MAD panic! It's not often we round on the good folk of Worcester and its surrounding communities.

But today's an exception.

Because the scenes of desperation at many of the county's filling stations yesterday simply beggared belief.

Sparked by an ill-considered or ill-written story on a Welsh commercial radio station, motorists queued in their droves to beat a phantom fuel blockade.

Forecourts were besieged, some station managers were forced to call in the police and others had to close. Even when officers broke the news that it was a hoax, some were determined to stay put. What on earth is the country coming to?

At the height of the Balkans crisis, we became accustomed to seeing pictures of refugees lining up for meagre fuel rations.

The contrast in the Land of Plenty couldn't have been greater yesterday afternoon. What would happen in Britain if there was a war? You may well ask.

The West's instant culture, a product of the me-me-me 80s and 90s, suggests an answer that will alarm even the least frightened - or selfish - of those who panicked. We'd be in trouble.

For every person who topped up yesterday - some with as little as a gallon - there's a chance that someone in desperate need, and on the red line, will have been forced to go without.

It should have been the first thought on most minds. It wasn't.

If the speed with which panic spread was startling to behold for the general public, we imagine Prime Minister Tony Blair will have cause to be even more concerned.

He spent most of last week trying to reassure the nation that calm and reason should prevail, emphasising the responsibility the Government and the People had to make it happen.

The nation is so clearly weary and wary of Downing Street's taste for spin that it took little notice. When the bush telegraph began to ring, though, it was a different matter. There's a lesson in that for us all.