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Comment by simonswords82 | Hacker News Reader

Not suggesting that there are not other factors (Brexit, Covid etc) but the media have to shoulder the "panic" element of this.

E.g. stop publishing photos of queueing cars and cordoned off pumps and report purely on the statistics of the matter. Too many media outlets are entirely hell bent on getting clicks without a care for the furore they induce in the general public as a result.

Social media does of course amplify the messages and images the media put out, so they compound the issue.

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If this is true, this should only inconvenience people for a week or two. Unlike toilet paper, average citizens don't really have a way to store 100x more than their normal weekly consumption of petrol. So if there are no supply issues and only some distribution challenges, demand will slump off once everyone has had a chance to fill their tank and the 1-2 jerrycans they may have lying around.

Panic buy Jerry-cans!

Shh! We mustn't let the Tory voters see that or we'll have another bloody shortage!

You're joking but I read this on the news today: "Halfords recorded a seventeenfold rise in the number of jerry cans sold over the weekend compared with the same period a week earlier."

Also if you check Amazon UK, most jerry cans now have limited stock and longer delivery times

It's worth noting, you can only store up to 30 litres of petrol at home or at non-workplace premises without informing your local Petroleum Enforcement Authority (PEA). https://www.hse.gov.uk/fireandexplosion/petrol-storage-club-...

This is exactly what happened during the Colonial pipeline fiasco. They themselves said if things went normally, there'd be no shortage. Of course the media had a field day with that one nationwide. Florida, who doesn't even get gas from it, saw outages and long lines for gas. I wish there were more controls for prosecuting media companies.

I would be less inclined to try find a pump if I saw photos of long queues and closed forecourts

It's not unlike the panic buying at the start of the pandemic. The media is driving this hysteria because a) it fits their narrative around brexit, and b) fear & outrage sells.

The media may have made the problem appear a little faster, but they can't be the actual cause of the shortage, the supply strain existed well before the first headline was ever pushed.

Yes the strain was there but if you publish front page news every day that the pumps are "running dry" then you're going to cause a spike in demand.

> fear & outrage sells

Or put another way, fear & outrage buy.

> it fits their narrative around brexit

What narrative around Brexit? I see a lack of narrative around Brexit. We are always told about “supply chain issues” with barely any reflection on the cause.

Yes, other nations in Europe have supply chain issues, but they’re not seeing the problems we’re seeing in the uk.

This is a Brexit issue, but no major media outfit seems to be holding the government (who are the architects of the exit and the deal) accountable. Especially the serial liar at the top.

Edgelord leftist.

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