FOOD Shortages England

I think that the Express is probably one of the most pro-Brexit papers around, wouldn't you say?

This is from an article in the Express from today:

But even before Covid, there was still a shortage of 60,000 lorry drivers - arguably due to Brexit policy changes.

Since Brexit, and the UK leaving the single market, the bureaucracy of crossing borders and long queues have meant many lorry drivers decided to work in other EU countries.

A large portion of lorry drivers are paid by the mile or kilometre rather than by the hour, so delays caused by Brexit means they are making the same amount of money in a much longer space of time.

Haulage companies want the Government to add drivers to the Shortage Occupations list, allowing them to qualify for a skilled worker visa and making border crossing far easier, but the Home Office is yet to approve the move.

The Home Office said in a statement: “The British people repeatedly voted to end free movement and take back control of our immigration system and employers should invest in our domestic workforce instead of relying on labour from abroad.”

Really, despite all the twisting and turning on here, its Brexit.

Here is what the Road Haulage Association had to say in a letter to the PM in June of this year:


23rd June 2021

Dear Prime Minister,

Critical supply chains failing due to the significant shortage of HGV drivers

We are urgently writing to ask for your personal intervention to help resolve the significant and rapidly deteriorating shortage of HGV drivers.

Prior to the pandemic, we estimated a shortage in excess of 60,000. At that time UK road transport businesses employed approximately 600,000 HGV drivers, including 60,000 from EU member states who were residing and working in the UK.

Several factors have exacerbated the shortage which is now at crisis point (over 100,000) and critical supply chains are failing. Those factors include:

COVID - Many drivers returned to their country of origin during extended periods of lockdown and restricted travel. The vast majority have not yet returned.

EU exit - The uncertainty of Brexit and future rights to live and work in the UK forced many drivers to do the same. Again, the vast majority have not returned nor are they expected to.

Retiring drivers - The average age of an HGV driver is 55, with less than 1% under the age of 25. Prolonged periods of inactivity have resulted in much of this aging workforce retiring early or finding employment in other, less demanding, sectors.

Test shortage - During a typical year, 72,000 candidates train to become HGV drivers with 40,000 succeeding. The complete shutdown of vocational driving tests throughout much of last year resulted in the loss of over 30,000 test slots and only 15,000 were able to complete training successfully - a drop of 25,000 from the previous year.

IR35 - The introduction of IR35 has resulted in agency labour withdrawing their services as low-profit margin logistics businesses (typically 2-3%) cannot sustain demands for £5-£6 per hour rate increases. For clarity, we welcome legislation that ensures fair and equal tax for all. However, Government must now recognise the repercussions of this and the other issues mentioned and urgently intervene to help us to resolve the resulting crisis.

So we're all correct...

MaizieD agreed!

This message has just come through from my surgery:

Blood Tests - Urgent:
There is a shortage of bottles for taking bloods, and we have received a National Directive to stop all blood tests until further notice.
The only bloods that will be taken will be those where it is dangerous for them to be delayed.
This applies to all practices across the country.

It's getting serious.

It's clear, reading responses to this topic, that our Leave voters have found a Brexit Benefit...

It's character forming...

All those nambie pambies who have got used to extensive choice, and instant availability, in food, furnishings and clothing will just have to get used to going short and It Will Be Good For Them.

There are other contributory factors too. Many drivers who might well have stayed went home to Europe because they were separated from their families and were afraid they wouldn’t get back due to Covid. There are also HGV driver shortages all over Europe too.

Virtually no HGV driving instruction/tests took place last year, again due to Covid.

Younger people aren’t much interested in working anti-social hours so aren’t attracted to the industry.

It’s right that wages should increase and this will be reflected in higher prices.

So not all the fault of Brexit. Though some blame must lie with B.J. Btw where is he atm?

robbymax

thats the best laugh i have had on this page for long while

What is ?

Doodledog

This message has just come through from my surgery:

Blood Tests - Urgent:
There is a shortage of bottles for taking bloods, and we have received a National Directive to stop all blood tests until further notice.
The only bloods that will be taken will be those where it is dangerous for them to be delayed.
This applies to all practices across the country.

