Asks The Daily Mail:
Retailers have blamed the spiralling petrol crisis on the government's switchover to greener fuel. Industry leaders said they had been 'emptying their tanks as fast as we could' ahead of the rollout - which left them short during the recent panic buying. They demanded an inquiry into the forecourt chaos that has left pumps dry across the country...
Crowd behavious is unpredictable and something must have triggered it somehow, so it's not implausible. Like people who are trampled to death in stampedes at open air gatherings, there must have been a first person who pushed too hard or tried to squeeze in where they didn't fit.
However, in answer to the question, I think on balance "no", because the timeline doesn't fit. E10 was introduced on 1 September and we (i.e. I and all the other motorists in the queues on 24 September) first saw reports of shortages the day before, i.e. 23 September, so that's a three-week gap, in which time surely the petrol stations would have handled the transition.
Debate Magazine
