Petrol peeves

I can't help but feel our current government are a bunch of tossers. Some twat (Francis Maude) was advising people hoard jerry-cans of fuel.

Then, "Mr Penning, the roads minister, later told BBC Two's Newsnight: "You can't store that amount of petrol. It was a mistake by the cabinet minister. He didn't understand the size of a jerrycan. He has apologised since." 

The woman who set herself on fire in York is probably extremely grateful for Maude's sterling advice 'though [/sarcasm].

"However, he [Pennings] insisted that Mr Maude had been right to advise drivers to keep their petrol tanks full as the seven days' notice the union is required to give before going on strike would leave little time to prepare. 
"Seven days isn't enough to actually make sure we have the facilities and the amount of fuel we need to go forward. If they go on strike the country will have a problem. Let's be prepared for that in case it happens," said Mr Penning." (from BBC news website)

If I filled up my tank (if I could blue-pencilled afford to fill up my tank) 7 days before a strike, I'd still need petrol during it. Petrol is one of our household's major outgoings. I live in a rural area where cuts to budgets have just meant our already shit bus service has lost most of its subsidy and therefore we have an even shitter 'service' starting in April. My daughter will no longer have a bus she can catch to get into her school, and the best alternative I can come up with is driving her 4 miles to get a train that will get her in an hour early. We have no cycle lanes, no foot-paths and our rural roads are too dangerous for me to let her bike it, aside from how far it is. I need the sodding car for that, to get to work and to get my husband to work.

My own damn silly fault for being low-paid and rural.

Sucks to be you, say dough-faced bastard Cameron & his cronies. 

But of course, all this drama about a potential strike is based on nothing solid, it's just whipping up a crisis so as to build public support for more undermining of workers' rights, I reckon. And to distract from the budget.


Oh no, cry the Tories, naughty workers dissatisfied with their lot, how very dare they! Let's assume talks will fail, they'll strike and we'll all run out of fuel, wah, wah, panic-buy, don't panic-buy, keep those tanks full to the brim, but don't queue, and don't forget to hoard incredibly flammable substances in your garages, sheds and outhouses, so you can burn down the neighbourhood. 

Thanks for that.