Motorway Fuel (in the crisis)

[WelshGas]

I’m sorry to say that there’s an awful lot to take the wee wee out of us at the moment.

“Taking back control!”

More like “lost control”.

Bring in the army…

Predominately in the South East. But to be expected.

 

[WelshGas]

some of the younger guys think it was quite a 'punk' thing to do

Well over 3,000,000 EU citizens have applied for settled status. Are they all stupid. Even if only 50% take up settled status still more than U.K. citizens who elected to stay in EU.
Maybe they have an idea of what the future holds and want a better life.

 

[bob_summers]

Wait, so you’re claiming that many people who have had to return to the UK after losing their right to reside in eg. Spain have done so to improve their quality of life?

 

[WelshGas]

Wait, so you’re claiming that many people who have had to return to the UK after losing their right to reside in eg. Spain have done so to improve their quality of life?

Did I say that?
I have no idea why U.K. citizens residing in the EU were forced to return. You’ll have to take that up with the EU.
All I know is that a substantial number of EU citizens living in the U.K. who fulfilled the requirements have applied for settled status and been granted it .

 

[bob_summers]

your post was weirdly ambiguous, you wrote:

Even if only 50% take up settled status still more than U.K. citizens who elected to stay in EU.
Maybe they have an idea of what the future holds and want a better life.

Who wants a better life? The 3mil you said who are seeking settle status and already live in the UK?

Or the UK citizens who “elected to stay in the EU”?

 

[GrannyJen]

One of my more dubious highlights in a multi-faceted career was the oil crisis post Yom Kippur war.

The Middle East oil producers cut back supplies of crude to punish the west for it's support of Israel. At the time I was a trainee in the corporate planning division of a French oil company at one of it's UK hubs in Manchester.

The government was doing everything to avoid using the word "Rationing" so it fell on UK retailers to eke out available supplies and I was duly the appointed one that turned up at Bramhall terminal to, for want of another word, ration fuel. Quite ridiculously I was forbidden by government officials to ever use that word so "allocation" became by buzz word.

There were queues then, and 50 mph limits on motorways, and threats of a drivers strike due to intimidation, but we muddled through despite huge shortfalls of. crude supplies. The drivers, individually, were magnificent. Whilst having to be ever so even-handed we managed to keep all small independents in the network in business, something that I was personally applauded for which gave me great satisfaction. Sometimes we were working with 60% reduction in supplies unlike now where there is probably a surplus to demand washing around at the refineries.

Sometimes fuel supplies were desperate but I doubt how desperate was ever realised due to the combined efforts of so many people to keep some level of fuel in most of the garages in the network.

Seeing queues today I can only wonder what the hell has happened when we scraped through in 73/4 despite being held to ransom by Middle East OPEC and now with plenty sloshing around we seem to be grinding to a farcial halt.

 

[clarinetbcn]

Well over 3,000,000 EU citizens have applied for settled status. Are they all stupid. Even if only 50% take up settled status still more than U.K. citizens who elected to stay in EU.
Maybe they have an idea of what the future holds and want a better life.

According to Wikipedia 125,000 Spanish citizens live in the UK, and 300,000 UK citizens live in Spain. Maybe the UKs have an idea of what the future holds and want a better life.

 

[BikerGran]

No. Wholly plausible.

I am currently on Chertsey CCC campsite.

The fuel station opposite has had its pumps coned off for three days but the forecourt still open to allow access to the Londis store. People were queuing almost over the bridge yesterday before finally getting on the forecourt and realising the only availability was unleaded bread before driving off again.

Our local Co-op has had
people trying to use diesel pumps with 'OUT OF USE' on them in spite of the 'No diesel' signs at the entrance, then going into the shop to ask if they had any diesel.

I always knew there were a lot of stupid people in the country but never realised how many or how stupid!

 

[WelshGas]

According to Wikipedia 125,000 Spanish citizens live in the UK, and 300,000 UK citizens live in Spain. Maybe the UKs have an idea of what the future holds and want a better life.

Was I referring to Spain?. a federal state of the EU.

 

[WelshGas]

your post was weirdly ambiguous, you wrote:

Even if only 50% take up settled status still more than U.K. citizens who elected to stay in EU.
Maybe they have an idea of what the future holds and want a better life.