It's getting serious.

Yes a friend received same message

There are also HGV driver shortages all over Europe too.

There aren't any food shortages, though. Why would that be?

The food shortages in our small supermarket is due to the high number of staycationers in the area.
It is difficult to park at any time of day and frustrating when trying to shop. The local shop is restacking shelves like crazy and cannot cope with the extra shoppers.
I am having to resort to travelling to a larger supermarket or ordering on line. I shall be pleased when schools return and workers go back to the office.

Lucca

Doodledog

This message has just come through from my surgery:

Blood Tests - Urgent:
There is a shortage of bottles for taking bloods, and we have received a National Directive to stop all blood tests until further notice.
The only bloods that will be taken will be those where it is dangerous for them to be delayed.
This applies to all practices across the country.

It's getting serious.

Yes a friend received same message

NHS GPs and hospitals in England have been ordered only to do urgent blood tests until 17 September. There's a shortage of bottles for the blood samples.

Baggs

Yes, Olive53, prices go up, but still the proportion of income that people spend on food nowadays is far, far smaller than it was even a generation ago.

I'll go in search of some data for that claim right now. I know exactly where it is: ourworldindata.org

That's just as well because people pay far more for rent and mortgages than they did when you were a child.

Daisypop

Shelves aren’t too bad here in North Essex, but did order with my home delivery a couple of festive tins of sweets ( gonna hide them til Christmas lol ) The shortage of cat food could be because of an issue with the rumoured safety of Felix cat food

There have been problems with some kinds of cat food for far longer than any rumours about safety.

Some might find this thread interesting:

Supermarket shelves could be empty at Christmas due to food retailers grappling with severe Brexit-related supply chain issues, the chief of one of the UK’s largest supermarkets warned.
John Allen, Chairman of Tesco, told the BBC’s World at One programme that supermarkets are struggling to source stock ahead of the busy festive period as a result of immigration rule changes caused by Brexit reducing the supply of lorry drivers.

twitter.com/WinstonCProject/status/1431287279398662148

(The Tesco CEO might have given other reason's, too, but that's what the poster of these tweets has focussed on)

There wasn't any paracetamol in my Sainsburys yesterday

This is clearly a panic thread so I'll leave you to it.

Thanks for coming along to announce your departure.

Back to running around with our hands in the air for us then.

Baggs

This is clearly a panic thread so I'll leave you to it.

Perhaps you'd like to tell the CEO of Tesco that, Baggs. He'll be so relieved that he doesn't have to worry about stock shortages for his numerous stores. Baggs from Gransnet says he's panicking...

Or perhaps the CBI?

Data published this week by the Confederation for British Industry shows retailers recorded their lowest levels of stock since records began.

Are there diced turnips in pasties little meat pies?

Illiterate post

Sewmaven

Are there diced turnips in pasties little meat pies?

Noooooo!

It must be swede

The only thing here in our part of France is that there is less supply of fruits such as peaches, nectarines, cherries, plums etc as the weather this year has been very disrupted and not ‘normal’ at all. We have a variety of fruit trees but the only ones with any sort of a normal crop are the apples. Our tomatoes are dreadful with some sort of damp induced blight and other crops have suffered too - but the sunflowers have done well and we have fields of ripening millet around.

Baggs

This is clearly a panic thread so I'll leave you to it.

Partly right Baggs for some people it’s a panic thread and for others it’s just the (tedious) old Brexit bashing that’s gone on for five years and for others just relating that there seems to be no serious shortages at all where they live ( or where everyone lives, come to that.) Certain items are missing from time to time, but serious shortages?Nope!

I went shopping today did not see any empty shelves maybe a city thing.
l also read that out of 550,000 lorry drivers over 50% are not working due to poor pay and working conditions a undervalued workforce paid poorly after being undercut by Eastern European drivers, driving wages down!

I get my fruit and veg from oddbox, always nice and fresh and a good variety