A big thank you to those who voted for Brexit

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Urmstongran

I’ll just check Petera with the Department of Guessology.
Bear with me ...

So that's a 'no idea but I'll feel free to deploy the argaument for as long as I like'

Fears of food shortages grow as EU truckers avoid UK ports in record numbers.

Data from logistics software company Transporean show the number of haulage companies from Germany that are rejecting delivery contracts to the UK have more than doubled since the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December. French trucking firms are rejecting three times as many UK deliveries.

This has led to around half the usual deliveries coming into the UK since the turn of the year, and is increasing fears of food and other product shortages in the coming weeks.

Digital modelling firm Simul8, which has been evaluating additional burden Brexit red-tape will bring at UK ports, said fresh food was already going to waste as a result of delays.

Frances Sneddon, chief technical officer at Simul8, said: “Unfortunately, we’re already beginning to see the cost of perishable items being left to waste due to the disruptions at ports and extended queue times for freight vehicles. Fruit, vegetables, seafood and meat are affected in the food industry, while the shelf life of medical supplies won’t allow for the extended waiting times that our model has predicted either.”

inews.co.uk/news/brexit/brexit-food-shortages-fears-grow-eu-truckers-avoid-uk-ports-830040

I bet the fact that both sides of the Channel are haemorrhaging money, on top of the financial crisis during a pandemic, will speed up negotiations on how to get the situations resolved varian. With goodwill on both sides those hauliers could be up and running smoothly in a few more days.

Bet Boris rings Ursula vd Leyen today if he’s not already done so!

Those on the other side of the Channel did not cause this disastrous fiasco.

It says a lot that some brexiters don't mind damaging the UK as long as other countries suffer too.

Has anyone seen anything about the delivery of isotopes for radiotherapy machines? I have not seen anything but wondered about them as they have a short life once they have left the storage facility - I seem to remember seeing they were primed in some way and only good for a couple of days.
I am very pro EU so therefore would have preferred we had never left but I remember Gove saying how U.K. could get rid of much of the Brussels red tape - it all seems ridiculous what is happening now.
The fresh food problems are a disgrace and it is dreadful for the fishermen and their families that they cannot get their produce to the destinations in good condition. Does anyone know if anything is being done about it?

Very early days. It will take time to sort out these teething problems and as you say Urmstongran if there's goodwill on both sides that will speed up the resolution to these problems.

It was all negotiated varian. The knock on effect is affecting both sides, like it or not. Pressure groups on both sides will demand action to save their businesses and shareholder profits. Money talks.

This messy situation won’t last long. It’s too costly. The financial markets won’t be happy. It’ll sort.

We are only in the second WEEK of transition remember! This was to be expected on some level. That said, it pales in significance when compared to the seismic shocks of the pandemic. All countries have much to worry about right now.

Actually I just re-read your sentence varian It says a lot that some brexiters don't mind damaging the UK as long as other countries suffer too.

It’s quite mean-spirited. I don’t harbour any kind of ill feeling to our friends in Europe. I hope all this smooths out quickly and pragmatically.

Yours very sincerely
A Brexiteer

The governor of the Bank of England (appointed by Johnson) has said that brexit will damage the UK economy far more than the pandemic, but perhaps you are better qualified to make economic predictions UG!!!!

Any deal is better than no deal. But the agreement that Boris Johnson struck with the European Union on Christmas Eve is no political triumph, no diplomatic feat. It will one day surely be regarded as one of the greatest-ever deceits inflicted on the British electorate. We were told that a free trade agreement with the EU would be “one of the easiest in human history” to get, that we were “going to get a great deal”. We were told that a free trade agreement would give us “the exact same benefits” of EU membership without any of the obligations or financial costs.

Yet the deal Johnson has reached will inflict all the costs he denied it ever would. It will take some weeks to fully digest the many pages of legal text. But it is already clear that this deal will have enduring consequences for Britain in the coming decades: for the wellbeing and resilience of communities across a highly unequal nation; for the potential for the UK to be an influence for good in an increasingly unstable world; and perhaps even for the very integrity of our nation. Johnson’s act of national harm could not come at a worse time. It will set in train significant economic damage during a global pandemic that has left the NHS and economy reeling.

That we have ended up here is no great surprise. It was always in the interests of both sides to reach a deal before this week’s hard deadline. But no number of bombastic speeches from Johnson can disguise that the realpolitik of negotiation finally forced him to grapple with Brexit’s fundamental tradeoffs. The man who has spent years telling voters Britain can gorge itself on cake now and forever has agreed to pay a serious price.

First there are the costs that will be measured in pounds and pence. This trade deal is unique in erecting rather than eliminating barriers to trade. Goods will be subject to costly new customs and regulatory checks. Services – which make up 80% of the British economy – do not even get a look in. The economic consequences will be profound: the Office for Budget Responsibility has forecast that in the long term, this kind of deal will reduce Britain’s long-run GDP by 4%, dwarfing the long-run costs of the pandemic.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/27/the-observer-view-on-the-brexit-deal

Urmstongran

I bet the fact that both sides of the Channel are haemorrhaging money, on top of the financial crisis during a pandemic, will speed up negotiations on how to get the situations resolved varian. With goodwill on both sides those hauliers could be up and running smoothly in a few more days.

