We've all seen the stories - here is The Guardian's take on it, here is The Times, the Daily Telegraph has a story you'll find by clicking its name there, here's the Mirror.
Put it another way: there seems to be a story about petrol shortages doing the rounds. On the radio this morning, there seemed to be a lot of people calling in with horror stories about people filling cans with petrol after topping up.
We fortysomethings remember this from the 1970s. There were scares over sugar shortages that led to panic buying - your parents probably still have a spare bag or two left over from that time in the back of a cupboard. There was supposedly a shortage of bread at one stage. Both reports were unfounded. Then briefly there was a genuine issue over petrol.
At the moment there appears to be a short-term threat over a single blockade tomorrow. On the school run today I passed my local garage and saw full pumps with queues only two people deep. My best guess is that we're being told the truth - there's really no need to panic, it's a shortage that's being led by headlines. The only real issue is the queues arising as a result, which causes delays that are inconvenient to individuals but positively damaging to business.
Mind you, if you're the sort of person who's swayed by reported rather than genuine shortages, could I just say that my book's getting ever so scarce...
