Why Blair misread the Fuel Crisis

The protesters' victory in France persuaded the prime minister to take a different course

Special report: The petrol war

Patrick Wintour, chief political correspondent
Wednesday September 13, 2000

Returning from the UN special assembly in New York last week, Tony Blair was relatively confident that his government would see off the just-gathering petrol blockades.

In a private conversation, President Jacques Chirac had told him that the French government would not make concessions to the farmers and hauliers paralysing his country. It seemed to Mr Blair that this might even be the moment when the Socialist French prime minister, Lionel Jospin, confronted the labour unions and irrevocably joined the Blairite Third Way.

By the weekend Mr Blair was rudely disappointed as Mr Jospin succumbed first to the fishermen and then to the hauliers.

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OIL MEN FACE DOWN FURIOUS BLAIR

"...talk of Mr Blair's "worst week" cannot be dismissed by No 10 spindoctors as hype.."

"..the petrol crisis threatened to wreck the economy and Tony Blair's political credibility."

How the oil men faced down a furious PM

Rush of activity as cabinet tries to get a grip

Kevin Maguire and Patrick Wintour
Thursday September 14, 2000

The sun streaming through the cabinet room windows yesterday produced one of the few bright spots in the Downing Street bunker as the petrol crisis threatened to wreck the economy and Tony Blair's political credibility.
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Oil giants Collude Against Blairs Government

Oil giants accused of collusion

Business may be in cahoots with pickets, says Straw aide
Special report: The petrol war

Peter Hetherington and Charlotte Denny
Wednesday September 13, 2000

The oil companies were on a collision course with Tony Blair last night over their failure to dispatch tankers from storage depots immediately to replenish the country's empty petrol stations.

With a relatively small number of pickets managing to immobilise Britain, some ministers privately accused the companies of either colluding with the protesters or taking a line of no resistance

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NEW-STYLE ACTION TAKES OLD ORDER BY SURPRISE

Protesters: All sections of the community have united to keep the blockade solid

The populist direct action by small business which this protest represents may be new for Britain but it has many traditional ingredients of trade union militancy - a feeling that politicians, whether they call themselves left or right or Third Way, don't really care; that the media distorts their case; and that employers or in this instance the government fails to negotiate unless pressure is applied through withholding services or labour. "It's never been so hard to make ends meet. I've been up to London twice for demonstrations and to lobby Parliament," said John Jones, who runs five lorries. "We've been fighting for a reduction in fuel tax for two years, and got nowhere."

Special report: the petrol war

Jonathan Steele in Milford Haven
Thursday September 14, 2000

It was three-quarters of the way through the 24 hours which a grim-faced Tony Blair had given for the fuel situation to be getting back to normal, and nothing outside the Elf terminal here had changed. Half a dozen policemen were lolling in their van or strolling around beside it, chatting to protesters. Eighteen lorries, their windscreens and engine cowlings covered with "Fair Play on Fuel" stickers, were parked on the verge where the terminal's access road meets the highway.
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THE LESSONS OF SERBIA -- TO SHUT DOWN A NATION -- TAKE AWAY THEIR OIL!

As we knew from bombing Serbia: refineries are the key

George Monbiot observes how easy it is to shut down the UK

Thursday September 14, 2000

If I were a hostile foreign power hoping to bring Britain to its knees, I wouldn't bother with helicopter gunships, genetically engineered bugs or indeed any form of direct combat at all. I would merely do what Nato did in Serbia, and bomb the refineries.

After the second world war, the government set out to ensure that Britain would never again be so vulnerable to an economic blockade. Alarmed by the narrowness of our escape from starvation, it set out to revolutionise British agriculture, to reduce our dependence on other nations.

While oil companies have sought to talk up their share prices by insisting that they have endless supplies on tap, evidence is beginning to emerge that world oil production will peak then start to slide within 20 years. If we don't do something about it pretty fast, Britain will grind to a halt whether or not our refineries are attacked

The defence of the realm, in other words, depends upon investing in renewable energy.

But this government, which knows everything about tactics and nothing about strategy, has so far done as little as possible to encourage such investment.

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Oil giants leave both sides in the dark

Industry: Accused of collusion, firms risk wrath of government

Terry Macalister and Larry Elliott
Thursday September 14, 2000

BP's chief executive, Sir John Browne, made his view perfectly clear. Speaking at the company's half yearly financial results he said: "We are all motorists and clearly people are very concerned, especially when they look at prices in other parts of the world and feel very hard done by. We share that concern."

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