Fuel Price Scaremongering

[bramling]

I remember the fuel price protests in 2000 - and how they nearly brought down a government. That will be in journalists' minds, and why they frame the story in that way.

That was a bit different, as the main issue there was discontent over the level of tax. I don’t think even the most Labour-hating people would blame the government at this juncture, though Starmer doesn’t exactly help himself with his perennially ineffective decision-making.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 Mar 2026 ==

Not sure about price rise scaremongering, appears to be reality.

Last weekend weekend at a station I used - unleaded £131.9 and diesel £141.9. I have just passed the same station and it is now £145.9 and £160.9

Shell in Marlow up from £1.33 last week to £1.37 now. I’d be more bothered if we reach a situation where pumps are out of use, as that would indicate supply issues, which would then no doubt be followed by price increasing. Incidentally the forecourt was virtually empty when I passed this afternoon, so no sign of panic buying.

 

[Kite159]

I've noticed some garages hiking their prices, probably to make extra money.

Afterall fuel prices shoot up like a rocket but fall like a feather.

 

[Horizon22]

Petrol was £1 per litre in 2005, £1.78 in today's money, so petrol has dropped in price massively.

A key point being because we've frozen fuel duty for so long. Which seems very unreasonable if we want to be serious about public transport in this country. Nobody is suggesting a hike, but a slight rise should be reasonable.

As for the OP, I don't think this is "scaremongering"; there's high chances of shorter supply in the coming weeks if the Hormuz Straight remains an issue for access. That being said these take a bit of time to trickle, but petrol stations are using the opportunity to do so now which is a bit of price gouging.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 Mar 2026 ==

Afterall fuel prices shoot up like a rocket but fall like a feather.

Indeed.

 

[trainmania100]

My tank is empty so hope I can fill it up tomorrow without too much difficulty

 

[adc82140]

There does seem to be some profiteering going on. Some fuel stations on major routes have increased by 10-15p a litre this week. Yet I filled up at Sainsbury's yesterday for 129.9 (unleaded), unchanged all week.

Doesn't help that some local rags (yes Newsquest, I'm looking at you) are reporting "panic buying" which by all accounts hasn't been happening until said reports are published.

 

[bramling]

A key point being because we've frozen fuel duty for so long. Which seems very unreasonable if we want to be serious about public transport in this country.

On the latter point, who says we are? For many people especially in rural areas public transport is largely an irrelevance, and likely always will be. And it isn’t just rural areas, local to me there’s housing developments going up right left and centre on the outskirts or towns and in villages, which are essentially 100% reliant on residents having one or more cars. There doesn’t seem to be any strategy by anyone to create an actually functional country, so it’s hard to see why road users should bear a brunt of this.

Just thinking round here, if there was actually a desire to create a serious modal shift, you’d be wanting to re-open lines like Hatfield to St Albans Abbey, Welwyn to Dunstable, Hitchin to Bedford and posssibly even Welwyn to Hertford, all of which would need a frequency essentially allowing turn up and go usage (so at least every 30 mins). This isn’t going to happen for numerous reasons, so that being the case forget any pretence of the primary mode of transport for people being anything other than the private car.

 

[sprunt]

I remember the fuel price protests in 2000 - and how they nearly brought down a government.

No they didn't.

 

[35B]

No they didn't.

They came dangerously close, which is why the government moved policy - and why politicians have been afraid of the road lobby ever since. If the art of taxation is plucking the maximum number of feathers off the goose with the minimum amount of hissing, they came close to being pecked to death by the goose - which is a good reason why the escalator was stopped, while Britain was still well ahead in terms of the amount of tax levied on fuel.

 

[birchesgreen]

Anyway i managed to battle past the massive queue and refill this lunchtime, it was busy though, there was one other car there at the station at the time.

 

[Sonic1234]

Indeed - but the majority of people driving those short distances are doing so purely for “convenience” or out of habit (including myself) and are perfectly capable of walking far more than 600 yards

They get parking outside the business they want to use? I often (and expect to) walk a few hundred metres to a parking space.

