Shemaine Bushnell Kyriakides
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ordered British military personnel to begin fuel deliveries to gas stations in London and the southeast of England caused by a lack of tanker truck drivers.
A total of 200 soldiers will be trained and deployed in what is known as Operation Escalin.
The situation has been improving now for I think over a week every day...it is getting better and as demand settles back to more normal levels the strong expectation is things will resolve themselves.
The move is meant to curb the problems with empty fuel pumps and vehicle queues which began 11 days ago across major cities in England, prompting chaotic scenes of fist fights over pumps and people pouring fuel into water bottles.
According to the Petroleum Retail Association, only 6% of gas stations in the north of the country were out of fuel, compared to 22% in London and the southeast of England.
According to Reuters, British ministers have repeatedly denied that the fuel crisis has anything to do with Brexit and have cast the trucker shortage as a global problem, though other European neighbours have not experienced queues at gas stations.
UK Finance minister Rishi Sunak told LBC radio, "The situation has been improving now for I think over a week every day ... it is getting better and as demand settles back to more normal levels the strong expectation is things will resolve themselves."
