Calls for key workers to be prioritised for fuel – but who should be front of the queue?
The government is facing calls to prioritise essential workers as some petrol supplies run dry amid impacts of a shortage of lorry drivers.
Long queues were reported overnight and some petrol brands are seeing as many as 90% of their sites running dry, according to the Petrol Retailers Association.
Union Unison said that key workers should not be left stranded or forced to queue for hours for fuel, and called on the government to “designate fuel stations for the sole use of key workers”.
“Essential staff must be able to get to their jobs so they can continue to provide the services so many rely upon”, said the union’s general secretary Christina McAnea.
“Ambulance crews, nurses, care workers, teaching assistants, police staff and other key workers mustn’t be left stranded or forced to queue for hours simply to get to a pump.
“The Government could solve this problem now by using emergency powers to designate fuel stations for the sole use of key workers.”
But what difficulties are essential workers experiencing?
Healthcare workers
Healthcare and essential workers should be given priority access to fuel, the British Medical Association has said.
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA council chair, said healthcare workers should be prioritised to guarantee care to patients. He said “there is a real risk that NHS staff won’t be able to do their jobs”.
“While the government has said it is putting plans in place to alleviate the shortage of HGV drivers to transport fuel, the results of this won’t be immediate,” Dr Nagpaul added.
“Healthcare and essential workers must therefore be given priority access to fuel so they can continue their crucial work and guarantee care to patients.”
There have been calls to prioritise emergency service vehicles
Earlier, a campaign group called EveryDoctor, which has 1,700 members, had reported that some healthcare workers were unable to get to work and said the government should clarify its plan “to ensure that all NHS staff can reach their workplaces safely during this fuel crisis”.
Get in touch: If you’re struggling to get fuel we want to hear from you. Send us a photo of queues or closed petrol stations if you can do so legally and safely, along with details of how it’s affecting you, your name and location. Email news@skynews.com with the subject line ‘blog’.
Homecare workers
The Homecare Association is calling for urgent prioritisation of homecare and other essential workers on garage forecourts.
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No plans for army drivers to ease fuel crisis
Jane Townson, chief executive of the Homecare Association, said: “There is only patchy prioritisation of essential workers.
“In previous fuel strikes, local authorities have been able to arrange for scarce fuel to be prioritised for essential users.
“There is a question whether this needs authority from central government, under civil contingencies legislation, to address the current problem. We call for this issue to be resolved urgently, as homecare workers need a fast solution so they can get to people who rely on their vital help.”
“The lack of communication from government is not helping.”
What about other workers?
Meat industry
The petrol pumps crisis has presented another problem for the beleaguered meat industry as key staff, such as meat inspectors and vets, are starting to have trouble getting to different sites.
It’s another headache for the sector which has already been hit by a shortage of CO2 – used for stunning animals before slaughter and vacuum packing – and an exodus of foreign workers at abattoirs.
The crisis has presented another problem for the beleaguered meat industry
The British Meat Processors Association said the latest problem had so far not caused any plants to shut completely but it was “monitoring the unfolding situation very carefully”.
A spokesperson for the group said: “Apart from the obvious logistics problems with getting deliveries of product between plants and into supermarkets, which many manufacturers are facing, the meat industry has additional but less obvious vulnerabilities to the fuel shortage.
“There are a number of critical workers whose presence is relied on to keep meat factories running. Meat inspectors are the people who physically stamp every carcass to denote that it is fit for human consumption so it can enter the food chain. Vets must be present to inspect operations from an animal welfare perspective and also sign off critical documentation to certify standards are being met.
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Emergency measures to stop panic buying fuel
“The people who perform these roles often work across multiple meat plants over a wide geographic area. If either of these roles are absent due to their inability to get petrol and travel to the sites, production instantly slows down in direct proportion to the time they’re not able to work.
“We have heard reports from a couple of companies already that they’re missing some of these key workers. So far it has not caused any plants to completely shut but we are monitoring the unfolding situation very carefully.”
Teachers
Teachers could be among key workers prioritised
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “The last thing we need is further disruption to education given the experience of the last 18 months.
“Schools are still grappling with the ongoing challenges caused by COVID-19, and so we hope any further disruption caused by petrol supply problems can be avoided.”
