Mass Hysteria and Fuel Shortage – Savannah Collis

Mass Hysteria and Fuel Shortage – Savannah Collis

As a nation, we are rather good at queuing, this is a skill that makes us British. Well this week we as a country have demonstrated just how good at queuing we are. We find ourselves in the midst of a fuel ‘crisis’… except for the fact that we don’t. The media have caused a massive surge of panic buying of petrol, giving us flashbacks to the first lockdown when loo roll became a luxury.

Following reports of a shortage of HGV drivers transporting the fuel which would result in shortages of fuel, there are now queues for essentially every petrol station in the country. People have been panic buying fuel and even stocking up jerry cans of fuel in the event of a shortage.

However, ‘There isn’t a shortage’ according to the Environment secretary, so what is actually going on?

There is a shortage, just not of fuel. Lorry drivers are in short supply across a range of services, not just for fuel. Last week BP announced that they would have to temporarily close a small number of it’s petrol stations, this has subsequently caused the country to go into mass hysteria and race to the petrol stations to try and fill up.

(Ben Birchall/PA via AP)

People have been in queues for hours and petrol stations are going through over a weeks worth of fuel in the space of 24 hours. Essentially a shortage is now being caused due to the mass buying of petrol. There has even been an incident where a man in London pulled a knife on someone who jumped the queue.

In some parts of the UK army troops have been deployed to help restock the fuel in some petrol stations. The government are trying to get the situation under control and are putting together plans for sorting out issues with HGV drivers.

Another area to delve into with this is Brexit, being responsible for the madness. Is this all post-brexit politics? Issues surrounding imports and exports at various ports, and potential solutions with VISA’s are all the fall out of Brexit. What will Borris do about it?

From this we can really see the importance of how media presents it’s information and the type of mass hysteria it can cause if not done correctly. This is why you should stick to small reliable platforms like the Bubble for your news and information!

2 comments

comments user
D Corby

Every sensationtional event breeds a consipracy theory, in this case one has popped up to do with fuel expiring. Any car restorer will tell you that you have to drain the fuel out of your precious barn-find car and replace it with new juice before attempting to start the engine. The theory goes that not much fuel was sold during lockdown and plenty ended up being stockpiled and going stale. Is this sudden run on fuel simply a cynical act by fuel companies to get rid of their stocks before it expires? What do you think?

    comments user
    Vannah

    I do love a good conspiracy theory, I never thought about what happened to fuel in lockdown. Perhaps this is all a clever scam!