Port of Dover Critical Incident

[AndreaC74]

Why are we blaming the french? they didn't vote for Brexit and aren't responsible for increasing/paying for extra capacity at the French border posts on UK soil.

Stamping passports is what happens to 3rd country nationals & that adds time, a lot of it, when dealing with 100s of '000s of passengers, plus having recently been to France, i ve seen UK people arguing with French officials because they don't want their passports stamped!

The UK seems incapable of organising anything at the moment, the numbers travelling across the channel is entirely predictable and delays we are now seeing were talked about pre 2016, i remember seeing the graphs on how long the queues would be for just a few seconds of delay for each passenger.... all Project Fear.

Nothing then

Are the rampant MN'ers still trying to squint at any issue and blame brexit, they was all out in force during the supermarket shortages and went quite when it was also happening across europe.

When the French (which might upset a PP as they are already paying taxes for this) has said it was down to a technical error on their part is it still being blamed on Brexit?

The lack of critical thinking on this thread, so many have been salivating for years to jump on anything to try and prove a told you so narrative that all logical thinking goes out the window, see the field worker/trucker shortage.

If it was due to Brexit it would have been noticed long before the 'anticipated' uptick which the French taxpayer are already paying for but had technical issues.

When ardent remainers who get their thought processes from hot takes on twitter are out of touch with French Boarder control, it may be time to put your phone down...

Strangely, the interviewer didn't spot the large meat processing plant less than 15 minutes drive away

That article is four years after the report I saw, and it's about a factory in Merthyr, not Ebbw Vale. Nobody in Ebbw Vale, when asked if there were lots of immigrants there, would consider who lives in Merthyr. You can't "spot" Merthyr from Ebbw Vale, it's two valleys over.

The point about the other question - has the EU benefited the community - was that the guy had just been using a leisure centre funded by the EU and said no. Of course the total wrecking of the South Wales valleys by Tory governments is not easily overturned by EU grants. But millions of pounds of EU money invested in business development, education and transport is better than nothing.

They was all= they were all
Went quite= went quiet
Boarder=border

It seems like English is not your native language.

@Justanotherlurker

If it was due to Brexit it would have been noticed long before the 'anticipated' uptick

In the context of Dover, no it probably wouldn't.

Yes the referendum was 6 years ago, but as I recall it transition only ended in January last year - it was only at that point that we really began to see any of the major changes at Dover etc being enforced to any degree.

Last summer travel was still clobbered by the pandemic and the resultant "yes you can travel"/"no you can't" /yes../no... Covid travel rule changes so many people didn't travel ex-UK.

This summer is the first time we've seen a combination of the post transition rules in effect at Dover and the summer holiday traffic back to anything like pre-pandemic normality..

Next few days will be interesting.

I guess the ongoing lorry queues also have nothing to do with Brexit and the red tape

If it was due to Brexit it would have been noticed long before the 'anticipated' uptick which the French taxpayer are already paying for but had technical issues

First major summer holidays in several years.
New controls at passport control with full passport checks
Lots of people trying to get away.

Brexit sure doesn't help in this situation. It just makes things harder. There will always be problems at border controls but we have just made it that much more difficult for ourselves to enter the EU.

It seems like English is not your native language.

As a matter of fact no it isn't so well spotted, ironically coming across as the 'Gammon' you so despise considering that is all you can pick up from my post....

Next few days will be interesting

Clearly it will be fine as the French passport officers will be able to get to work as there will be no more incidents.....

There have been so many comments about just waving your passport to gain entry pre-Brexit. Whilst I haven’t travelled from Dover for a long time, I have regularly travelled to the EU by air and it’s a long time since I was “waved through”. Passports have been scanned for years. The difference now is that they stamp your passport after scanning it. This takes seconds. Also, some EU countries allow U.K. citizens to use E Gates as they did pre-Brexit.

Last time I was at Dover - a few years ago - passport control was very quick.

@cakeorwine and when I went to Malta last year it was just as quick as the two occasions I went pre-Brexit. A few seconds extra for the stamp. Likewise when I went to Lisbon earlier this year, I went through the E Gates so was just as quick.

Well let's see how it holds up with car loads of people, limited passport booths at Dover, lots of cars coming through - which is different to an airport.

Agreed..

I've heard rumours from others that maybe at times it was a bit less rigorous at the Channel ports but It's always found the border police (PAF) quite thorough in their processing when I've arrived in France through the couple of airports I tend to use.

The changes over the last 18 months - specifically the need to present either your TdS (if resident), other documentation, stamps for non residents etc, have definitely, generally, led to the queues moving a bit more slowly.