Pharmacies
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society said that pharmacies are still getting deliveries of medicines and told people to collect their prescriptions as normal.
Pharmacies are still getting deliveries
Professor Claire Anderson, president of the society, said: “As normal, pharmacists are working with patients to ensure they get the medicines they need. We’re not aware that the problems with fuel supplies are stopping patients getting their medicines.
“If you have any concerns then please speak to your local pharmacist and their team, who will be able to help and reassure you.”
Taxis and cars
Travelhire Group, which runs Brunel and Green Tomato cars, warned of “a sizeable portion of delays to bookings” in the coming days and warned customers to allocate time for delays.
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The UK is at risk of a winter crisis. So, what’s going wrong? Who could feel the impact? And how does the government plan to avoid the worst?
The organisation said: “In order to control fuel consumption and minimise the risk of vehicles becoming stranded, there are some long-distance bookings which we will not be able to honour. We will contact customers individually about any such bookings.
“We are encouraging customers to share bookings where practical (up to 3 passengers in one car). Where people carriers are booked, there may be times we need to send two cars instead.”
Edmund King, AA president, said: “Millions of drivers changed their refuelling habits this weekend, but once a tank is full it can’t be topped up. This short-term increase in demand should slow and allow forecourts time to restock. We anticipate things will return to normal within the coming days.
“Drivers also need to be careful because this weekend we have seen a dramatic rise in misfuelling (putting in the wrong fuel) compared to last weekend. This in turn unnecessarily reduces the fuel available as the whole tank has to be drained before refilling with the correct fuel.”
While the nature of Donald Trump’s second state visit is indeed unusual, from the moment Sir Keir Starmer delivered the gold-edged invitation it began a process steeped in tradition.
State visits are usually reserved to one per head of state, with Trump last hosted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2019.
Typically, second-term US presidents are offered a shorter visit, perhaps tea or lunch with the monarch at Windsor Castle. But the red carpet is literally being rolled out once again, with Trump receiving a second full state visit, with all the pomp and pageantry it entails.
An indication was given early on in Trump’s second term that he’d be receptive to a second state visit, and so – on perhaps the advice of the new prime minister – the King issued a second invitation.
The greatest form of tradition is one that always evolves, and so this may now set a new precedent for presidents who are voted out but then return to serve a second term.
Trump and his wife Melania with the then Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall in 2019. Pic: PA
Any nation can hold a state visit, but what is unique about Britain remains our internationally respected pageantry.
Even down to the very invitation – there is a very precise format for inviting someone on a state visit.
An invite must be issued, established by international law. Written on a special gold-edged paper, embossed with a golden coat of arms that is issued, it forms part of a historic archive.
Breaches of protocol
Much has been made in the past about moments where protocol was breached – Michelle Obama famously put her arm around Queen Elizabeth in 2011, but, in all honesty, I doubt very much the Queen was upset by this.
The fuss was not made by the late monarch, who accepted that what mattered was that Americans should be made very welcome on behalf of the UK.
The Obamas meeting the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh during their 2011 state visit. Pic: PA
In 2018, criticism emerged against Trump, who appeared to make the Queen change places when the Guard of Honour was to be inspected.
But, in truth, it was Elizabeth II who had to correct herself because, in her long life as sovereign, she never escorted a visiting president.
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When Trump met the Queen
The escort should stand further from the troops and her self-correction was misinterpreted as his error.
Trump’s visit this time will likely generate just as many headlines, but I don’t think there will be critical moments where a breach occurs.
What it means for Trump – and is it worth it?
Trump’s mother would cut out and keep in a scrapbook containing pictures of the young Princess Elizabeth and her sister, Margaret Rose. It was an era before endless celebrity news, a time when public life revolved around the royals, the war, and survival.
And the president loved his mother, like many men do, so these things mean an enormous amount to him.
Read more:
No state visit has had a backdrop quite like this
Trump and Charles inspect the Guard of Honour. Pic: PA
When the horses go back to the stables and the carriages are put away, the impact of this visit will remain fresh in the mind of a president who may feel his nation – and maybe even he himself – have been affirmed by their ally.