Who wants a better life? The 3mil you said who are seeking settle status and already live in the UK?

Or the UK citizens who “elected to stay in the EU”?

I'll leave you to sort out which group I was referring to.

 

[Amarillo]

Did I say that?
I have no idea why U.K. citizens residing in the EU were forced to return. You’ll have to take that up with the EU.
All I know is that a substantial number of EU citizens living in the U.K. who fulfilled the requirements have applied for settled status and been granted it .

And an awful lot of EU citizens, especially seasonal workers, have left the UK and are no longer returning.

Expect more shortages over the coming months. It will be a Black Swan event: virtually impossible to predict, but easy with hindsight.

 

[WelshGas]

And an awful lot of EU citizens, especially seasonal workers, have left the UK and are no longer returning.

Expect more shortages over the coming months. It will be a Black Swan event: virtually impossible to predict, but easy with hindsight.

Just as we now require a Visa to work in the EU so they will require one to work in the U.K., but with a shortage the laws of supply and demand will come into play. Wages will rise, as they already are in certain sectors, U.K. citizens can better themselves and hopefully gainful employment will be more attractive than benefits. If there are still shortages then Visas can be offered and those that take them up will benefit from better pay and conditions, rather than companies employing them on low wages to improve their profits at their expense.
There will be problems, I’m sure, but the goal of low unemployment , better living standards for all, increased GDP giving the country the resources to improve Social Care and tackle climate change over the next decade or more is something worthwhile.
Or do you subscribe to an alternative way, focusing on cheap Labour, companies that fail to modernise but maintain profits and share holders dividends at the expense of cheap Labour costs, and increasing unemployment, because benefits pay more than employment?

 

[Vagophile]

There will be problems, I’m sure, but the goal of low unemployment , better living standards for all, increased GDP giving the country the resources to improve Social Care and tackle climate change over the next decade or more is something worthwhile.

@WelshGas we have our differences, but I agree that this should be the way forward.
It seems our P.M. also thinks that this is the way forward, if you heard him talking to Andrew Marr.
What this has to do with finding fuel on motorways at the moment, I do not know.

 

[Vagophile]

There were queues then, and 50 mph limits on motorways,

Ah, the good old days! I think that I still have some petrol rationing coupons somewhere.
I was also done for speeding on the M5 i.e. above 50m.p.h., one of only two speeding fines in 60 years of driving.

 

[willwander]

One of my more dubious highlights in a multi-faceted career was the oil crisis post Yom Kippur war.

The Middle East oil producers cut back supplies of crude to punish the west for it's support of Israel. At the time I was a trainee in the corporate planning division of a French oil company at one of it's UK hubs in Manchester.

The government was doing everything to avoid using the word "Rationing" so it fell on UK retailers to eke out available supplies and I was duly the appointed one that turned up at Bramhall terminal to, for want of another word, ration fuel. Quite ridiculously I was forbidden by government officials to ever use that word so "allocation" became by buzz word.

There were queues then, and 50 mph limits on motorways, and threats of a drivers strike due to intimidation, but we muddled through despite huge shortfalls of. crude supplies. The drivers, individually, were magnificent. Whilst having to be ever so even-handed we managed to keep all small independents in the network in business, something that I was personally applauded for which gave me great satisfaction. Sometimes we were working with 60% reduction in supplies unlike now where there is probably a surplus to demand washing around at the refineries.

Sometimes fuel supplies were desperate but I doubt how desperate was ever realised due to the combined efforts of so many people to keep some level of fuel in most of the garages in the network.

Seeing queues today I can only wonder what the hell has happened when we scraped through in 73/4 despite being held to ransom by Middle East OPEC and now with plenty sloshing around we seem to be grinding to a farcial halt.

I expect the Middle East will hold us ransom again or worse.
If/when we all drive electric, I can’t help but think that the Arabs are going to be pissed off that we no longer want their oil.

 

[B J G]

WARNING

The Germans have started to take the p1ss out of the Uk for this
petrol crisis,
heard it on a reputable radio station today,
Schadenfreude was bandied about often with a link to
the old time British sport of queuing up in line. And then a mention
that the UK will go back to imperial measurements, they signed off by
saying - good luck with that.