Bet Boris rings Ursula vd Leyen today if he’s not already done so!

The EU truckers referenced in the piece that varian posted have a huge market to turn to for alternative work in Europe. A market that doesn't require them to register with each country's tax authority, collect money on their behalf and then pay it over to them. Nor do they have to worry about getting out of the European countries once they have got in. A market where they can take back loads without having to worry about the paperwork for every single item being in order. They are making commercial decisions not to deal with the UK any more. Their market is expanding anyway as countries such as Poland become more affluent. So I doubt that they're particularly bothered.

On the other hand, UK exporters don't have any other conveniently close market. It's the European mainland or your fish rotting... The mountain of extra paperwork is a product of its own government and the SPS inspections which hold up much of the fresh produce are an inevitable result of the UK becoming a third country. These are not 'bumps' to be ironed out, they are permanent features.

Ursula van der Leyden can do nothing about either and I doubt if she'd be at all receptive to Johnson trying to smarm her into altering things, if she even consented to take the call at all. It's not her remit...

varian

The governor of the Bank of England (appointed by Johnson) has said that brexit will damage the UK economy far more than the pandemic, but perhaps you are better qualified to make economic predictions UG!!!!

I think she's been consulting that Department of Guessology again, varian

Really, who needs to take notice of people who know what they're talking about? Ug voted for a government full of people who haven't a clue what they're talking about because they don't read anything at all, but they're doing absolutely fine, aren't they?

Maybe you should have stuck with Theresa, at least she was honest. It is strange the number of people against Brexit now. You voted for it. A lot must have changed sides and realised how stupid the whole idea was. Either that or they haven’t got the courage of their earlier convictions. Everyone I know thought you were totally crazy coming out of Europe but that was from afar and we thought we must have missed something.

Urmstongran the doom and gloom brigade will be up and running for this year ( at least) so do stop spoiling their enjoyment of miserable pronouncements with your sensible and upbeat posts.?
Of course it’s early days yet, and you would think, with Covid that most would have far more to worry about.....but on GN ( unlike real life) apparently not.

Yes, Theresa looks mild in comparison now, doesn't she. It HAS occurred to me before. Good shoes, too.

GagaJo

Yes, Theresa looks mild in comparison now, doesn't she. It HAS occurred to me before. Good shoes, too.

Do you think so?

I think she was the first and most destructive step on the path that has led to where we are now. She laid out the Red Lines and gave us the memorable 'No Deal is better than a Bad Deal' idiocy which Leavers latched onto with palpable glee.

She sold her soul to the ERG, a minority within the tory party and the country, and could never extricate herself from them.

A very foolish woman...

They lied didn’t they?

TM was a lukewarm Remainer so she needed to go overboard to prove herself to be a true believer in brexit - just like a religious convert - even more zealous than the ERGs. Hence the nonensical "red lines" and ultimate failure.

Truckers experience

Polish trucking magazine 40ton.net reports: A Polish truck driver entered Kent on Monday with valid Kent permit. He turned up at Ashford when they told him that his documents need to be double-checked, so he was sent to a different truck park to wait. 1/4

On Wednesday (!) he was informed his paperwork got a green light and told to come back to Ashford custom place only to find that custom truck park is full. He was told to park on yet another truck park which serves the queue. 2/4

There, the police come and fined him 300 pounds because his Kent access permit has by this time expired. So apparently the document called "kent access permit" needs to be renamed to "Kent accessing and then sitting for days, waiting for the paperwork permit". 3/4

Also, in Ashford drivers have to wait up to 4 hours outside in the rain in the queue to the customs office:

Further to the report about the rabbles (known as the government) intention to reduced workers rights

You'll be shocked to learn that PM's official spokesman has not ruled out any of the specific workers' rights changes mooted in
@PickardJE
's story, or denied they were considered, or said if the PM considers those changes to be "lowering worker rights", which he says he won't do.

We will have to live alongside the people who voted for Brexit. These people will suffer too and may possibly learn.

It is counterproductive to blame them, as we have to accept what has been done, and try to oust the Conservatives who stage managed them by tapping into their sentimental nationalism. It would be bad to add to the divisive influences in this country.

‘And may possibly learn’ ! Rehabilitation centres perhaps??
But yes Alexa you will have to live alongside your relatives friends and neighbours ( who you liked well enough before!) and accept we are out of the EU and the sky isn’t falling in and the sun shines.
The Labour Party will get it’s turn at some point as the two main parties all get their time in the spotlight.
All the millions who voted to leave the EU are happy to live alongside those who didn’t, and all the ones that I know have been happy to all along the last four years.