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.

Oh, so the current problems are due to the French being on strike? Oh wait, they aren't.

What does a strike seven years ago have to do with the current delays, when the French border control are not on strike?

jgw1 - It's all getting a bit tedious now.

@Justanotherlurker this just isn't true about EU shortages. Maybe UK specialities in the 'expat' shops but not normal goods in normal shops. I'm asking friends right now. The first answer:

Rochechouart & St Junien (87600)
All shelves fully stocked, no shortages. Limitation of 1 per customer on Sunflower oil and some cheaper brands if mustard.
Just bought 8 oranges for €1.49

Bovrilly - Because this is not the 1st time and definitely won't be the last time that there have been long delays at Dover port. Brexit or no Brexit there have always been problems and there always will be.

Quia
So, @ Clavinova, what are your views on Johnson's behaviour with regard to Pincher?

Unfortunate/poor judgment that Pincher was appointed obviously - but I don't know how serious the original allegation was - presumably not serious if an apology was accepted as the solution? LBC's political correspondent reported last week that the Tory whip was suspended from Chris Pincher 24 hours after an official complaint was lodged - that seems an ok timescale.

Also, I suspect that staff at Number 10 bungled the press statements - Boris Johnson was still at the NATO Summit on 30 June (Pincher had the whip suspended on 1 July) - and Johnson said something about being fed up that other people had been speaking on his behalf.

No. There have always been things that caused disruption, like strikes. But this not a 3 day strike, this is FOREVER. This is Brexit. This is literally what you voted for.

Taking back your borders means massively increased paperwork at borders. That's obvious

Hmm so I guess you must be very concerned about the combined effect of extra / longer checks due to Brexit as we're seeing now (which will get even worse when the next lot of checks come in), and the next time the French go on strike?

I'm not sure "this service was sometimes shit before we deliberately made it much worse so why complain" is the hot take you think it is.

Oh, but hang on. What used to happen before we joined the EU in 1972?
I definitely remember going on holiday to Europe in 1970 and 1971.
As far as I remember we didn't need visas and children didn't have their own passports they were included on a parent's passport.
I did a school exchange in 1973 on a British Visitor's Passport. I don't think I had my own passport for at least another 2 years, possibly after I was 16?

@Mamamia7962 it certainly is. I just don't understand why all these people are going to join a queue. Do they not follow the news, surely they could just find a different route, go on a different road or something.

@Mamamia7962 You are so right.
What shocks me is that we have all known this for years and yet the Secretary of State of Transport who ultimately has responsibility for the Dover Harbour board has done nothing at all to address them.

Surely the Deputy Prime mInister once he had worked out that Dover was quite important could have suggested he did something about these very obvious problems?

What's that got to do with anything? It's not 1970

I thought the whole point of Brexit was to take us back to 1970, because it was a golden age to be English.

"The past is another country...."

In those days you needed a passport and a customs check to cross France > Spain ( the border posts are still visible) nowadays you don't.

Roughly speaking the internal European Borders block have (for better or worse) eased but the external Borders have hardened...we've volunteered to put ourselves outside the block.

If you were a white male maybe

@WillMcAvoy Those are really silly and quite unhelpful comments.
My point was, there was a time, within my living memory, when we did not belong to the EU (because we weren't wanted). Surely "resigning or withdrawing or cancelling our club membership" must take us back to that point?

Quick google ... Approximately 700,000 brits visit Australia per year. Likewise with America. Whereas around 12,000,000 visit France with a further 20,000,000 travelling through to other European destinations.

I don’t think it does because everywhere else has moved on 40 years. We’d only be back to the way things were before if all other countries turned back too.

Neither silly or unhelpful. Leaving the EU doesn't transport you back in time by over 50 years. Everything is changed, there is no comparison to be found.

Of course it doesn't take you back to that point, its a ridiculous notion.

I mean do people actually think like Swizandswap. Is he /she actually a real person ? The bitter malice is astounding for a person who is so glad that she voted leave , and that others are suffering as a result. Leavers incuded.

Included

Why would I google it? You did it for me.

How many of those used air to travel? How many started in countries other than France? How many travelling through were not British?

Even in Eu times that amount of people would have caused a standstill at Dover!

But thanks for the research. It was pretty pointless without a breakdown.

WillMcAvoy - Of course the queues around Dover and the lorries parked on the M20 aren't forever.

I'm not a Brexiteer, but the French do have a history of this so it's not just down to Brexit:

www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/23/port-of-dover-seven-hour-delays-border-checks-france

I thought the whole point of Brexit was to take us back to 1970, because it was a golden age to be English

Uncomfortably close to the actual truth.