We fecking told you so. Brexit making us suffer.

[flashbac]

Project Fear you said. Sunlit Uplands you said. Sovereignty you said. Can I buy food and heat my house with Sovereignty? Can I put sovereignty in my car's fuel tank? Can I?

It was common sense that this would happen. Common SENSE.

@IvorHughJarrs

Jesus wept! Is this never going to end? We have had years since that vote and a worldwide pandemic. It is time to move on, stop whingeing and just get on with things regardless of how we voted at the time

The other thing we were warned about was that the fallout from Brexit would last decades. On the basis -pretty much everything that was predicted is coming to pass, I have no reason to doubt that either.

@DunderMifflinSalesRep

Can anyone name another European country currently experiencing food and fuel shortages, or soaring energy prices?

Anyone?

Though, I don't think it's entirely down to Brexit. It's also a direct result of the appalling decisions made by a government that consists of those that were chosen for their Brexit ideology rather than their competency, voted in overwhelmingly by Brexit voters.

Spain has seeing soaring prices in energy and households electricity bill which is why the government has slashed consumer energy tax by 20%. I think the Italian government has done something similar.

OP you are not wrong.

OK - a couple of points:-

1. The vaccine rollout (which btw is NOT anywhere near the top these days) has NOTHING TO DO WITH BREXIT. We could have done exactly the same if we had stayed in the EU. In fact, we were still subject to the EU rules where we did the rollout. Good or bad, this is a unicorn that never existed
2. Brexit is NOT done. There are multiple ongoing impacts and changes that are STILL occuring. If you want to worry yourself, go have a look at the import rules that we are legally obliged to put in place (You know.... those good ol' WTO rules). They have been put back twice by the current government (need 5,000+ vets sort of handicaps this a bit). Similarly, there are dramatic impacts on finance industries with equivalence etc.
3. The current issues with transport are simply one more issue, in what will I suspect (but fervently hope will not be) a cascade effect of disaster. I have a fear that as one item goes out of kilter, other elements will have a knock on effect, knocking other stuff off track etc.
4. The supply chain issues are NOT limited simply to the number of HGV drivers. Red tape at the border, VAT on imports, the assumptions behind "just in time" ordering as well as the issue with drivers ALL add to the cost of transport and "supply chain" issues. The HGV driver issue, whilst important, is simply one issue amongst many
5. The people who will eventually pay for this ("paying a decent wage to HGV drivers" etc.) WILL BE THE POOREST IN SOCIETY. When costs go up (as they will have to), it is the people at the bottom of the ladder who pay most. We all need the same (ish) amount of food. But if you have £100 per week to live on, a MUCH higher proportion of that money is spent on food and other essentials. You simply cannot just absorb the rise as someone who is better off might be able to

Everything happening at the moment cannot be attributed to Brexit alone. YABVU if you think that's all we're dealing with.

@worriedatthemoment the education my children are getting is not free. My husband and I work full-time, and always have and pay tax and NI.

This isn’t as simple as just pay more. You don’t become an HGV driver overnight. You first need a driving licence. And the ok from a doctor. Then pass the course for HGV driving.

Many unemployed don’t have either or both of the first 2.

Then let’s look at the pay. Have we seen what they actually get paid? Poor wages for what they do? Would you not agree that’s the case across many careers? And yet we all sit like slaves watching Strictly, or football, happily swallowing their inflated incomes. We both work in public services, and haven’t had a real pay rise since 2010 when the Tories got in and started destroying public services.

When the latest policies such as changing rules on paying for Care (so wealthy families get to hang onto their wealth) and hitting the working population with an NI hike, instead of aiming their sights on rich landlords, who have so many in a stranglehold of paying extortionate rents, it surely shows as a country we have very fucked up priorities.

Raising wages will just lead to rising prices. Watch Martin Lewis, or the financial experts on the news. The shareholders (eg the wealthy!) will always take their slice. You can’t force people to work, so shutting out a big part of your working population is a huge own goal.

Brexit was a far, far bigger step than so many thought about, and the implications are only just been seen. Too many based their vote on sound bites, and tabloid newspapers.

Sorry forgot to add....o fuel or food shortages anywhere in Europe as far as I know.

I am fascinated by these threads blaming Brexit on all our woes...Pandemic anyone? I guess its a sign people feel they are moving forward from the last 18 plus months.

@ittakes2

I am fascinated by these threads blaming Brexit on all our woes...Pandemic anyone? I guess its a sign people feel they are moving forward from the last 18 plus months.

There are multiple causes and the pandemic makes many things worse. But all countries are dealing with the pandemic, it's only the UK dealing with this shit.

Can anyone name another European country currently experiencing food and fuel shortages, or soaring energy prices?

Well here's a selection of what they are noticing about the UK ...

www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/brexit-eu-europe-newspapers-uk-shortages-292005/

Everything happening at the moment cannot be attributed to Brexit alone

It does and it doesn't. What's happening now is a consequence of Brexit and your government not taking the steps to deal with the consequence of leaving the EU.

The UK government had four years to prepare the country for leaving the EU and failed to do so. Brexit was a democratic decision taken by the majority, the consequences of Brexit are squarely on your own government failure to govern.

@DGRossetti,

Coming from a completely unbiased source owned by a venture capital fund heavily invested in industry, whose target audience is predominantly young professionals in London.

