Petrol Buying

Been out to do a bit of petrol panic buying this morning. I bloody knew it would happen as soon as they showed queues at the petrol stations as the lead item on the 6 o'clock news on Friday and said the government was "urging people not to panic buy".

I tried during the day yesterday, but the queue in the petrol stations was almost as big as the monster trux waiting in line. Everyone brimming off the Range Rover. Amazing how much petrol those things take - their owners are there pumping petrol in for bloody ages. Must be easily over £100 a tank I reckon. One thing you do notice - although they have a £75,000 monster truck with personalised plates, they themselves are dressed in scruffy old ragged Primark t-shirts and baggy old jogging trousers. Well unless it was the servants who were filling up for them.

Went out again last night about 11pm, when I thought it would be quiet, but no. Went to 4 different petrol stations with the reserve light flashing and all of them had the pumps roped off - no petrol. All monster trucked out. One did appear to have petrol, so I waited in the queue of trux, but as I got near I could see that everything except the diesel appeared closed off. Got out and wandered over to a monster trucker who was just entering his second hour of continuous pumping into a humongous great blue one that barely fitted under the canopy of the forecourt. "Ahhh looks like there's only diesel then mate?" I asked in a friendly way, but the trucker just stared at me with an aggressive look on his face and the crotch of his baggy 99p joggers swinging around his knees - no reply.

Went out again this morning early early first thing and waited for our local one to open at 7am. Straight in and managed to get filled up thank fack.

Anyone else following the government's pleas not to panic buy?

 

Once again this is mainly down to the noisy media and press determined to look for a story. A few BP petrol stations were restricted and the BBC and ITV news start putting journo's on forecourts and newspapers like the Mirror and the Sun use headlines like "Running on empty" on their front pages.

It was completely unnecessary but predictable when the news media wants to create news rather than report on it.

 

You are probably right. If that is the case then things will get back to normal pretty quickly. Unlike the panic buying of loo roll, people only have the size of their fuel tank to store their purchase (with the exception of those filling petrol cans which I think is relatively rare).

Unless people are suddenly going to drive more, the demand should tail off pretty quickly and stocks replenished within a few days.

 

It’s was scandalously irresponsible of the media, but nobody should be surprised. 24 hour rolling news has a lot to answer for, they’ve got to fill space so a few petrol stations having deliveries a day late suddenly turns into a nice story for them that can run all day, for days on end.

I won’t be panic buying but that comes from a fortunate position of working from home and living in a town. I think I have a nearly full tank and used my car last probably about three weeks ago. I’ve got to drive to the dentist next Friday but otherwise have no need to use my car so no need to go and queue for an hour to brim my tank off.

 

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRtLwumw/

 

Things were absolutely fine. The panic only started when Nardine Dorries said there was not a fuel shortage

 

What an absolute ****head.

 

Agree absolutely! As I said - it was the number one item on the news and they hammered and hammered it.

You just know that if they come on the news and say, for example, there's a possible shortage of baked beans, but the manufacturers say there's nothing to worry about and the govt are urging people not to panic buy, that every suburban twit will be out filling their trolley to the brim with them within hours and the following day there won't be a bean, or anything even vaguely related to beans on the supermarket shelves.

 

Absolutely right. Unnecessary, irresponsible and hugely influential across the whole spectrum of the media. It's funny, though, that people don't also realise just how much the media influences and shapes and sometimes entirely creates public opinion on a whole range of matters.

 

I said exactly the same thing to Mrs Moose yesterday as we loaded the car with bog roll and frozen peas.

 

You didn't get tinned soup, pasta, canned meat? Are you mad?! Planning to go foraging instead are you?

 

I strongly suspect the BBC created the whole petrol shortage media storm so they could send this guy out to report on it.

 

My wife out read a Facebook post last night about a media reporter that sat outside a petrol station for hours whilst cars came and went in 2s and 3s as normal, then as soon as a bit of a queue formed they dashed over to start the panic 'worlds going to end' reporting

Its about time something was done about the UK media when you can guarantee none of BBC, Sky, GB News etc are reporting the truth about any topic

 

It has been hysterical coverage, but it does also highlight the fragility and complexity of continent-wide, just-in-time supply chains built on low wages (healthy profits for the companies, of course) and convenience. As consumers we have come to expect what we want, when we want it, and we've been promised more choice and cheaper prices when the opposite is likely to be the case for a whole range of reasons. Unfortunately, in the current debate only half of the equation is considered at any one time. The haulage industry – and those who insist that Brexit will mean better wages for British workers – is that a rapid spike in wages without considering the whole picture leads to a different set of problems.

And we do tend to ignore the real causes of a low-wage economy, which is an addiction to convenience and price ahead of most other considerations.

 

I don't think it's even an issue of seeking 'truth' or not, it's a problem of serving up 'understandable' stories that grab the attention. There are many important things going on that barely get any coverage but they are complex and difficult to convey in a way that captures the imagination, especially in a five-minute package for the 10 o'clock news or by a talking head standing somewhere on location.

