Whooo Hooo! Food shortages on the way ...?

Here's a nice little story from a Polish trucker's magazine. Held to be reliable by the person who tweeted it

Start

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:

(There's a photo)

End

These drivers are paid per kilometre. This is one reason for a massive increase in shipping costs as drivers/firms charge more to recoup what they're losing sitting in queues or lorry parks.

I can't see many wanting to carry on doing business with the UK when treated like this...

As someone else pointed out recently, no lorries = no supplies

Oldwoman70

Also taken from the same article:

The idea is that 300 lorries a day will be granted 'fast track' permits so they can go back EU and replenish supplies.

The 8-page consultation document notes this is both because of #Brexit but also because of #COVID19 and continued French insistence on checks on all drivers from UK

Has any government initiative gone to plan yet? Fast track permits sound wonderful, but will they get the drivers into the EU and out again without any problems?

The dastardly French insisting on checks on third country vehicles crossing their borders might just scupper that little plan...

I realise that it's a combination of covid and Brexit, but the government could have asked for an extension to transition. I think the EU would have granted it any time because of the covid problem.

I think this is going to come back to bite them...

MawBe
Oh dear - however did our parents’ and grandparents’ generation survive in WWII?
At the risk of upsetting another member, I suppose one obvious thing is to support British farmers and producers by buying British.

If people really wanted to revert to WWII conditions it would have been a lot more comfortable for those of us who didn't if they'd just gone off and stopped at a WWII re-enactment camp. Rather than insisting we leave a profitable trading bloc.

And the regular reminder that Britain is incapable of being self sufficient in food. It barely achieved that in WWII with the help of rationing and with a population smaller than our current one by 20million...

Also taken from the same article:

The idea is that 300 lorries a day will be granted 'fast track' permits so they can go back EU and replenish supplies.

The 8-page consultation document notes this is both because of #Brexit but also because of #COVID19 and continued French insistence on checks on all drivers from UK

I will deal with shortages if/when they arise.

I have far more pressing things to concern myself with at the moment.

Oh dear - however did our parents’ and grandparents’ generation survive in WWII?
At the risk of upsetting another member, I suppose one obvious thing is to support British farmers and producers by buying British.

Perhaps it really, really wasn't a good idea not to ask for an extension to transition. But then, I don't suppose Johnson and his cabinet foresaw that their mismanagement of covid would mean that we're at the height of a covid third wave

Hands up all the politicians or experts of any political persuasion who foresaw even the first Covid wave?
Mystic Meg?

NotSpaghetti

Hetty58

Really? Again? As predicted before? (Any shortages then were purely due to panic buying/hoarding - caused by shortage predictions - remember?)

This time it's mainly fresh fruit and vegetables, apparently.
Can't honestly see many people hoarding these!

Wonder when scurvy will start appearing...

You're right, NotSpaghetti, difficult to store fresh fruit and vegetables long term. My above comment wasn't entirely frivolous. Vitamin C is notoriously unstable in any storage conditions..

I've been prepping since Spring 2019.
The prepping boards on MN are amazing.
And yes, I have lots of loo rolls.

Hetty58

Really? Again? As predicted before? (Any shortages then were purely due to panic buying/hoarding - caused by shortage predictions - remember?)

This time it's mainly fresh fruit and vegetables, apparently.
Can't honestly see many people hoarding these!

Have you all got lots of loo rolls?

Oof, starting to regret dipping into the Brexit stash already...

Really? Again? As predicted before? (Any shortages then were purely due to panic buying/hoarding - caused by shortage predictions - remember?)

I'm thinking of writing a cookbook to raise some money for the coming recession.

'100 Ways with a Turnip' sounds a catchy title, and it will be important to be realistic post-Brexit.

If anyone has any favourite Baldrickian recipes, please PM them to me .