Petrol Shortages

 At the time of writing this article, the majority of the country’s petrol stations are dry or experiencing shortages. With petrol and diesel in limited supply, people are panic buying and I am constantly looking at my car’s petrol gauge!

It isn’t the lack of fuel; however, it is the lack of HGV drivers. Many of these drivers, who hailed from Europe, have returned to their homes during the Covid pandemic and they haven’t returned to the UK. There has also been a huge backlog of HGV driver testing also caused by the pandemic, resulting in thousands of younger drivers not being able to join the industry.

Also, a huge number of those European drivers have left the country for Brexit reasons.

Have things changed?

November 65 years ago, the country faced a petrol shortage.

The Conservative government of the day were planning for a petrol rationing to commence the following month and lasting for 4 months until April 1957. Petrol was to be controlled by the use of coupons.

What was the cause of the shortage of petrol?

Four months earlier, Gamal Abdel Nasser, President of Egypt, took over the running of the Suez Canal.

The Minister of Fuel and Power, a Welsh man, Aubrey Jones, inform-ed a journalist that normal car users were to be limited to driving no more than 200-miles a month; businesses had an additional 100-miles. Essential workers, including farmers, religious ministers and local authority workers, were allocated 600-miles a month. However, key workers, including doctors, midwives, veterinary surgeons and disabled drivers, were exempt from any limitations.

Like today, there was panic buying, causing havoc, which resulted in the government cutting petrol supplies by 10%. Local petrol garages introduced their own rationing, and many were closed at weekends.

The Suez Crisis, Operation Musketeer, lasted for a week and 2 days. The British forces, numbered 45,000 soldiers, and included a local man William (Bill) Evans. Mr Evans’ story was published in the 2018 winter edition of Bay (www.theswanseabay.co.uk). British casualties during the conflict amounted to 16 deaths and 96 wounded.

The Prime Minister of the time, Anthony Eden, was blamed for the mishandling of the Suez Crisis, by making a serious tactical mistake in siding with both France and Israel, and for using military action again-st General Nasser. Without the support of America, Eden was on his own to face the humiliation that Britain wasn’t a world power. In January 1957, Eden resigned, having only been Prime Minister for 18 months.

Petrol rationing ended in May 1957, when the Paymaster General, Reginald Maudling announced to the House of Commons that restrictions had been lifted as stocks were “at a satisfactory level……..”

Copyright - Bay Magazine, November 2021