The Guardian (or is that theguardian?) has a good take on the petrol protests:

Motorists will be hurt by price increases which will leave them less to spend on other things, but not yet by shortages which are largely self-generated. At the whiff of a rumour of shortages motorists queue at the nearest cut-price station, often ignoring a slightly more expensive one down the road and unaware that idling in a petrol station costs 2p to 3p a minute.

If motorists want to save energy and money then, on AA Trust figures, merely driving at the legal limit of 70mph instead of 80mph would save 40p every 10 miles. As the Petrol Retailers’ Association points out, if the government introduced a minimum purchase of £20, the rush to fill up because of a shortage that only arises out of panic buying would disappear. But that sounds too much like joined-up thinking.