AIBU to be worried about what the Director of the Food and Drink Federation said on the radio this morning?

[borntobequiet]

I get up early and like to listen to Farming Today on the radio (really interesting and informative about far more than just farming technicalities). This morning they interviewed Ian Wright, the director mentioned above. He was definite that leaving the EU without a deal would be devastating for both imports and exports. It would result in total logjams at ports, with just in time deliveries held up for considerable periods of time, and would impact very seriously on food availability in shops. This is all based on the government's own technical notices published recently. Here's a link to the programme (hope it works as they had an error message up earlier):
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qj8q
And here is a link to the Food and Drink Federation's statement on their website:
www.fdf.org.uk/news.aspx?article=8062
What worries me most is that this doesn't seem to be properly reported on mainstream BBC programmes or in much of the print and broadcast media.

Now now @FishesaPlenty - maybe it was the Millennium Bug that caused so many errors.

@Puzzledandpissedoff - so the Technical Notices are hysteria? Interesting.

Thanks for the daily express link borntobequiet. Will have a look.

I'm no IT expert, but don't doubt for an instant that some folk had to do some work to make sure things would be okay. But that didn't justify a guy gouging thousands for something he knew was unnecessary, nor does it justify those now making a killing out of promising us the end of life as we know it

Yeah because ONE guy being innovative and making some money really negates the hours of work actual experts spent sorting the millennium issues.

I don't think it can do any harm to ensure you have enough put by in case there at problems at the border, or a protracted period of snow or you have the flu. So we'll be making sure we have enough basics put by that if there is short term disruption we can manage (and we usually do this anyway before winter). If there is a long term problem I'm not sure what we'll do. We'll be able to use up the extra over the rest of the year if all is fine. So if you ha e the funds and the space I would personally prepare.

Well said @Almostthere15 .

bellinisurge I genuinely looked up decestate thinking that I was ignorant for not knowing the word. I'm guessing 'devastate', even though it doesn't quite fit grammatically.

I'm not one for pulling people up on spelling/grammar anyway, I just thought I was being thick!

so the Technical Notices are hysteria?

No - from the way they were written I wouldn't have described them that way at all

So if they aren't hysteria why is the Director of the Food and Drink Federation making it up?

Who are these calmer voices?

Prof. Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at City University, is also a calm voice. He's been writing for years about food security. He has regularly been warning of food disruption and shortages post-Brexit and the dangers posed by the government's proposals.

www.city.ac.uk/news/2016/july/how-brexit-threatens-britains-food-security

www.city.ac.uk/news/2018/july/brexit-food-risks

The British Nuclear Medicine society are calm people I think - well you'd have to be, wouldn't you? But they are concerned (as is my neighbour who is a cancer survivor and promotes the work of MacMillan Cancer Support):
www.bnms.org.uk/news/press-release-british-nuclear-medicine-society-statement-on-leaving-euratom.html

The EU is not doing great in popularity terms amongst the people of its member states. We’re not even the country where it is most unpopular. If they got themselves into a situation where they were effectively creating a blockade and people in the U.K. were starving because of it how do you think that would affect their image?

Similar situation have happened in the past. Ireland (who weren’t overly keen on being part of a larger union if you remember) had the potato famine. We in England stood by as the potato crop was destroyed and refused to import the wheat needed to save them because of trade laws and agreements and a desire to protect the interests of the rich.

Also Stalin’s blockade of West Berlin leading to the Berlin airlift in the late ‘40s.

Now I don’t think that emulating one of the worst crimes of the British Empire or aping Stalin is really a look that an organisation with a wobbly reputation wants to adopt.

I think it’s almost impossible these doomsday scenarios of starvation and death would happen. It would lead to worldwide condemnation and destroy the EUs image.

Quite frankly, if the EU were prepared to allow a situation like that to happen it would be a virtual holocaust and a crime against humanity. It would put them right up there with some of the most evil regimes in history and it would make them a worldwide pariah.

I really cannot understand why anybody would think that the threat of the EU creating a blockade stopping food coming to the U.K. is an argument for staying in the EU.

OP, if you really believe the EU would allow this to happen, why on earth do you think they are a good thing and something we wanted to be part of? It’s just so completely illogical I find it difficult to comprehend?

The much more likely scenario is that in the event of a Corbyn GE win there would be a run on the pound (even John McDonell admits that) and we won’t be able to afford food anymore. But I bet you still vote Labour don’t you?

I didn't say he was "making it up", bellinsurge, though I do feel it was all a bit worst case scenario. For clarity, though, it's not so much these kind of reports I was think of ... more the hyperbole that's being thrown around as a result of picking out selected bits

Same with drugs and medical supplies. Leaving aside the fact we are relatively self sufficient in terms of drugs and sell more of them to the EU than we do to them, do you really think the EU wants images of children dying from cancer because we’ve been blockaded flashed around the world?

Honestly, some of the stuff remainers come out with are ludicrous.

@Puzzledandpissedoff - who's making money off it? Apart from JRM's hedge fund managers, of course.

@Geraldine170 - not seen one mention of blockades , ffs. However, plenty of mention of snarl ups at the border on either side. Not the same thing.

We are not self sufficient in medical supplies, insulin, blood testing strips, blood testing monitors, insulin pumps, cannulas and infusion sets are all manufactured in Germany and Denmark. Get your head out your arse Geraldine

I really cannot understand why anybody would think that the threat of the EU creating a blockade stopping food coming to the U.K. is an argument for staying in the EU.

What blockade is this? Oh, it's our own lorries clogging up the M20, because we didn't realise that being a third country outside the EU would inevitably lead to border delays. Not French and German gunboats blocking our ports colliding with the Russian submarines
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-45021133

bellinsurge unfortunately the ghastly Rees Mogg, though a useful punchbag, isn't alone. Just as with currency speculators, there's a lot of money to be made by talking down the UK's prospects, with a view to cashing in later when things recover or even improve

Anyway, forgive me if I disappear for a bit; the grocery shopping won't do itself

Virtual holocaust, Stalin etc.
Appalling language and abuse of history. What next, a final solution for Europeans? Bloody hell. Literally.

Make sure you get some extra stuff in @Puzzledandpissedoff .

Maybe as a nation it'll make us more grateful for what we have and less bloody wasteful. The amount of pointless crap in the supermarkets is astounding.

I am a remainer, but looking for glimmers of hope!

@TakemedowntoPotatoCity - learn about growing your own and preserving food. Obviously being self sufficient at home is not a realistic goal for anyone but it will be something positive to put some homegrown stuff on the table.

Shall we take bets?

I suspect that the Leavers on this thread will, mysteriously, not label language like "virtual holocaust," "blockade," "crime against humanity" and "most evil regime in history" as "hysterical/hyperbolic" scaremongering. Because they are all from a pro-Brexit post, which itself unironically refers to the OP and other Remainers as ludicrous.