Panic-buying is the inevitable result of this government’s failures

People are unlikely to listen to warnings from No 10 because of its record of dishonesty. The result is an awful mess with dire economic consequences, writes James Moore

Running on empty: petrol supplies have been dwindling as people scramble to fuel up (AP)

The past few years have been punctuated by repeated episodes of panic-buying, of which the fuel crisis is just the latest, but almost certainly not the last given the politicians Britain has cursed itself with.

Those politicians have told people not to do it. They’ve railed against it. It’s not necessary, they’ve said. We’re not short of fuel. We just need to find a few more drivers to get it to the pumps.

And yet, since Friday we have seen queues outside petrol stations the likes of which haven’t been seen in this country since the fuel price protests and oil refinery blockades of 2000, and before that the oil price shock of the early 1970s.