Panic at the pumps.

In light of the recent news stories of the potential fuel strikes, the government has advised people with half a tank of petrol to make their way to a petrol station and fill up, in case of emergencies. This has apparently resulted in panic buying, and a large amount of news stories about how bad the traffic is because of this. Yet on my way out of a local Tesco’s earlier today (when if I’m honest, I didn’t really know the whole story), I saw nothing unusual. No extensive queues along the road, no one panicking about whether they’re not going to have enough petrol to last them.

Now, I know I come from Essex; a county which is frequently looked down upon due to its supposed lack of intelligence, but when I look at it from this angle it does appear that my small town is choosing not to worry about the warnings that the government has issued. In fact, I’ve seen many people on my Facebook feed making jokes about the situation, for example “If you say 'gullible' really slowly, it sounds like go fill your car up.” As well as a trending topic on Twitter: Ghetto ways to save gas”. This makes me wonder whether people are actually taking this “crisis” as seriously as the press is making out.

I know that I don’t drive, I don’t have a car, and I don’t have a license. So as a pedestrian it doesn’t really affect me, and drivers reading this could be thinking “she doesn’t even know what she’s talking about” but honestly, around my town I have seen no signs of panic whatsoever, in any of the petrol stations that I have gone past.

If any major companies were to announce a strike, they would have to announce it publicly around seven days before that date, meaning that since there has been no official date mentioned as yet, there is no current problem. As for the apparent mass panic around the whole of Britain, I think that it’s a myth; maybe there are the few odd stations that have slight hysteria, but all in all I believe that the government have made people panic over absolutely nothing.