 

[Topological]

Our local Shell has put diesel up from 141.9 to 149.9 now, petrol seems to have gone to 134.9.

Whilst 149.9 is the highest it has been for a while, it is not that long ago it was 146.9.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

"Scaremongering" is a tad more than what that word implies when a considerable price-lift has been effected

 

[MotCO]

"Scaremongering" is a tad more than what that word implies when a considerable price-lift has been effected

Indeed; I am more tempted to top up, not because of an imminent fuel shortage, but because I don't want to pay future exorbitant prices.

 

[185143]

Off topic slightly, but I got petrol in the week from Sainsburys on the way to work and it was 129.9 for unleaded.

I'm currently in Guernsey and the cheapest I've seen unleaded for here is 152.9. We have it pretty good in the UK!

 

[Llanigraham]

Yes, stats are often manipulated for all sorts of purposes. The question though is that if fuel prices aren't actually going up that much, then why was it mentioned so often on GMTV?

Because it was GMTV!!
They are not the most trustworthy places to source news from.

 

[Yew]

My understanding that it's mostly LNG that comes from the Persian Gulf, with Iraq being the only big oil producer that side. Do they have a pipeline through to Syria or Turkey?

We can't let things like facts get in the way of an excuse to do some fearmongering and profiteering though!

No doubt that those within the Republican Party have made a pretty penny from some insider trading on the stock markets, too.

 

[birchesgreen]

I filled up yesterday, i noticed today the price had gone up at the station, phew

 

[bramling]

We can't let things like facts get in the way of an excuse to do some fearmongering and profiteering though!

No doubt that those within the Republican Party have made a pretty penny from some insider trading on the stock markets, too.

It’s notable both my BP and Shell shares have gone up over the last week. For pretty much any other industry one would expect the opposite when there’s some kind of crisis.

 

[Gazimo]

It’s notable both my BP and Shell shares have gone up over the last week. For pretty much any other industry one would expect the opposite when there’s some kind of crisis.

not really as they don't have many interests in the middle east (as most of them are national suppliers), and so the remaining suppliers get more money and so their shares increase

 

[Crossover]

I filled up about a week ago at 123.9p a litre for petrol. I think the lowest of the local garages now is 129.9p, though possibly even 127.9p

I notice Costco has skyrocketed from 119.9p to 122.9p

Not seen any massive queues around my neck of the woods. Hopefully the prices don’t go up too much by the time I need fuel again, likely in about a week!

 

[Royston Vasey]

Heating oil quotes now >125ppl when they were 50ppl last week, due to the spot prices the distribution companies are seeing, rather than any scaremongering.

 

[jon0844]

There does seem to be some profiteering going on. Some fuel stations on major routes have increased by 10-15p a litre this week. Yet I filled up at Sainsbury's yesterday for 129.9 (unleaded), unchanged all week.

Doesn't help that some local rags (yes Newsquest, I'm looking at you) are reporting "panic buying" which by all accounts hasn't been happening until said reports are published.

It's not always the media reporting something that triggers that thing happening. My local Facebook pages are full of people scaremongering, which then means local petrol stations see people rushing to them - and word then spreads. The local papers (Newsquest, Reach etc) that are on these groups to find news see this and report on it.

So while the media might wish to emphasise the issues can be localised, it's more social media that causes the problems - and I am sure some people do it for kicks. There have been similar jokes about toilet paper in the last week, although thankfully I don't think anyone has gone out to stockpile.. although nothing would surprise me these days!

And some petrol stations are absolutely cashing in. Prices rise like a rocket, fall like a feather. Has always been this way and nobody does anything about it because there are so many ways to justify it, genuine or not.

 

[Shrop]

Because it was GMTV!!
They are not the most trustworthy places to source news from.

This is the problem, the fact that GMTV would claim to be a trustworthy source of news, and a lot of the general public believe this. It's the same with tabloids like The Sun, they would claim to be trustworthy too, and a lot of people believe what they say too, and act accordingly.