Wonder why they are blaming Brexit…

@Bunnyfuller have you seen how many qualified hgv drivers we actually have ? More than enough to cover the gaps but they have chose to go and work elsewhere
This is more than just brexit , we would still be short , if you can't see that then your not listening to the actual drivers and companies, you know the ones who actually know
Your taxes will never likely pay for your childs education along with everything else such as nhs etc , unless your in the highest band , most of us will prob take more than we give in a lifetime
But if its so bad why would you wait ? Why not go now whilst your children can re settle and make friends , you could decide to go when their education is finished - they may decide not to go with you at this time though as will be old enough to make their own choices
I know many who voted brexit as well as remain and those that voted brexit knew their would be tough times as well , they didn't think overnight it would be perfect
I know a lot of eu citizens who have settled in uk and some who planned to but covid made them reconsider as suddenly visiting family became a lot harder
In this instance you cannot wholly blame brexit and need to look at all the causes of which there are many factors

[quote TheReluctantPhoenix]@DGRossetti,

Coming from a completely unbiased source owned by a venture capital fund heavily invested in industry, whose target audience is predominantly young professionals in London.

Wonder why they are blaming Brexit…[/quote]
Whatever ...

Fridge is full of food, car full of petrol....🤷‍♂️

@Bunnyfuller we don't even have mich of a shortage of the fuel tank drivwes according to many , couple companies had issues ( few petrol stations affected) everyone being twats and buying way more than they need has caused this , the media in the country have a lot to answer to

If you want to worry yourself, go have a look at the import rules that we are legally obliged to put in place (You know.... those good ol' WTO rules). They have been put back twice by the current government (need 5,000+ vets sort of handicaps this a bit).

I was listening to a pig farmer in the radio a couple of days ago. She was saying that because of the lack of vets and also those with butchery skills in abbatoirs, many are simply unable to function at the moment. That means many pig farmers are unable to sell their stock. Several of these are likely to go bankrupt, then more pork will need to be imported, probably with import charges and from countries with lower welfare standards.

I know someone who owns a property in Spain, planning to relocate there permanently, yet still voted Brexit. That is the kind of stupidity we are talking about.

@ittakes2

I am fascinated by these threads blaming Brexit on all our woes...Pandemic anyone? I guess its a sign people feel they are moving forward from the last 18 plus months.

The pandemic? How so? We’ve had 18 months of the pandemic and the worst of it has hopefully passed. People are getting vaccinated and things are slowly turning back to normal.

If it was the pandemic, this would not be be a new issue.

Maybe Brexit is difficult for people to understand because they don’t appreciate what links we had with the EU and what that meant. As those links break, then when issues come up like the shortage of HGV drivers and the energy price hike, the fact is that Brexit only makes it worse.

I’m sure there will be other issues later on down the line - which will be made worse by Brexit because as a country, we’ve completely cocked up how we interact with other countries for mutual benefit.

It’s funny how people crow about sources being biased/anti Brexit but they happily lapped up all the pro Brexit talk that was drip fed to them via Facebook etc without engaging their brain.

Plenty of leavers I encountered are extremely well educated and very wealthy. They knew exactly what they were voting for. Remain voting was sky high in many working class areas.

You are correct but this was part of the problem.

We knew that leaving the EU would have downsides like shortages of workers and goods and would increase prices of goods and services which is why so many wealthy people voted to leave as they don’t care about rising costs as they can afford it, which seems really unfair. Whilst many working class people knew that they would struggle even more so voted remain.

From the moment the Brexit vote came through, the government could have been predicting the upcoming labour shortages, for they were predictable, and funding apprenticeships and training schemes to fill the gaps in preparation. But no. The current batch of tories are incompetent and extremist group who don’t have the best interests of the UK at heart. Why they are still so high in the approval ratings is beyond my comprehension. I’d like to see the incompetent Starmer booted out and a centrist / left coalition who have set aside identify politics to deal with the real crises the nation faces.

I know someone who owns a property in Spain, planning to relocate there permanently, yet still voted Brexit. That is the kind of stupidity we are talking about

I know a couple with the same problem. They had a house in Almunecar (Granada) and were planning to early permanently retire there. They voted leave because "it was the right thing to do being British". Many of us tried to tell them the consequences, they didn't listen. They thought they will still be able to retire in their house after Brexit.

They sold it 3 months ago after failing to gain residential status.

@worriedatthemoment

I haven’t said it’s all Brexit. But everything we’re experiencing at the moment is either directly caused by it, or is being made worse by it.

HGV drivers moving to other industries is not unique. People change careers all the time, and their reasons will be similar regardless of career. How much do they earn @worried ? You cited pay and conditions as the reason for the shortage, what are they actually paid?

Our children are coming to the end of their education so in exam years etc. To move now would disrupt that so we as a family have decided to wait until they are done. Added to which we’re anxious as to limits on where we will be allowed to settle following the country ditching freedom of movement.

Keeps those foreigners out tho, eh?

I suspect the lorry drivers applying for jobs paying £50k plus, with decent working conditions, are not complaining.

Please show me where the jobs advertising for lorry drivers that actually pay £50k plus are as I would be happy to apply?!

I know of 3 people who used to work as lorry drivers and were all ‘capable’ of making make £24k+ But this was in fact impossible to do unless they worked 6+ hours of overtime everyday which I believe is actually illegal as you can only drive a certain amount of hours a day.
They are given a time limit to do a certain amount of deliveries and it is almost impossible to get them done within your working hours.
I didn’t realise how bad delivery driving had become until quite recently.

Fridge is full of food, car full of petrol....🤷‍♂️

Nice