Where are you based? Deliveries should be happening as normal and there is no problem with supply in most areas I've been through today (Warrington, Stockport, Bredbury, Bramhall).

About six months ago I actually ran out of petrol one sunday night (macho thing involving me stating "theres loads left when the light comes on"icon_wink.gif and I had to walk to a Morrisons petrol station, buy a petrol container etc etc - they won't let you bring the filled up petrol container into the garage to pay for it, you have to leave it outside, they were very strict about that and I heard another petrol station attendant say that to someone else just a couple of weeks ago - and thats just for one gallon of fuel, I'd imagine that its because the inside of the payment office is not a spark-free zone unlike the pump area outside and it would only take one idiot to kick a canister over in a queue to create all sorts of mayhem.

People are blaming Francis Maude because they want him to appear out of touch with ordinary people. The truth is, he didn't intend for people to keep petrol close to the house. When he said 'garage', he meant the one over at the far end of the stable block where, should a fire occur, the only likely damage would be a bit of scorching to the orangery.

See? Not so out of touch is he?

There they go getting more money again.



It's hillarious that the strike action is being blamed on H&S issues including hours worked and then the Government deals with the panic buying it helped to create by extending said working hours.



All the while the oil companies sit back rubbing their thighs as their sales & profits graphs go through the top of their screens.

I live in "Royal" Wootton Bassett. We have 3 petrol stations and they are all dry (one never has any petrol anyway).

It's the government's fault because they needed something to divert attention away from the 'granny tax' and 'dinners for donations'. Fanning the flames (sorry) of a non existent fuel shortage seems to be the best they could come up with.

Isn't this what the dispute is about? Too many hours and too many deliveries leading to potentially exhausted tanker drivers with 25,000 litres of explosive liquid in tow?

I made gunpowder once. We tried it in an usused classroom one lunchtime. I got the proportions slightly wrong so instead of going up in a whoosh, it burned slowly and we couldn't put it out. Straight through the floorboards and then on. The last I saw as I bolted out of the door was it eating it's way through to the staff room below.
I don't know if it made it all the way through, but the very next day all the sulphur dissapeared from all the chemistry labs (and it had been there for years).

So a cynic (moi?) may say that generating a shortage and the unions, wishing to appear co-operative, temporarily relax the working time directive is a ploy for the employers to say 'well you managed it for a week, we're not budging' and get it all their own way.

No, no, no. The H&S thing is just a cover for greed that flies in the face of economic reality (well, the economic reality for some, but not for all but that's entirely beside the point).

Saddened said so. So it must be true.

And anyway, if it is about H&S, then that just proves how bad H&S is and how it's holding back the economy ...

The event that foreshadowed my expulsion from grammar school was making nitrogen tri-iodide and reducing a school desk to matchwood. In the best Italian Job tradition, I only meant to blow the desk lid back up. Fortunately I used a 6' window pole to tip the lid down and despite all my protestations of innocence, I found it difficult to explain away my school blazer that, instead of the regulation black, now had a camouflage effect with all the slivers of wood embedded into it.

Mock all you want, your only contribution to this was whinging about house prices in London. Kind of like weighing into a discussion on the price of vegetables with a complaint about working conditions for Apple workers in Bangalore.

The Union has plenty of reasons planned out for the action, none of which are sufficient to warrant it. The H&S issue isn't something the drivers are at all bothered about, their issue with the companies they work for is protecting their T&Cs, so being protected on pay, term of contract and pension. The H&S stuff just sounds good.

And you are confident that this load of old fanny is correct, how?

It's bull[is[/ihit, as have been most of your contributions to this thread

Given that they are not asking for a pay rise I'd say that the "pay and conditions" statements that have been creeping out on Downing Street press statements today are slightly less than truthful.

It is true that drivers are seeing intense competition coming into play in their specialised sector of the HGV industry and they are probably justified in complaining of reductions in pay rates, short term contacts and arsing about with their pension plans, all to benefit the end purchaser of the goods they are delievering - who in the main is, supermarkets.