Quite apart from the politics, although much will be said and written on that, there is one great hope for any state visit: that the country so many (myself included) have fought for can be safer and more successful as a result of the pomp and pageantry on display.
The suspect in the Madeleine McCann case has had strict conditions slapped on him ahead of his expected release from prison in the morning.
Christian B, who can’t be fully identified under privacy laws, will have to wear an electronic tag, surrender his passport and register his address with probation officers.
The German drifter, 49, is being freed after serving a seven-year sentence for rape, but remains the only suspect for the abduction of Madeleine, the toddler who vanished on a family holiday in Portugal in 2007.
It was not known where he would head, or who might help him adjust to a new life as the only suspect in the world’s most notorious unsolved child abduction mystery.
Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters, who leads the Madeleine investigation, believes Christian B, 49, abducted and murdered the three-year-old during a family holiday in Portugal in 2007.
Madeleine vanished from her bed in a rented apartment as her parents and their friends dined nearby at the hotel complex in Praia da Luz on the Algarve coast.
Madeleine McCann
Earlier this week it emerged the Metropolitan Police had sent a formal “international letter of request” to Christian B in order for them to interview him – but he rejected it.
Explainer: The chequered history of Christian B
In the past few days, a probation case conference decided on the restrictions which his lawyers are expected to challenge.
His lawyer Philipp Marquort said: “This is an attempt by the public prosecutor’s office to keep him in a kind of pre-trial detention where they would have access to him at any time.”
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How could Christian B refuse to be interviewed by the Metropolitan Police?
Christian B has denied any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance.
Madeleine, who was nearly four, was sleeping in a room with her younger twin siblings when she went missing.
Donald Trump has arrived in the UK for his second state visit, telling reporters Britain is “a very special place”.
But as he headed to the residence of the US ambassador to the UK in central London to spend Tuesday night, giant projections of the president alongside paedophile Jeffrey Epstein were beamed on to Windsor Castle by protesters.
It is there he will meet with King Charles later today.
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Projection on to Windsor Castle highlights Trump-Epstein links
Four people were arrested on “suspicion of malicious communications” after the images of Mr Trump and Epstein appeared on the landmark, Thames Valley Police said.
Mr Trump has faced mounting questions about his relationship with the disgraced late billionaire after messages allegedly sent to him by the president were published by Congress earlier this month.
The apparent notes – which Mr Trump denies having written – appeared in a 2003 “birthday book” for Epstein which also included messages from Peter Mandelson, who has since been sacked as Sir Keir Starmer’s ambassador to the US over his ties to the financier.
Trump’s mugshot was also beamed on to the castle. Pic: Reuters
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper was among those who greeted the president and First Lady Melania as they disembarked their official plane at Stansted airport on Tuesday evening.
An honour guard of RAF personnel from The King’s Colour Squadron lined up as he stepped off the plane.
Trump and First Lady Melania Trump disembark Air Force One. Pic: Reuters
Trump excited to see ‘my friend’ Charles
Speaking to reporters mid-flight, Trump said: “My relationship is very good with the UK, and Charles, as you know, who’s now King, is my friend.
“It’s the first time this has ever happened where somebody was honoured twice. So, it’s a great honour.”
He told the journalists “everybody is looking forward to it. You’re going to have the best pictures”.
The president speaks to reporters on his way over. Pic: Reuters
To mark the president’s arrival, a new UK-US tech deal was announced that could generate billions of pounds of investment for Britain.
Sir Keir – who will host Mr Trump at his Chequers country retreat tomorrow – said the deal would deliver “growth, security and opportunity up and down the country”.
The “tech prosperity deal”, announced as Mr Trump touched down, will see the UK and US co-operate in areas including artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and nuclear power.
It comes alongside £31bn of investment in Britain from top US tech firms, including £22bn from Microsoft.
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Mark Stone on the significance of Trump’s trip
‘I’m into helping Britain’
It also follows the agreement of an economic deal in May that covered a reduction in some of Mr Trump’s tariffs.
However, the government is understood to have given up hope – for now at least – of reducing the president’s levy on steel back down to zero. It currently stands at 25%.
Mr Trump had hinted at possible tariff relief for British steel as he boarded Air Force One, telling reporters he was “into helping” Britain on refining the trade deal signed earlier this year.
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