The Government's self-inflicted fuel crisis

[Larry]

so thanks to the incompetence of the government and the muppet that is Francis Maude (who told people to store petrol in jerry cans)we now have a full blown petrol shortage with many station across the country now out of petrol thanks to the idiocy of people panic buying.

lif the government had any kind of integrity they would publicaly appologise for the needles panic they have caused that has now led to a petrol shortage at many stations -the fact that the Unite union had only voted for a strike and not given any date makes the whole situation even more ridiculous . If there is any strike it won't start untill at least a week on Wednesday and if we end up with no strike the government are going to end up looking more stupid then they already are .I was watching Question Time last night and needles to say the Lib/Dem and Tory on the pannel were defending the government and giving the usual crap about how they had to warn people of the possible strike. If they think that then why couldn't they just say the Army has been put on stand by to deliver petrol to the stations if and when there is a strike.

[Rob McCow]

Yeah - they really messed this one up. And to think, their head man used to be a PR Consultant! He should know a thing or two about getting messages across to the public.

[Anthony Williams]

Reading it from the USA, this really does come across as an absolute cock-up. I'm surprised at just how disasterous this government has been, time and time again.

In theory, this government should've been everything I wanted - fiscally conservative, but socially liberal.

But they're doing their damned hardest to balls just about EVERYTHING up. If Cameron himself doesn't step down, he needs a bloody good Cabinet re-shuffle, with Maude and Lansley gone entirely, and Osborne side-shuffled into the Party Chairman position (since that's the job that it seems that he'd rather be doing, opposed to his actual role as Chancellor)

Put in Justine Greening as Chancellor (someone who's actually a Chartered Accountant), bring back Liam Fox for the health brief (someone who has been a GP), and replace Maude with a slightly more charismatic sack of potatoes.

[Rob McCow]

I'd find it hard to believe that even the most staunch Conservatives are particularly impressed with the current Government. I know there's a big groundswell of 'Anything's Better Than Labour' but Cameron* is leading this party into disaster after disaster. Whether that'll be remembered at the next election is another matter.


*and Clegg - though I believe that the Lib Dems have no real influence whatsoever.

[Larry]

*and Clegg - though I believe that the Lib Dems have no real influence whatsoever.

well it's thanks to the Lib/Dems that the Personal Allowance tax threshold has gone up to £8000 but apart from that they haven't done much good - I was watvhing the local BBC News last night and one tanker driver who was making a delivery drove past a petrol station and he saw several cars pull out of the queue and started to follow him,

[Stuart Wallis]

If it weren't for the woman setting herself alight, this situation would read like a script from Yes Minister. If anyone has any sensible alternatives to the coalition and the Opposition, could they let us know, please? Really, the Raving Loonies are looking attractive now!

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Yup - I thought Blair was useless during the last one, but this one is a farce. The whole "you're on your own so stock up" seems to have triggered the crisis. With politicians like this, who needs strikes?

[Perry Vale]

It seems to me that they pulled off a blinder, a huge windfall in tax for the government just a couple of days before the end of the financial year. A cynic might think they'd planned it all.

[Mike Saville]

It was a deliberately stage managed mini crisis to make the lorry drivers the bad boys, and they've completely mismanaged it and shown themselves to be total goons. There was no threat of immediate strike, and even had the drivers voted on an immediate strike with no further negotiation, it would have taken a week to organise.

I'm not sure where all this notion of panic buying swells the coffers of government comes from though. Surely yes, people fill up, and fill up their jerry cans. But it only means they'll not need to fill up this week or next. They're not suddenly driving more.

The Liberal Democrats are now dead in the water as a political power, and probably will be for a generation. The Tories are still mostly popular with Tory voters obviously, because they've done what they said they'd do and what they always do. Difference is this time they didn't come close to getting a majority, and they're propped up by the Liberal Democrats who pretty much signed away everything they claimed to stand for for a momentary glimpse at very limited power.

[Anthony Williams]

Telegraph: "Petrol panic and warm weather may have kept UK out of recession"

Was this their strategy all along, or just a fluke?!?

[Stuart Wallis]

I think it was arranged. Somedthing tells me that there was a mistake at the last cabinet reshuffle; they ended up with Ozzy Osbourne at the Exchequer. 'Twould explain quite a lot...

[SiHart]

That's no way to manage a financial crisis. This Government really is useless.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

I think it was arranged. Somedthing tells me that there was a mistake at the last cabinet reshuffle; they ended up with Ozzy Osbourne at the Exchequer. 'Twould explain quite a lot...

Ozzy Osbourne would be awesome at the Exchequer - that would be one budget report to watch!

[Rob McCow]

From the BBC:

Attempts to avert a strike by fuel tanker drivers will resume at the conciliation service, Acas, later.

Union Unite rejected a proposed deal last week, after six days of talks - however, both sides say progress has been made on issues including pensions, health and safety and training.

The union has until Tuesday to make a decision about calling strike action.

It has appealed to people not to buy or hoard petrol in a panic, insisting it will not "rush into" calling a strike.

That hardly sounds like 'RED ALERT - STRIKE IMMINENT!' to me. But it's always reassuring to have a lot of fuss over nothing.

[Stuart Wallis]

Unfortunately, human nature being what it is, people won't just wait until something definite's been said - the world is full of Corporal Jonses.