We never really left imperial with Miles and MPG not Kms and Ltrs per 100kms.

 

[clarinetbcn]

I have no idea why U.K. citizens residing in the EU were forced to return.

That’s the definition of a low information voter.

One group justly affected are UK retirees living in Spain and France who had found the sweet spot of avoiding taxes in the UK by living abroad, while at the same time avoiding EU taxes by not applying for residency. That has now ended.

Another group affected are UK citizens who had moved to the EU to look for work, but had not yet found a position.

 

[WelshGas]

That’s the definition of a low information voter.

One group affected are UK retirees living in Spain and France who had found the sweet spot of avoiding taxes in the UK by living abroad, while at the same time avoiding EU taxes by not applying for residency. That has now ended.

Not at all. They made the decision to go and the decision to return. That’s upto them.
The fact that the French and Spanish authorities failed to charge them via the tax system for the public facilities they no doubt used during their stay is a poor reflection on those Authorities.

 

[GrannyJen]

Ah, the good old days! I think that I still have some petrol rationing coupons somewhere.
I was also done for speeding on the M5 i.e. above 50m.p.h., one of only two speeding fines in 60 years of driving.

When I moved to the USA in 1994 50MPH was a blanket speed limit on all the freeways.

Imagine jumping into a big gas guzzler and driving on 3 or 4 lanes of empty straight road and still keep to the limit. I think it was a boom time for the fed.

Then it all changed and individual States set the limit. Coming out of Nebraska (70mph) and into Kansas (60 miles an hour) the police just sat there raking it in.

 

[bob_summers]

When I moved to the USA in 1994 50MPH was a blanket speed limit on all the freeways.

Imagine jumping into a big gas guzzler and driving on 3 or 4 lanes of empty straight road and still keep to the limit. I think it was a boom time for the fed.

Then it all changed and individual States set the limit. Coming out of Nebraska (70mph) and into Kansas (60 miles an hour) the police just sat there raking it in.

 

[bob_summers]

Not at all. They made the decision to go and the decision to return. That’s upto them.
The fact that the French and Spanish authorities failed to charge them via the tax system for the public facilities they no doubt used during their stay is a poor reflection on those Authorities.

You should stick to Calis mate as your knowledge of matters more global is atrocious. Spain was reimbursed by the UK for healthcare costs incurred by UK citizens up until 31 Jan. No doubt a large factor in choosing to return.

Plus, owning a villa in Fuengirola or wherever would mean paying the Spanish equivalent of council tax to the local authority.

I don’t doubt they were fiddling the pensions system. But they weren’t living rent free.

 

[WelshGas]

You should stick to Calis mate as your knowledge of matters more global is atrocious. Spain was reimbursed by the UK for healthcare costs incurred by UK citizens up until 31 Jan. No doubt a large factor in choosing to return.

Plus, owning a villa in Fuengirola or wherever would mean paying the Spanish equivalent of council tax to the local authority.

I don’t doubt they were fiddling the pensions system. But they weren’t living rent free.

Only answering your compatriot. Do keep up. He was the one who said they were avoiding French and Spanish taxes. Take it up with him.

“One group justly affected are UK retirees living in Spain and France who had found the sweet spot of avoiding taxes in the UK by living abroad, while at the same time avoiding EU taxes by not applying for residency. That has now ended.”

 

[bob_summers]

The fact that the French and Spanish authorities failed to charge them via the tax system for the public facilities they no doubt used during their stay is a poor reflection on those Authorities.

But you replied by presenting this as fact when it isn’t. Like I say, stick to what you know!

 

[andyinluton]

Sorry about interrupting the petty squabble about BxxxT but can I ask an on topic question?

@GrumpyGranddad Whats the fuel situation round your way?
I have the van going in for the roof pump change to your local dealer & based upon previous experience the courtesy van is likely to be sniffing on fumes which is of no use to anyone if I can't get fuel.

 

[WelshGas]

But you replied by presenting this as fact when it isn’t. Like I say, stick to what you know!

I didn’t say it was a “ fact” your compatriot stated that, so take it up with him if he was incorrect. I , personally, couldn’t care what the reasons are. Obviously you do care so take it up with him.
I’m back to watching the rain, marginally more interesting than your reply. Sorry.