At present, in Britain, most of the petrol stations are dry, protesters still campaign outside fuel depots and there is panic-buying in supermarkets. What started off as a simple dispute about the cost of petrol has now escalated into a full-scale war and it is ordinary people who suffer the consequences.
The only good that has come out of this dispute so far is an increased awareness of our desperate dependency on petrol. People who have previously taken all the benefits of a modern society for granted, now begin to realise how much of this society depends on fuel.
The National Health Service slips into crisis as fewer staff are able to make the journey in their hospitals. Other staff members struggle to cope with longer shifts in order to keep the emergency services going and non-emergency operations are cancelled. Bed space is at crisis point as people waiting to go home find transport harder to obtain.
Supermarket are displaying wracks of empty shelves as people act like locusts buying up three or four times what they need in terms of essential supplies like milk and bread. New deliveries are problematic and the petrol pumps on supermarket forecourts stand idle.
Meanwhile, those few petrol stations that have had deliveries are beseiged by desperate motorists who wait up to two hours to get petrol. Some petrol suppliers are taking advantage of this desperation, offering petrol at over £11 per gallon. Others only offer their petrol to "essential services" - ambulances, doctors, nurses, etc. Yet others work on a "first come, first served" basis.
So what do we do? Well, first of all:
Don't Panic!
Panic-buying of either petrol or food supplies only makes a bad situation worse.
While it is obviously sensible to fill up your car at a service station when you can get petrol, don't make a practice of roaming round trying to top up all the time. This simply does not make any sense as you are then wasting the petrol you have bought.
Instead, be frugal with your petrol: Try to make it last by not using your car for short journeys. Car sharing on longer journeys or using public transport can also save on petrol. Where journeys by car are essential, make sure that your car is well-tuned, the tyres are properly inflated and you drive in a smooth way without harsh breaking and accelerating.
When you go shopping, try to buy only those items you would normally require. Many of the supermarkets still have large stocks of food, however, panic-buying, more than any other factor, will soon empty the shelves. There really is no reason to panic. Most of us have freezers which provide a large store of food. Others have long-lasting canned and dried foods in the house. The food that we have can be made to last many times longer by adding additional vegetables, rice or pasta to the meals and eating in sensible amounts. During the war years, people survived for years on rationing without any health problems.
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