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At 10:14, Ed Fraser briefs reporter| Victoria Macdonald on the fuel protest story. He tells her that he has assigned producer Naga Munchetty to work on the story with her. A Channel 4 crew is already at Ellesmere Port refinery but there are no protesters. However all the ITV regions are ready to cover any protest that does happen with their crews so there will be no problem obtaining footage.
Ed discusses possible story angles with Victoria, including the idea that Hurricane Katrina might have sparked fears of a fuel shortage which then led to panic buying. Victoria suggests asking a sociologist on to the programme to discuss the sociological aspect of panic buying.
Half an hour later, Victoria and Naga make phone calls to several organisations to establish the extent of the protest| and the blockades. Victoria wants to find out if the protest is likely to escalate over the next few days, forcing the government to put contingency plans in place. She writes notes of her phone conversations in shorthand in her notebook and Naga types her notes directly onto her computer.
Victoria says that it's unusual to start the day with such an unclear sense of where a story is going. She reckons she has until 1pm to see if the story will stand up, but at the moment it doesn't feel like a lead story.
