my guess would be UK and US would be at the top of the **** league. Horrible countries.

Oh come on. If you want to be the good guy, to be better than those you berate, then you need to wind in the prejudice.

There are good people everywhere. The US has many, they just go about their daily lives doing nothing but being nice and cracking on, like good people everywhere. They just don’t make the news.

You might be pissed off (I know I am) but there’s no need to be a dick.

Devil’s advocate here… what if those 5000 visas are given to drivers with precious recent experience of hauling tankers around the UK and elsewhere? Would that not fast track their time to get on the roads?

Yes, true. Of course for every gammony ranttwat there 10 or 20 people maybe who are in various stages of pissed off acceptance without getting puce about it. But the ratio has changed, markedly imho.

And you don’t say when diagnosed with lung cancer that it’s only my lung, the rest of me is ok so on average I’m ok. You isolate it and cut it out to stop the spread.

And crucially we have access to the energy at home.

We do indeed. The 2 petrol stations here are now out of fuel apparently, it’s 40 mile round trip to the next one with fuel. I might treat my car to a 115Kwh free charge so I can feel extra smug.

Some figures for the causes of driver shortage.

Came across 2 dodgy lads at work today sniffing around my car (and others), carrying a 40l tub and a length of hose. Walked off when they saw me and didn’t reply when I shouted after them, didn’t pursue further as I was on my jack.

Big roll felt left out, so is now making a comeback on the back straight….

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58685889

But it’s still Petrol & Diesel from Bog Roll as they approach the final bend, but the canny punters know that Pasta is a strong finisher and this year’s Panic Buy Stakes (steak is a distant memory) is hotting up to be the race of the season….

🇬🇧🍆💦🇬🇧

Oh come on. If you want to be the good guy, to be better than those you berate, then you need to wind in the prejudice.

Hardly prejudice. I have lived here for 53 years and that is what my thoughts are about the UK. Of course there are good people but overall the country has a pretty horrible tone to it which has got worse in my experience.
You clearly don’t think it has, that is fine you have a different experience than me.

I’ve just been assured by my MIL that everything is going to be fine. She’s just driven back from a 400 mile trip (currently with 3/4 tank remaining) to see a friend in the SW, and tells me this whole episode has been caused by the media making a song and dance about fuel shortages that led everyone to fill up as a precaution. It’ll all
blow over shortly once people calm down. Meanwhile, the Gov are not to blame.

Caveat: she loves Bojo and has been known to say complementary things about Trump.

Make of that what you will peeps.

Now is the time to have a coherent strategy on electric scooters.
Class them as push bikes and we can get cars off the road. Don’t know how much leccy they use but it’s got to be less than a Tesla.
I’ll get one once they are legal.

and tells me this whole episode has been caused by the media making a song and dance about fuel shortages that led everyone to fill up as a precaution. 

That bit she’s right with, the rest a little less so.

I might treat my car to a 115Kwh free charge so I can feel extra smug.

I shall achieve an equivalent smugness quotient by leaving the car on the drive all week and commute by bike. Just 200km for the 5 days and CO2/methane emissions high due to the recent switch to a mainly veggie diet.

I’ve got a Brexity acquaintance on the hook on Facebook at the minute.

I’m hoping he’s going to try the ‘there are shortages in Europe too’ Brexy myth.

To which I shall just reply “I guess their populace is just more intelligent than ours, then”. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Molgripos – we can see how nice / civilised a country is by how it treats the old, the infirm and the poor. On that scale the UK ranks very poorly indeed.

The UK is a very unequal country by most standards

Devil’s advocate here… what if those 5000 visas are given to drivers with precious recent experience of hauling tankers around the UK and elsewhere? Would that not fast track their time to get on the roads?

That’s far too logical for Boris.

Just drove back from an last minute camping trip to Cornwall and 5/6 petrol stations I passed were open with no significant queues…

Open stations might just mean unleaded only, every station round here is shut or pretty much empty with only unleaded left, no diesel to be found.

