Restoration 10:10

      "We need everyone's cooperation in not repeat-buying, to cut out nonessential trips, and to use public transport." Why? Because Grangemouth oil refinery workers are going on strike for 48 hours. Already the panic is setting in. Some service stations have increased their prices of petrol by 6.6p and diesel by 11p. Earlier in the week garage attendants had to start rationing when their customers attempted to buy extra fuel. Are there any reasonable grounds for this hysterical behaviour? Maybe! The Grangemouth plant refines about 210,000 barrels a day. BP said that North Sea oil supplies will be severely disrupted. The strike will cost the UK economy about £50 million a day and it will impact gas and electric bills. According to Alan Duncan the shadow business secretary ‘a prolonged strike would affect us all, with very serious consequences for the oil industry and for petrol prices’. I can understand why some people have an alarmist approach to things. You can’t condemn anyone for becoming irrational in an extreme situation. The terror stricken folks running from the falling Twin Towers in New York had every reason to panic. But, not all panic is justified. The anxious crowds and boisterous customers, who ran on troubled Northern Rock Bank to withdraw their cash, overreacted. The unnamed police officers who shot Jean Charles de Menezes thinking he was a suicide bomber overreacted. The mobs beating up innocent people suspected of penis theft in the Congo are overreacting. Sorry I don’t have to time to explain the Congo situation, it's a 'witchcraft thing'. I'm afraid I have to rush off now. I have to go and fill my car up with petrol. See ya.