Stick that in your jerry can

What Arthur Daley used to call 'a nice little earner':

Long queues snaked back from forecourts again yesterday, garages shut after drying up and the Prime Minister was accused of presiding over a shambles. But there was one piece of good news for the Government from the ongoing row over fuel tanker drivers' threatened strike action: the petrol panic buying triggered by ministers' advice will bring an extra £32m to the Treasury's coffers from fuel excise duty.

Not that I'm suggesting that the government is behaving like a bunch of spivs, but if the trilby fits ...