Nah. They were fine, I topped up at every one…

The 2 here have reopened and have both diesel and petrol, no queue either.

I see Priti Patel has started the charm offensive to woo EU lorry drivers in that unique style of hers

BREAKING: Home Secretary announces plan to set up task force to deport any EU lorry drivers who remain in the U.K. after 24th Dec.
Ms Patel said “It is a special privilege for lorry drivers to be able come here and work and it shouldn’t be abused”

— Michael Lambert (@MichaelLamberta) September 25, 2021

Just came back from my return trip to Cannock. Pleasingly I’ve used eco mode and averaged 64.1 mpg.

Anyway, on the way the local petrol stations were closed and roads clear. On the way back an hour ago they’ve obviously been refilled overnight / today and the idiots are queuing again. At the local BP there’s furious horns and shouting going on…

It is a special privilege for lorry drivers to be able come here and work

The lure of the sunlit uplands will be far too strong. Why spend Christmas Eve at home when you could be parked up outside a meatpacking plant in Solihull shitting in a bucket?

Saw one petrol station open on the way to York today. It had a queue so long that it threw Google Maps into meltdown.

Now, I know that Priti Patel thing is a wind-up. It has to be, but….

Given where this country currently is in terms of the looking glass, I actually feel I cannot be 100% sure.

Please tell me it isn’t real.

Just drove back from an last minute camping trip to Cornwall and 5/6 petrol stations I passed were open with no significant queues…

Yeah, they’m usually a bit behind on current affairs down there

Official “return to office” tomorrow – 55 miles each way, excellent timing doing this when there’s a fuel shortage

If there wasn’t a supply shortage there is now after a weekend of panic buying

an estimated 50-85% of UK petrol stations (outside of the motorway network) have run out of fuel

https://twitter.com/PickardJE/status/1442177765944356864

Sitting outside a petrol station with a pint. Crazy times

an estimated 50-85% of UK petrol stations (outside of the motorway network) have run out of fuel

Nothing says “figures plucked out of my arse” quite like “an estimated 50-85%” plus an additional caveat.

I managed to fill my car with petrol today. Trouble is it has made it difficult to get back in.

Official “return to office” tomorrow – 55 miles each way, excellent timing doing this when there’s a fuel shortage

I’ve got a biking trip to N Wales next weekend and a full tank (I filled up on Thursday before this bollocks kicked off). If anyone tries to get me into the office they’re going to get more ruses for absenteeism than Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. 🙂

an estimated 50-85% of UK petrol stations (outside of the motorway network) have run out of fuel

https://twitter.com/PickardJE/status/1442177765944356864

Signs on the M5 just now said fuel for HGV’s only.

Official “return to office” tomorrow – 55 miles each way, excellent timing doing this when there’s a fuel shortage

I’m no eco warrior but again that sort of says all you need to know about why we’re slowly warming up…

Tinpot local radio traffic broadcasting was a list of empty garages on the major trunk roads and motorway services
Pease pottage m23, clacket lane m25, cobham m25 all out of eithet derv or petrol or both.
Hypermilling the v70 encouraged the range o meter to click over 1000miles.
Wont get that mind, but its a challenge to keep the distance covered and the range up around there, always falls off a cliff around 600 covered though.

I’ve no idea what you just said. Poetry?

My £400 post apocalyptic diesel Golf still has half a tank left even after a 5hour drive yesterday. Hopefully it will run okay on crushed cockroach juice.

great timing!

Johnson and the wazzocks will just throw a load more of our money at them to kick the can for a bit longer.

Just drove 280 miles from Aberdeenshire to take daughter back to university. No idea how many petrol stations I passed but they were all open and no queues. The one I filled up at did have a £45 limit and wasn’t allowing anyone to fill cans, which seemed sensible, but that was it as far as I could tell.