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.

[user1471426142]

What I don’t understand from the ‘project fear’ people is where are there experts? Who is actually saying it’s all going to be wonderful other than some hard right Tories. Pretty much all of the actual experts in various industries etc are predicting it’s going to be a shower of shite. At what point does the government actually take on board it’s own advice and realise it has led the country into an absolute mess of its own making? I’m still half hoping they are being deliberately awful so everyone will give up on the whole thing.

[Havanananana]

If this were to happen it would have to be through a deliberate act by the EU. There’s no other way it could happen unless they deliberately impeded trade.

The only way this could happen is if EU officials acting under EU directives refused to allow essential goods in to the U.K. by imposing restrictive conditions on releasing them to us.

@Geraldine170
What is it that you don't understand? The EU will not and cannot stop food and essential goods being imported by the UK, from anywhere in the world.


The issue is that it is the UK that is leaving the EU, from where 50%-60% of the food comes, and it is the UK that does not have the capacity to process these goods as quickly as they are currently processed. Fewer goods get through the UK customs bottleneck - which means that fewer goods arrive at the supermarkets, the hospitals and the factories.


It is incredible how some people cannot grasp the simple concept that 'voting to end the free movement of goods means that goods can no longer move freely.'

[bellinisurge]

@Geraldine170 - sounds like the opening salvo of Leavers ' new mantra: bad stuff after Brexit is all the EUs fault.
Laugh? I nearly spat my tea out.

[lonelyplanetmum]

It is incredible how some people cannot grasp the simple concept that 'voting to end the free movement of goods means that goods can no longer move freely.'

Yes it means can no longer move freely in two senses as in moving easily and cheaply.

[yolofish]

I live quite near the M20 and reasonably near Dover. You really, really don't want to know how quickly that motorway grinds to a halt on an almost daily basis, in both directions - trucks coming off the ferries/tunnel or trucks travelling into Europe.

They are currently undertaking major works on the motorway junction near Ashford which wont be finished until autumn 2020, so at least 18 months after we 'take back our sovereignty' blah blah.

Those roadworks, by the way, affect an enormous amount of people because it slows up access to the nearest hospital and A&E department. Chuck in a few lorries and a cardiac arrest or three (from what is actually a fairly remote, rural part of Kent) and there is a tragedy waiting to happen right there, quite apart from the food and meds shortage and this government's total lack of planning and ostrich-like approach.

Still, la la la, rule Britannia etc.

[Satsumaeater]

Well it has to be refined but I can promise you that oil from the North Sea, refined at Grangemouth and elsewhere, is fueling cars and lorries throughout the UK today. It's also piped all round the UK

I didn't know that. I thought we exported our oil and imported oil for fuel. Ah well you learn something every day!

[TheElementsSong]

Leavers ' new mantra: bad stuff after Brexit is all the EUs fault.

Yes, this! And by whatever convoluted illogical process-that-can’t-actually-be-called-reasoning too!

[FishesaPlenty]

A "blockade" would be something deliberate

Excuse me?

I think you go on to make the same point I was fumbling to make Geraldine??

Nobody's going to 'blockade' us. It'll just be (maybe) a few hours of extra queuing for suppliers which will mean that we can't have things exactly how we have them at the moment.

It's the difference between exporting from Russia to Poland and exporting from Germany to Poland. One's easy, one isn't.

[borntobequiet]

Port of Dover video. Is perfectly clear what should happen to ensure no “blockade”.

www.doverport.co.uk/port/about/driving-trade-and-prosperity/

[HateIsNotGood]

Bomba - your OP is a little disingenuous in that you hardly heard a radio programme today and suddenly became "worried". That's fine and, just saying tiz all.

[FishesaPlenty]

I suppose the difference is that Poland has borders with 4 fellow EU members as well as with the non-EU Russia, so they don't have to worry about problems with imports from Russia. Currently it's actually easier to import something from Liverpool to Warsaw than it is from Moscow to Warsaw.

[bellinisurge]

Apparently they've just appointed a Food Supply minister.
Not bullshit scaremongering then.

[lonelyplanetmum]

Perhaps the minister is in response to this morning's Radio and this thread!

[borntobequiet]

Ooh good. I’m old enough to remember when a Minister for Rain was appointed in 1976 (though thankfully was living abroad at the time).
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1538065/Drought-and-the-minister-for-rain.html
Apparently it then started to rain. So now food supplies are guaranteed.

[TheElementsSong]

Food Supply minister.

Nothing to do with Brexit but merely proof that the government are a wretched hive of scum and villainy liberal elite Remoaning Remaniacs!!!1!1!!!111!!!

🤪

[bellinisurge]

The shit has got a little bit more real for them now they've appointed a Minister. Not a Cabinet level minister but all the bloody same.
Jesus.

[PhilomenaButterfly]

Which is all well and good bridget, but if our food bill goes up we won't be able to afford the rent.

[borntobequiet]

I hadn’t realised that planning for rationing before WW2 began in 1936, albeit tentatively. They gave themselves plenty of time...
museumcrush.org/how-the-ministry-of-food-managed-food-rationing-in-world-war-two/
Also struck by the first picture of women and children queuing for the ration. How many of us could spend a morning in a queue today?

[lonelyplanetmum]

Do you know Born ever since TM returned from Salzburg I have had this image popping up in my head. It is of doing the school run then joining a crowd outside our local Sainsbury's - all waiting for the delivery lorry to arrive to get in first to get specific things we would like.

It's easier me and some other Parents I know who work from home

[borntobequiet]

Business investors unconvinced by Mrs May’s optimism:
www.ft.com/content/38fe4e76-c199-11e8-8d55-54197280d3f7

[FruitofAutumn]

Every producer in every country wants to sell goods
The barriers to import are imposed by the country goods are coming in to!!!
So unless the UK decides to cause one there will be absolutely no problem with importing stuff.If the £ drops it miht be very expensive .
The problems are with export.But as the UK imports far more than it exports to EU there is every incentive for them to strike a deal.It is just waiting for the cock swinging to stop!

[TheElementsSong]

Anyway I don't know what Leavers are complaining about, they should be welcoming news of potential shortages and rationing. Over the past few months I've seen several Leavers getting quite excited at the prospect of Wartime Blitz Spirit and how what the nation needs is some hardship-imposed Backbone.

[BigChocFrenzy]

The EU would NOT stop supplies going to Britain

It is British exports that would be massively delayed - and this would be mandatory under WTO / WCO rules

Any logjams would be because UK lorries carrying exported goods are delayed at EU ports by mandatory inspections - which would cause a corresponding logjam at UK ports.

Emergency measures:

• The UK would have to apply an emergency WTO waiver, so it can let in EU food without having to apply the same checks as it would for food from India, China, Zimbabwe
  
  
• The govt should also allow only empty lorries to travel to EU ports and only to import food and meds, not industrial supplies
  So the French just wave empty lorries through, they get loaded up with food or meds and return to the UK without checks
  
  Drawback of course:
  Massive hit to UK balance of trade
  
  However, this would finally force the govt to get its head out of its arse and decide on which of the available trade deals it wants, instead of its cherry-picking fantasies.

[BigChocFrenzy]

The millenium bug would have been a disaster if not for the umpteen billions spent, especially by large multinationals, on correcting all the software

Yes, of course some people make ridiculous profits - that usuallly happens in a disaster when the normal financial checks are abandoned.

Yes, of course some businesses like hairdressers might not have been significantly affected, but many major businesses and essential services would have been unable to function adequately