HANDS up (if you’re not driving) if you are one of those car owners who felt obliged to fill up their tank even though it was half full, or you weren’t going anywhere in particular.

All of which has caused key workers in parts of Scotland to fume their way up garage forecourt queues.

There are other problems attendant on this saga of course. Post Brexit, thousands of drivers based in continental Europe saw no good reason to keep driving to a UK which had classed them as unskilled, and which left them spending last Christmas in their cabs in a Kent car park thanks to all the new bureaucracy attendant on our new status as a “third country”.

I can’t think too many of them will be seduced back by a three month visa waiver which will find them cast out again on Christmas Eve.

This column tries not to do party politics, but honestly, you do wonder if some of the folks at the Westminster policy wheel will ever run out of fag packets on the back of which to inscribe their latest wheeze.

In France, where I spent last week, I can confirm the supermarkets are still bursting with food, and the only queue I encountered at a garage consisted of a solitary car in front. Doubtless there are shortages of HGV drivers, as there seems to be everywhere, but it certainly helps if you have free movement of workers and can bring some in from neighbouring nations without any visa stuff.

READ MORE: 'No fuel of any grade': Helensburgh petrol station closes amid shortages

The other bee in the Wishart bonnet over this affair is the suggestion that the training period could be shortened, and that two categories of lorry driving licences could be collapsed into one to shorten the journey to gaining an HGV licence. This strikes me as potentially dangerous nonsense.

If you are driving a huge tank of flammable material down a motorway then it’s surely necessary that you’re (a) experienced enough and (b) fully trained and qualified.

The fact that people are only now talking about decent wages and proper accommodation for drivers merely flags up how much we took this trade for granted before. How many folks would care to eat and sleep in their cars between driving huge distances?

The other obvious hiccup in this sorry business has been wheeling out a minister to ask folks please not to panic – a sure fire way to ensure thousands do just that. Simple psychology.