You might be able to do it with carrot suppliers but there are definite H&S issues with delivering petrol and anything that compromises that just to save a supermarket's profit margin shouldn't be seen as "just sounding good", everyone wants cheap petrol but we also want it to be delivered safely - heres one thing to note - it wasn't too many years ago that a petrol station would have to close while they were getting a delivery from a tanker, they don't now do they, do you still feel ok about filling your car up while the tanker is tipping fuel into the ground knowing that the driver is trying to do it as quickly as possible because he's got a list of other drops as long as his arm and 11 more hours left on this shift ?

A bit random, but just a thought.....

Whenever we, the public, get shafted by our esteemed government (Labour, Tory or Coalition), or some nasty big business, like the bankers, you always hear people in the media moaning about how the great British public just sit back and take the consequences and are basically spineless, and that, if we were in France, we would all be out demonstrating in the street, bringing the country to a rightful standstill.

However, when a group of people under the banner of a union, actually decide to stand up to some ruthless employers or incompetent government, these same folk in the media can't wait to stick the boot in, accusing these demonstrators of being only slightly higher in the public esteem than paedophiles and rapists.

I'm just curious as to why this is??

I wasn't being flippant. Though anybody that display such incredulous stupidty shouldn't even have a daughter.

No. Unleaded petrol typically carries an R12 risk phrase and is considered to be an extremely flammable liquid, which is capable of forming a potentially explosive atmosphere on release. Should the release be ignited it may lead to an explosion.

Explosive liquids are something entirely different.

Not having a pop just trying to discourage scaremongering

You are correct but it's also worth pointing out the Hazchem card for gasoline.



For the uninitiated, the "E" stands for evacuate. So if you see any vehicle, in a problem situation (accidsent etc), displaying an "E" on it's Hazchem plate, get the fook out of there

Once you start talking about 'economic realities', then that includes all the things that I – and others – have mentioned.

You cannot suddenly pretend that you can pick and choose what those 'economic realities' are. Those economic realities – the idea that YOU raised – includes the constant attack on ordinary people via the cost of living by big businesses that, frankly, couldn't give a e about anything beyond the bank balances of their own head honchos.

If they can make even more profit by screwing some plebs, then who the eff cares? You clearly don't – or at least you don't think there's any alternative.

But you don't need to be embarrassed if you think like this – it's the current orthodoxy that the majority don't matter and it's only the minority that does. That's the 'economic reality' – and heaven help us when anyone dares to object to their profit-making employer trying to slash their wages and their terms and conditions, and health and safety.

And you will personally do your bit to help those companies by pointing out that not meekly doing what they want is ignoring 'economic reality' and, when anyone points out that 'economic reality' is about a hell of a lot more than just companies increasing profits, you'll try to pretend that a greater picture suddenly doesn't matter.

BTW – how are those forelock-tugging lessons going?

I burst out laughing when I read this.

I will try and make it simple as that is clearly required here. You seem to think that because the government made rich people richer, less well off people, who are in fact seemingly very vital to the economy and the company(ies) that employs them, should accept poorer terms and conditions because it was a private company that decided that was a good idea.

I am not sure I dare ask but why the f c u k does that follow?

I think I know your answer already anyway. If the tanker drivers got what they wanted the companies would not be able to be "competitive". All I can say to that is . They have a captive market as do apparently bankers who we have to pay 6 and 7 figure salaries to, to get them in the first place. Vital employees of Barclay's et al get £100K and above salaries. Don't you find it odd that just because tanker drivers get their hands dirty their clearly vital jobs are so undervalued in comparison?

I don't see the problem with the rich paying 45% of their wages - as you're well aware, that isn't correct, it's only 45% above 'only' £150,000 IIRC, below that it's less - as they'll not exactly be short of a bob or two after tax anyway.

It's just plain greed.

Quite simply, without all the politics guff, a good %age of this "crisis" has been caused by the media.

This was a non story, early on in the week, which has been snowballed into hysteria by ALL tabloid editors, and the bosses at the Beeb/Sky/ITN.

There is no strike, non has been announced (yet), but the sheep (the "Great" British public) have been whipped into panic.

If it wasn't so pathetic, it'd be funny.

Well acting on government instructions I've been out and panic bought some petrol today, couldn't find any at the first five garages I went to but Morrisons didn't let me down.

I like to think I've done my bit to keep Francis in a job...

Always surprised me how often you see people parked up in close proximity to a car fire on the motorway. While I applaud their willingness to stop and help out, some of them a really risking life and limb.