FOOD Shortages England

Are you trying to start a panic?

Shortage of lorry drivers.
My hubs is a lorry driver, they have been unappreciated and looked down on for years - bit different now, perhaps.

It's been all over the media.

It's because of a combination of Brexit, Covid and something about the way HGV drivers are taxed.

People have been advised to get things they can store or preserve (eg freeze) until Christmas in now, if they want to be sure to get the menu they've planned.

Food shortages were always going to happen after Brexit, but Covid has been a double whammy. I'm not sure about the tax thing, but it means that drivers are getting other jobs with more sociable hours as it is no longer a well paid job, apparently.

BBC news headlines, bosses of Tesco & Iceland predicting shortages at Christmas, 4 months notice everyone. That will get the Lemmings going won't it

100,000 lorry drivers short it's
estimated - but the home office say we need to "invest in our domestic workers" so they won't put them on the "essential and skilled workers" scheme.

Ballet dancers yes. Delivery drivers no.

People will only want so much for Christmas. Not much point in having 7 turkeys, but if you really want one and don't mind if it's frozen then there's no harm in getting it now.

I don't think anyone is saying that there will be no food, just that we won't have the choice we're used to, but again, that was always on the cards.

I'm planning to release a cookbook called 'British Brexit Bonanza : 100 Ways With Turnips'. It has a good chance of being a best-seller if I can get it on the shelves by November.

The photography is proving tricky though - nourishing though my recipes will be, it's not easy to make turnips look delicious ?

Well as I said on the other thread our shelves appear normal so perhaps it is more to do with cities

It isn’t just a shortage of lorry drivers though. There is a shortage of staff in every area.

Ask Baldrick Doodledog ?

Doodledog Should we give our suggestions on what to do with your Turnips?

We had a few empty shelves here in the past few weeks, but suddenly the problem seems to have got much worse. Our Co-op continues to have many empty shelves, but now our Morrisons seems to be struggling - was in there on Saturday afternoon and there were lots of empty shelves which was a bit disconcerting. It is not just food shops either; I went into Wilco's and noticed quite a few empty shelves there too.

It’s not just cities, there are big gaps in the supermarkets in my local rural town as well. I’m not sure if it’s related to the reported shortage of plastic blood sample bottles, but there was a definite lack of drinks in plastic bottles today, water, squash and also sauces were all in very short supply. I did manage to get tonic water (cans) for the first time in three weeks though.

Whenever I see references to panic buying for Christmas/Easter/August Bank Holiday (other religious festivals are available) I am reminded of this:

It's nearly time to put the sprouts on for Christmas anyway, so buy them now.

Ealdemodor yes, pay rises are long overdue.

But some of the stores are going to be closed for two days this Christmas, how will we cope?

I'm planning to release a cookbook called 'British Brexit Bonanza : 100 Ways With Turnips'. It has a good chance of being a best-seller if I can get it on the shelves by November.

It depends on your definition of a turnip, Doodledog!

When is a swede not a swede?
When you're in Devon and they call it a turnip
?

toscalily

Doodledog Should we give our suggestions on what to do with your Turnips?

??

You can send them to my agent.

Mr B Johnson
10 Downing Street
London SW1A 2AA

He likes them ripe?

Well if your agent Mr Johnson likes them ripe he will probably appreciate stuffed too.

Oh, feel free?

Turnip pie

www.foodsofengland.co.uk/turnippie.htm

Ooh, yum!

The turnip apple pie sounds amazing:

Turnip Pie.-Take a turnip and pare and boil it; add a teaspoonful of tartaric acid and a cup of sugar; season and boil it as an apple pie

It does sound like one of Baldrick's concoctions, Jaxjacky ?

We might struggle to get sugar though, what with the queues at customs.

It seems there are also worrying shortages of medicines in some areas.

I'm noticing most of our supermarkets have smaller quantities of items rather than actual gaps, although the cat food shortage is still evident. Aldi has been short of tinned tomatoes and when I looked at the green beans there yesterday (which were British rather than Kenyan) they were very sad specimens with badly marked skins. It suggested problems with harvesting them as well as transporting them.

Didn’t get the dog food we ordered from Tesco’s the other day.

I went to Morrisons in Amble in Northumberland tonight, a lot of empty shelves. I've stocked up on cat lit, that's one thing I definitely cannot run short of!