This said, I have to qualify my comments by saying it is only my opinion that GMTV and The Sun etc. would claim to be trustworthy and that a lot of people believe them. I say it's only my opinion in case I'm asked to provide evidence, and I'm not sure how to provide acceptable evidence that people really do believe these sources

 

[Topological]

This is the problem, the fact that GMTV would claim to be a trustworthy source of news, and a lot of the general public believe this. It's the same with tabloids like The Sun, they would claim to be trustworthy too, and a lot of people believe what they say too, and act accordingly.

This said, I have to qualify my comments by saying it is only my opinion that GMTV and The Sun etc. would claim to be trustworthy and that a lot of people believe them. I say it's only my opinion in case I'm asked to provide evidence, and I'm not sure how to provide acceptable evidence that people really do believe these sources

Or to provide objective evidence that either source is not trustworthy relative to other sources.

As you say, these are your opinions rather than fact.

Took the electric car to Cardiff yesterday, where normally I take the diesel. I saw more chargers showing as 0 available than I ever have. Maybe some others are doing as I did and using their electrics more. (A 2-car household is not exactly that unusual)

 

[Shrop]

Or to provide objective evidence that either source is not trustworthy relative to other sources.

As you say, these are your opinions rather than fact.

It's an interesting point though. Do you think that The Sun and GMTV would agree that they're NOT factually based? How would you prove it either way?

My contention still remains, that if sources like these spread stories that fuel prices are rising, then enough people will believe them that this generates additional fuel buying. I have no doubt that the last time queues were generated at fuel stations, it was soon after sources like these talked about fuel price rises, and perhaps because of this too. While I might struggle to prove it, it does seem quite a coincidence.

Fortunately this time, it doesn't seem to be happening, but then the stories of fuel price rises seemed to have been confined to mainly that one morning.

 

[crablab]

Diesel forecourt prices around me have risen ~15-20p from 138.9 to between 151.9 and 159.9 in the last week.

Cosco (which requires eligibility and membership) went up slightly to 138.9.

Another location in the South West, usually the absolute cheapest I regularly see, was 159.9 but has dropped back to 145.9 as of today.

I don't know who's panic buying, but the forecourts seem to be the only people winning here!

 

[dosxuk]

Because it was GMTV!!
They are not the most trustworthy places to source news from.

GMTV hasn't existed for 16 years now.

It's an interesting point though. Do you think that The Sun and GMTV would agree that they're NOT factually based? How would you prove it either way?

Would you consider ITN to be factually based?

They've been producing Good Morning Britain since the start of the year (prior to that it was ITV themselves in-house).

 

[Shrop]

GMTV hasn't existed for 16 years now.

Would you consider ITN to be factually based?

They've been producing Good Morning Britain since the start of the year (prior to that it was ITV themselves in-house).

I believe they consider themselves to be fact based, as do a great many others. Which is why people will head for the fuel stations forecourts when they present stories about fuel price rises. Unless it just happens by coincidence.

 

[Bald Rick]

I have no doubt that the last time queues were generated at fuel stations, it was soon after sources like these talked about fuel price rises

To my knowledge there has not been panic buying in the past 50 years due to forecast price rises.

The queues last time, and the time before, and the time before that, were not to do with price rises (forecast or real). Last time it was because it was leaked that BP (and others) were struggling for HGV drivers and that deliveries could be interrupted. The time before was because of Buncefield (at least, it was around here). The time before that was because of HGV drivers blockading oil refineries. The last was indirectly about high prices, which at that point was 80p / litre (roughly the same as £2 a litre now). It was not about a forecast price increase.

 

[dosxuk]

Unless it just happens by coincidence.

It's not coincidence, it's what happens when people sense a scarcity of something they want to purchase. Existed long before the internet, television, or newspapers.

In this case, forecourt prices were rising before they were reported on by the media. And prices are expected to rise further because of the current global situation. Even if the media completely ignored this, there would be people panic buying fuel because they don't want to be exposed to potential higher prices.