If that increased thoroughness is replicated at places like Dover it will be interesting to see the effects in the next few days and weeks, even with a full house of PAF Officers.

stoneysongs
You can't "spot" Merthyr from Ebbw Vale, it's two valleys over.

13 minute drive apparently from the centre of Ebbw Vale to the meat processing plant; 13 min (7.7 mi) via Heads of the Valleys Rd/A465

the Heads of the Valleys road, dualled using £77.3m of EU funds

Waste of EU funding then if residents in Ebbw Vale don't use the road to work and shop in Merthyr.

Nobody in Ebbw Vale, when asked if there were lots of immigrants there, would consider who lives in Merthyr.

The Catholic primary school in Ebbw Vale is listed as a feeder school for the Catholic secondary in Merthyr - EAL 27% (2018).

I guess the ongoing lorry queues also have nothing to do with Brexit and the red tape

I guess the empty supermarket shelves in the rest of the EU is also down to brexit?

Thank you for the factoids about South Wales (where I actually live) but I'm afraid it remains true that nobody asked about immigrants in Ebbw Vale in 2016 would think to reference a meat processing plant in Merthyr where there were migrant workers four years later. Merthyr is a separate place. And in any case it was the interviewee who said there were no immigrants, having just said he voted leave because of all the immigrants. The point was to highlight that discrepancy. He didn't like all the immigrants and then said there weren't any 🤷‍♀️

Well there wasn't much else to pick up

In all these things that are going on in the world, Brexit just adds more difficulties to an already difficult world situation.

Things are hard out there - and yes, that includes in the EU.

Brexit just makes things harder. In the running race of life, we have decided to tie our laces together just to add some more challenges to it.

(Also the A465 is a major road linking Swansea to Hereford ie West Wales to the Midlands. It's not wasted if people who live in Ebbw Vale don't use it to shop in Merthyr. It's a bit like saying there's no point spending money on the M1 if people in Luton don't use it to shop in Milton Keynes.)

@Justanotherlurker what empty shelves? Other than items affected by the war in Ukraine, I'm not hearing about any empty shelves from my relatives in France, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands. And it was the same when the lorry driver shortages were at their peak - empty shelves here in the UK, full shelves on the other side of the Channel.

Jgw1. I'm cringing all the way through this thread at your posts and the replies from poster in good faith who think your post's are real.

Jgw1 posts are a parody, a satire of what he/she thinks brexiters are thinking, their motivations.

It's not real!

He/she fully backs remain and longer time MN user's will know this

what empty shelves? Other than items affected by the war in Ukraine, I'm not hearing about any empty shelves from my relatives in France, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands. And it was the same when the lorry driver shortages were at their peak - empty shelves here in the UK, full shelves on the other side of the Channel.

You are being willfully obtuse in your reading of my comment, at the time of the empty shelves, Lorry driver shortage, lack of fruit picking in the UK, MN and ardent remainers where all jumping on a 'Told you so' narrative until it is pointed out that the rest of the EU is having the same issues, as with all FBPE twitter hot take threads it goes full on Gammon 'didn't know what they was voting for' to 'well brexit played a part', Ukraine has had an issue, so has lockdown, maybe you could get your extensive family from europe to speak to mine that will show empty shelves in france of some products whilst the UK has full shelves.

You are so close to joining the dots but are so indebted to tribal political thinking that if you did posses an ounce of critical thinking would realise that what you had just typed was a waste of time...

You and your anecedotal family members don't know where I live or how I voted, or that I could have first hand knowledge of what is also going on in the EU via my family, friends and work collegues

stoneysongs
Thank you for the factoids about South Wales (where I actually live) but I'm afraid it remains true that nobody asked about immigrants in Ebbw Vale in 2016 would think to reference a meat processing plant in Merthyr where there were migrant workers four years later.

Fours years later is a red herring;

BBC 12 May 2015
^Merthyr has seen the biggest percentage rise in immigrant population in Wales, and between 2001 and 2011 had the second biggest percentage rise in the UK.
Many of the incomers were attracted by work at the St Merryn Meats processing plant in the town.^

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-32693480

You are so close to joining the dots but are so indebted to tribal political thinking that if you did posses an ounce of critical thinking would realise that what you had just typed was a waste of time

Increasing trade friction with our European neighbours is going to make things more difficult than before.

Of course, Covid, energy prices, a war in Europe doesn't help....but we just threw in Brexit to the mix to make trade just that much more difficult.