So it seem this ludicrous government created "panic" was from a deliberate policy to try and make the union look bad.
“This is our Thatcher moment. In order to defeat the coming miners’ strike, she stockpiled coal. When the strike came, she weathered it, and the Labour Party, tarred by the strike, was humiliated. In order to defeat the coming fuel drivers’ strike, we want supplies of petrol stockpiled. Then, if the strike comes, we will weather it, and Labour, in hock to the Unite union, will be blamed.”
source....
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/poli...-anything.html