Blair promised he could get Britain back on the move in just 24 hours. Clearly, his gamble failed

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Twenty-four hours to start getting Britain back on the move, that was Tony Blair's ringing words on Tuesday. It was a high-risk gamble and by last night he had obviously lost. The tankers were not rolling and fuel starvation was beginning to bite with devastating effect across the country.

Twenty-four hours to start getting Britain back on the move, that was Tony Blair's ringing words on Tuesday. It was a high-risk gamble and by last night he had obviously lost. The tankers were not rolling and fuel starvation was beginning to bite with devastating effect across the country.

Almost every aspect of life was affected as the threads that bind together a hi-tech modern society began to unravel, and hospitals, schools, business and industry reported growing problems.

The most alarming was the effect on the health service, with dozens of hospitals reporting pressures ranging from cancellations of operations to supplies of life-saving drugs running out. Funeral directors warned that bodies would soon start piling up in mortuaries.

Schools in their hundreds faced closure. At Rhondda in Wales, 19,000 pupils were expected to be unable to attend today, with their school buses out of fuel. Nineteen secondary schools will shut in the area. In Wakefield, West Yorkshire, 189 primary, secondary and special schools were to be closed. The pattern was being repeated across Britain.

As the position worsened by the hour, both sides of industry expressed alarm. The London Chamber of Commerce estimated the crisis was costing the national economy £250m a day. In London, the cost to firms was reckoned at £50m a day. Many stores in Oxford Street said business had fallen.

The British Chambers of Commerce and Confederation of British Industry said many small and medium concerns would go bankrupt unless the Government lifted the blockade immediately. The TUC showed no solidarity with the protests, calling them an unlawful attempt to "bully" the Government into submission with blockades that were "not a legitimate form of industrial action".

Banks called an emergency meeting and their union, Unifi, said some branches in the Midlands were running out of cash and that would happen in other areas as well. The first shortage had been deliveries to cash machines, and the cheque-clearing system was also in disarray. In rural areas, where many banks had closed branches, customers said they did not have enough fuel to travel to town for their transactions.

But food stores had an upsurge. Asda said: "We have seen a sharp rise in the sale of staple food products. Customers are making one big trip and buying more." A spokeswoman for Iceland said: "We are having an exceptionally busy time, with bread and milk selling out quickly. Our internet and phone-shopping services have increased dramatically."

Bars and restaurants in rural areas were nearly empty, but in the city centres they were doing good business, with many people taking trains rather than using cars. Hotels were rapidly filled. The Hilton, in Regent's Park, London, said its last 20 rooms, at £195 a night, had been snapped up. At the Atlantic Bar and Grill, a barman was tipped £20 by a customer for telling him where he could still find a room.

But those overnighting will not be able to rely on public transport much longer. The buses in big cities, including London, are expected to be out of fuel by the weekend. And train services that are not electrified have about four days of supply left. By last night, less than one-tenth of the normal number of tankers had begun to move. Many drivers were refusing to deliver non-essential supplies, claiming they were afraid of the pickets. The oil companies appeared to be unwilling to order them to work, leading to increasing claims of collusion.

The Prime Minister called oil company chiefs to Downing Street to demand they get the supplies out, and they promised they would, as they had done the day before. A few miles away, 60 lorries, their horns hooting, were blocking Park Lane and cauing jams through the centre of London. Prolonged negotiations followed between drivers and police, punctuated at one point with cheering and laughter when sweating officers were seen pushing one of their vans because it had run out of fuel.

At demonstrations in Kent and Essex, Lancashire and Yorkshire, the Midlands and the West Country, drivers threatening to continue disruptions.

This was another time for the Dunkirk spirit to be wheeled out, giving people their chance to improvise and indulge in eccentricities in the face of adversity. Fading celebrities were suddenly back in the news. The BBC press described how drivers waved and cheered as they spotted Terry Wogan presenting half an hour of his Breakfast Show on a mobile phone while being driven along the Westway, in West London, behind a line of lorries.

In Kendal, Cumbria, the first mayoral electric car was delivered in time for the Mayor, Councillor Tom Clare, to drive the Peugot 306 around the Westmorland Agricultural Show. In Birmingham, Patricia Mountney, 52, got her brother Barry Britton, 50, to take her to her wedding in his electric milk float.

Another form of alternative power was being used by Martin Steele in Manchester. The window cleaner used cooking fat, waste thrown out by restaurants, to create a "bio-diesel" in his home reactor.

In Lancaster and Morecambe, Gordon Simmons and Jez Fitzsimmons are offering muscle power to make up for the lack of fuel. The pair are the National Sedan Chair Carrying Champions and they are on call ready to ferry anyone to any local destination.

Villagers in the North-east preferred four legs to two. Margaret Hedley, of Low Fold Farm, Willington, Co Durham and her friend Lynne Bell are using horses to do their shopping. Ms Hedley said: "We grow our own fuel in our fields, so it doesn't cost a penny."