We are served simple but strong narratives partly because it's what we want, either because we don't have time or inclination to delve deeper. We live in a world of headlines and a mainstream media that is, increasingly, influenced by social media.

Take radio news as an example – huge issues summed up in three sentences and for many people that is all they know or want to know.

I'm not criticising for that, by the way, the news can be boring and demoralising. But there's a problem with a lack of curiosity and a lack of ability to sift and sort credible sources of information from the nonsense. Then there's the tribalism where people dismiss something they've read in a certain paper or on a certain station because of the perceived biases (in some cases with justification) and simply align with 'their' side's opinion. And finally, there's the malicious actors. If you've ever read about 'troll farms' you'll know just how much of social media discourse (even on relatively trivial subjects like football and Strictly Come Dancing) is just mischief-making, rabble-rousing and a professional attempt to simply stir up anger and resentment.

That's not absolving mainstream media, of course. Collectively they should do better but, unfortunately, some of them are very much part of the problem. There are some notable exceptions – I think The Economist can be excellent and very balanced. Some of the US papers are very good on European/UK issues. But it's a full-time job trying to stay well informed and as people it's understandable to want to stick to comfy, understandable and familiar narratives.

 

Having said all that, if a reporter was doorstepping petrol stations and conveying only one part of the story then that is really, really poor. But the one caveat to that would be that this is just what 'someone said on Facebook' taken at face value without any attribution or any questioning, and that is a big problem. Maybe it's true, maybe it isn't, but so, so much of the debate about contentious issues over the past 10 years has centred around anecdotes on social media that are absolute hogwash. "My mate's sister said..."

 

One thing the petrol panic buying had taught me is the majority of people on social media can’t spell queue or queueing.

Some of the attempts are bizarre, I’ve just seen cuing, and q’ing in the same exchange and the person above them has even spelt it correctly:

 

Coming back form hockey training on Thursday night the 8pm R4 news reported a government spokesperson saying that there was no need to panic buy. So of course I immediately went home via Tesco (empty) and filled up.

These scenes are being repeated at the petrol station just round the corner from my home. The jam of idiots has meant that we have been unable to leave my home by car (legally - I could drive on the wrong side of the road and go the wrong way around the roundabout) since 2pm on Friday. I've conracted to cops to find out why they aren't providing a 'traffic management' solution (ie a cop directing traffic at the Shenley Rd/Theobald St/Station Rd junction - I hear at the top of Shenley Rd at Tesco it's even worse).

To make hockey training this morning we went by train to St Albans from the 'Wood. A colleague knew a route to Oaklands that 'missed' petrol stations.

The images below one was taken at 09:02 the other at 09:12...

 

It's all over - the forecourts are dry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I was going to post this in the prices thread, but ironically it was locked before I could finish typing.

"FAO the Mods.
I don't think you understand Hooter at all. Making cogent argument is not what he wants, he wants to wind up until people lose their tempers, write intemperate stuff and get the thread/section locked.
As his brexit dreams disintegrate, he'd rather people not discuss it."

Well done Mods, he's done you again.

 

I think it's more that we've have been told it's what we want so many times we believe it, because it suits the media moguls. They seek to control our minds in every way possible to further their political and money-making motives. And we just swallow it all.

 

Another interesting thread lost - can't you just put him/her on ignore.

 

TBF you have always been quite happy to dish it out

 

I have. I've just seen the responses. Other people new to his tactics have been sucked in.

 

And take it. I've never complained. But Hooter has made an art form of sucking people in with outrageous ******** until "racist" gets flung around which causes the Mods to have kittens. The end result is locked threads and sections.

For the record, mods, if Hooter accuses me of racism, I honestly don't give a flying one, so don't close stuff on my account.

 

Yes, I’m to blame for getting sucked in. I rarely frequented the politics forum so only encountered him very occasionally on other threads. If you look at the timing of my posts and how quickly I was replying to him you’ll see I had actually decided to leave it there, before the mods commented to do so.

 

This what happens when fans driving to snooker tournaments get caught in a forecourt panic.

 

I quite welcome the fact that Dom is reviewing the prices thread.

He will see that Hooter hasn't accused any poster of racism, hasn't been abusive, sworn or anything similar. He will see that the personal attacks were started by others, not Hooter. All Hooter has done is robustly criticised the EU and Labour (some of which I disagree with myself) and now GOBE is crying his eyes out over it with a couple of others wading in. He thinks that he can wind others up and swearing at them, but can't take it if he senses winding up in the opposite direction. GOBE really is a bit of a wimp and I think the mods should take this into consideration when considering his complaints, whether through the complaint system or through his weasel words in this thread.

To help the mods and the rest of us, maybe someone, Moose, GOBE A19, or anyone else moaning about him, can actually help us understand what words of Hooter's offends them so much. What post number, and exactly which of Hooters words are so wrong.

 

It’s back open again, nothing to see here.