Petrol retailers: Government intent on creating fuel crisis
Its amazing how the use of a simple term like “Jerry Can” is capable of bringing down a heap of criticism on Government. What interest me more than the politics of the situation is how little fuel we have available at any one time in the UK as this article goes on to reveal:
“David Cameron, the Prime Minister, tried to calm the situation by saying there is “no imminent strike” as unions have to give seven days’ notice of a strike.
Brian Madderson, the petrol chairman of the Retail Motor Industry Federation, told BBC Radio 4’s World at One: “This Government appears to be intent on creating a crisis out of a serious concern.
“We would have told them – had we been engaged with them – that there are now 6,000 fewer forecourts than there were at the time of the fuel blockade in 2000, and over and above that, our retailers are struggling financially. Volumes are down, margins are down and cashflow is very tight so they have probably got the lowest stock levels in their tanks underground at forecourts that they have ever had.”
I do wonder, with all the attendant challenges a lack of mobility threatens to bring to those living in rural England , if in some ways this will lead more people to think through the implications of the “ peak oil” scenario and provide an extra fillip to the transition towns movement?