Michelle Dewberry: Stop greedily panic buying fuel, when you really don't need it

Keep calm and carry on, many of us have seen that phrase pop up everywhere, used to peddle everything from notepads to baby-clothes and tea-towels.

Its origins are wartime Britain back in 1939 when it was used as a message calling for ‘so called sober restraint”.

Well fast forward 80-odd years and the message is today more pertinent than ever. The weekend’s media has been dominated by the chaotic scenes at petrol forecourts across the country - queues seeming to snake back miles, fist-fights at the pumps and greedy folk not just content with filling up their cars but seeming desperate to fill any vessel they can get their hands on.

The cause? A fuel crisis of course. Except there never was one, or should I say not one which would have affected people on masse.

Alas, along came the tabloid media and what a good job they did of terrying the bejesus out of everyone and thus, in my mind causing the situation as it now stands which is most petrol forecourts out of fuel and there’s even been talk of bringing in the army.

Many politicians are of course desperate to put the blame solely on Brexit's door, re-ignighting the division from 2016 and people are understandably furious. After the devastating time this country's had. It is in all of our interests to come together, for us to rebuild the economy and try to get life back to some kind of normality.

Normality. Gosh, how I crave that. So tonight, I remind you of that wartime mantra - keep calm and carry on. If you're greedily panic buying fuel, when you really don't need it. Please stop. There will be many tough times ahead that we really don't have much control over, so for now, let's stop making things worse for ourselves.