian is another) because they are free, and the better quality sources are a) not free and b) need some actual time to read, so you can’t get a quick snippet of the news. The result is a contribution to anti UK sentiment on the mainland.
@Mooney_Driver, yes there is definitely IMO a dearth of good reporting in the media. But there is still some. IMO politicians shouldn’t be allowed to write opinion columns in newspapers especially while they are serving MPs eg Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and many others still write columns I believe in the Telegraph.
Both Telegraph, the Daily Express and the Daily Mail take every opportunity to highlight any minor success in trade or whatever post Brexit or any dispute in the EU in such a way as to say Brexit is wonderful up yours EU.
It is hardly surprising therefore that others react in an adverse fashion.
On French television news, Brexit has for the most part been absent. It reared its head again following the Australian submarine order cancellation. But France only took issue with Australia and the USA over that until Boris Johnson told France to “Get over it”. Does anybody really think that that shouldn’t be reported in the French media for fear of inflaming tensions? And does anybody really think that there would not be comments in the French parliament and in the media about such an act.
The question was asked last night on whether or not Brexit had anything to do with the fuel shortages in the UK. Many commentators thought it was a contributory factor. That factor being that, combined with Covid, many drivers were stuck in a car park somewhere near Dover with no decent facilities for washing, showering etc and where they were forced to spend Christmas away from their families.
It made many non UK nationals decide not to return especially as in many European countries there were jobs available in trucking, often better paid, and usually with better conditions and less clogged up roads, where they can get home to their families more regularly.
This 3 month visa thing to solve the UKs driver shortage in the short term is unlikely to persuade EU drivers back, especially as they would be out of a job again on Christmas Eve and possibly again stuck in the same car park.
IMO it is only the British media that obsesses non stop about Brexit. It is in British headlines in one paper or another every day. Its no wonder that Brits get the impression that the EU are always trying to do the UK down. Whereas in France that could not be further from the truth.
Brexit and the UK are rarely spoken about. It is accepted that Brexit has happened, even if most people might think you have shot yourselves in the foot. We accept that the UK is not coming back any time soon and realise that it would be political suicide to do so. We do want to get back to some sort of normality but accept that that would be within the EU rules as a whole.
There are positive sides to Brexit that we might want to see adopted in the EU. This is certainly the case for Michel Barnier in his run for the president next year.
24 hour television news brings ptoblems with it. One problem is dumbing down. Another is wallowing in a situation, whether that be a volcano, a flood or fuel shortages. There are only a limited number of photos or video clips available and those photos or video clips will only be taken if they have some sense of drama, eg huge queues at petrol stations, fights breaking out, the house standing alone and untouched amongst the lava flows. These images are sent around the world, and because they are all the 24hour television news has, they are played over and over and over again until a different story hits the headlines. On top of this to fill the gaps they have to interview anyone and everyone for an opinion. If they can’t get hold of an expert or a politician they will go down the line until they get to the drunk who has just stumbled out of the “Dog and Duck” and was amazed at the number cars parked in the street.
Add to this the phenomena that is unregulated social media and there are times when you are led to believe that Armageddon is certainly close.
Everybody is entitled to an opinion and to express it, hopefully in a way which causes no harm to others, but at the same time we need to be more savvy in separating fact from fiction and to call out those that do harm by spreading fake news.
