How close is the end of civilisation?

Thatcher beat the miners by spending two years prior to the 1984 strike stock piling coal at power stations. So the 21st century version is some idiot Tory politician suggesting that people fill up their cars and jerry cans in case the tanker drivers go on strike. The ensuing chaos perhaps suggests how close society is, at any given moment, to collapse. 

I drove to Sainsburys at lunch time, because I actually needed fuel (orange light was on) and people were queuing down the street. In the middle of the day - madness, there isn't even a strike and garages are already running out. Imagine if it really did?  I read somewhere that all of the super markets in the UK are three days away from running out of food. So the country can run out of fuel on a whim and three days later there will be no food in the shops. I find that rather scary - I think I will buy a farm by the sea and stock-pile cans of baked beans