At around 10:10 on 30/3/12 my home Internet connection is working. With the second meeting of the Syria Contact Group taking place tomorrow (31/3/12) it's probably best not to question why lest you give yourself a headache.
In the meantime though Britain is currently in the grip of a panic over supplies of gasoline products (petrol & diesel) with fuel stations running dry and endless queues as people start to panic buy. On Monday (26/3/12) members of the Unite trade union who work as gasoline tanker drivers voted to strike over health and safety standards within the industry. This brings back memories of the fuel protests in 2000 that saw Britain come within hours of running out of gasoline with even the emergency services being unable to get fuel to power their vehicles. However this situation is completely different.
The shortages in 2000 were caused by illegal protests that blockaded oil refineries physically preventing tankers entering and exiting the sites. What we're looking at now is the possibility of some of the drivers staying home from work. Drivers working for the two main distribution companies wont be taking part of the strike and the army are to be deployed to take the place of the striking drivers. Therefore the strike will not have anywhere near the impact the 2000 fuel protests had and the fuel supply chain might even improve. Also because it is an industrial action the union need to give seven days notice of when the strike will take place and what form it will take so there is plenty of time to prepare.
The British government's reaction to the strike vote though has been completely out of proportion to the threat faced. A Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maud has instructed everyone to fill up their cars and store extra fuel at home in Jerry cans*. The Prime Minister David Cameron has instructed everyone to make sure their cars are full of fuel at all times. With any possible strike not taking place until April 6th (6/4/12) at the earliest this advice is worse then useless because if you fill up now you'll run out again by the time the strike starts. However the government's advice comes on the back of several recent reports that show people are responding to the recession and taxes on fuel by buying less fuel. With fuel sales up some 107% the government's advice seems to be a way of getting people to change that behaviour and buy more fuel boosting fuel company profits and government tax revenues.
*Petrol and petrol vapour are incredibly flammable. Therefore it is against the law to store more then 5 litres at home and breaking that law invalidates your insurance. Already today one woman has managed to blow herself up by trying to store petrol in her house.
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