Brexit is fast becoming a disaster

Get them on their bikes, eh?

p.s. I'm economically inactive and aged between 16 and 64. What do you suggest for me, potato picking in Lincolnshire?

Brexit + Covid + Energy cost + Labour shortages are likely to cause inflation and interest rates to rise quickly.
Is there any good news on the economy?.

Grant Shapps is telling us that the shortage of HGV drivers has nothing to do with Brexit because there is a shortage in EU countries as well. Now he is apparently open to the idea of issuing temporary visas to EU drivers. It's just taken for granted then that those drivers would want to return to the UK. Why would they? We create a so called hostile environment for immigrants, we tell them that they are not welcome but now we're in a pickle so we'll just tell them to come back. The arrogance!

Cabinet split on visas because it hold be poor optics.

How many military personnel have HGV licenses? If the situation escalates they could be deployed as drivers to plug the gap in the short term.

Oops prematurely posted.

The Army in particular is exceedingly good at logistics as are the other services.

GrannyGravy13

Oops prematurely posted.

The Army in particular is exceedingly good at logistics as are the other services.

Ah the sunlit uplands...

A victim of predictive text/autocorrect?
I can’t see this Whitewave
Cabinet split on visas because it hold be poor optics.

Not all HGV drivers are created equal....

To drive a fuel tanker you need an ADR licence. Anybody know if drivers from the forces hold this kind of licence?

Oh yes!

I didn’t re read it

It may have been my whizzing typing though.

What I meant to say was (in a fuller explanation)

The cabinet is split over whether to issue visas for foreign nationals to come to fill the hundreds of thousands of vacancies which are at present causing severe difficulties in many areas. However some of the cabinet are baulking at the idea because it would present poor optics, particularly having to admit that brexit has caused the difficulties we are experiencing.

I'm going to be controversial here (just for a change )

Its not Brexit that's causing the problems, its the disastrous way its been handled. If the county doesn't want to be part of the EU, so be it. I personally think that's the worst decision we ever made, but we did make it.

So it was up to successive governments to negotiate a good exit deal and plan for any issues that might arise due to us leaving. The government have failed spectacularly on those counts and keep turning up on TV to tell us all the problems are nothing to do with Brexit.

They must take us for fools. Oh, wait a minute.....

Just had to post this again

Alegrias1

Not all HGV drivers are created equal....

To drive a fuel tanker you need an ADR licence. Anybody know if drivers from the forces hold this kind of licence?

Without actually 'knowing', I would suspect that they do, Alegrias. Would they depend on civilians to bring in the vehicle and aircraft fuel that they need? It would seem a short sighted thing to do ( though nothing surprises me these days)

Alegrias1

Not all HGV drivers are created equal....

To drive a fuel tanker you need an ADR licence. Anybody know if drivers from the forces hold this kind of licence?

Yes some do.

They must do! How else do they move bombs and stuff?

Alegrias1

I'm going to be controversial here (just for a change )

Its not Brexit that's causing the problems, its the disastrous way its been handled. If the county doesn't want to be part of the EU, so be it. I personally think that's the worst decision we ever made, but we did make it.

So it was up to successive governments to negotiate a good exit deal and plan for any issues that might arise due to us leaving. The government have failed spectacularly on those counts and keep turning up on TV to tell us all the problems are nothing to do with Brexit.

They must take us for fools. Oh, wait a minute.....

I voted to leave the EU

I am not impressed by the deal which is basically a non-deal do I regret my vote no, but I really hope that someone in Government will have a lightbulb moment and actually begin to Govern with some foresight instead of playing catch-up.

Whitewavemark2

They must do! How else do they move bombs and stuff?

Not just bombs they have their own fuel stores and distribution centres.

GrannyGravy13

Alegrias1

I'm going to be controversial here (just for a change )

Its not Brexit that's causing the problems, its the disastrous way its been handled. If the county doesn't want to be part of the EU, so be it. I personally think that's the worst decision we ever made, but we did make it.

So it was up to successive governments to negotiate a good exit deal and plan for any issues that might arise due to us leaving. The government have failed spectacularly on those counts and keep turning up on TV to tell us all the problems are nothing to do with Brexit.

They must take us for fools. Oh, wait a minute.....

I voted to leave the EU

I am not impressed by the deal which is basically a non-deal do I regret my vote no, but I really hope that someone in Government will have a lightbulb moment and actually begin to Govern with some foresight instead of playing catch-up.

I voted to remain in the EU

I am not impressed by the deal which is basically a non-deal do I regret my vote no, but I really hope that someone in Government will have a lightbulb moment and actually begin to Govern with some foresight instead of playing catch-up.

If that doesn't happen I really hope that the electorate will have a lightbulb moment and actually begin to vote with some foresight.

Greta

Grant Shapps is telling us that the shortage of HGV drivers has nothing to do with Brexit because there is a shortage in EU countries as well. Now he is apparently open to the idea of issuing temporary visas to EU drivers. It's just taken for granted then that those drivers would want to return to the UK. Why would they? We create a so called hostile environment for immigrants, we tell them that they are not welcome but now we're in a pickle so we'll just tell them to come back. The arrogance!

Grant Shapps needs to talk to the Road Haulage Association, members of which might know more about lorry drivers than he does. It's clear Brexit isn't the main reason for the shortage of drivers, but it's one of the main ones. Once a lying weasel, always a lying weasel!

Alegrias1

Get them on their bikes, eh?

p.s. I'm economically inactive and aged between 16 and 64. What do you suggest for me, potato picking in Lincolnshire?

Me too! Maybe we could pick peas side by side? Assuming that we can get petrol to drive to the nearest farm that is.

The changes to the tax rules affects only self employed lorry drivers, not those employed by for example Iceland or Waitrose.

Not too many military have full HGV licences because haulage contractors are used for much of the routine work. I’m sure some could be fast tracked to train quickly although it would be low numbers compare with the shortage.

vegansrock

Just when is Johnson proposing to raise the minimum wage and force employers to pay more?

I work in a care home, I hope when he puts up the minimum wage he lets the local authorities know they will have to pay higher fees as they seem to think inflation affects everything except care fees.

Urmstongran

And Boris is saying that these unskilled workers ought to be paid more. Funny that someone thinks they can own a business, pay poor wages then think the taxpayer (us) should top up those wages with UC.

Begs the question ‘should some of these employers even be running a business in the first place?’.

You're talking about the likes of Tesco and other supermarket chains. Should their boards of directors be sacked?

Katie59

Checking up on unemployment figures which is not straightforward it seems there are 1.5m unemployed plus nearly 9m “economically inactive” (not seeking work) in the 16 - 64yr age group.

That seems an awful lot of working age people!.

They are students,landlords and those living off investment income.