Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

School ski trip cancelled due to chaos in Dover - fuck the tories

1000 replies

TheColourofspring · 02/04/2023 10:57

My 15 year old son has just spent 17 hours in a coach in dover waiting to go on a much anticipated ski trip. It’s cost us over £1500 over a year and we hoped, given everything our kids lost over covid, it would be a positive experience.

The school just notified us to say that now- due to health and safety, drivers hours etc- the trip needs to be cancelled and the kids are on their way back from dover.

Absolutely FUCK the lying Tory cunts - they ruin everything. They try and blame the French yet all of this lies at their door. Fuck them all for ruining 100 kids trip (and probably thousands more) and ruining everything they touch with their stinking corrupt lies and their lies about brexit.

My son was in tears.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
10
Villssev · 02/04/2023 14:52

Of all the things to spark a how shit Brexit is debate

the safety of a child being driven by someone on mountain roads who has not slept for a day… is surely not one of them

RedEyeBaby · 02/04/2023 14:53

Villssev · 02/04/2023 14:49

What’s your point?

That in case of delay we wouldn't have to turn around and drive home. I thought that was the point of the thread.

Villssev · 02/04/2023 14:54

Naunet · 02/04/2023 14:48

The public are fully capable of informing themselves. I believe in democracy, even if I don’t agree with the outcome, I never claimed to be an expert, no need for dramatics.

The “public” comprise a good proportion of people that are illiterate and / or have special needs and / or too busy trying to keep their heads above water to get down to research

ATerrorofLeftovers · 02/04/2023 14:54

jgw1 · 02/04/2023 14:36

If you are referring to migration across the English Channel, that is because the French are consistently refusing to take control of our border. Why are they so keen on letting so many people cross the Channel?

It’s not for the French to take control of our border! That’s for us.

I agree with you that the issue is complex and it needs both countries to work together. Which is precisely why Brexit was never going to be the answer.

Another76543 · 02/04/2023 14:54

myoldmansatrendydustman · 02/04/2023 14:47

Why is the situation so much worse at the ferry terminals?

I have given the answer to this several times.

There is an optimum speed at which a ferry can be loaded.

The ship has to be stable when it sails that is called "trim".

Ferries have a draught of about 20 feet - ie that is the depth of the ship below the waterline. They have to put lorries and coaches in the hold to act as ballast. This causes the ship to sit lower in the water and makes it more stable. They have to do this first and do it evenly to keep the ship upright, They know how many lorries /coaches are booked but not necessarily exactly when they will arrive.
They cannot start loading cars unless they have a certain number of lorries on board or the ship would 'turn turtle'.
All lorries and coaches have to be chained down in the hold to stop them moving about. This takes time.

You could have 100 people checking passports but that won't speed up the loading. Travellers are advised to get to the terminal 90 mins before sailing during 'normal' times.

For those of you complaining about this all I have to say is "Herald of Free Enterprise"

The ferry companies have all said that their checking in process is free flowing though. There isn’t a delay there. The ferry companies have the capacity to load at their normal rate. They haven’t got enough coaches to load purely because they are stuck the other side of border control.

TheSnootiestFox · 02/04/2023 14:55

myoldmansatrendydustman · 02/04/2023 14:47

Why is the situation so much worse at the ferry terminals?

I have given the answer to this several times.

There is an optimum speed at which a ferry can be loaded.

The ship has to be stable when it sails that is called "trim".

Ferries have a draught of about 20 feet - ie that is the depth of the ship below the waterline. They have to put lorries and coaches in the hold to act as ballast. This causes the ship to sit lower in the water and makes it more stable. They have to do this first and do it evenly to keep the ship upright, They know how many lorries /coaches are booked but not necessarily exactly when they will arrive.
They cannot start loading cars unless they have a certain number of lorries on board or the ship would 'turn turtle'.
All lorries and coaches have to be chained down in the hold to stop them moving about. This takes time.

You could have 100 people checking passports but that won't speed up the loading. Travellers are advised to get to the terminal 90 mins before sailing during 'normal' times.

For those of you complaining about this all I have to say is "Herald of Free Enterprise"

This, @myoldmansatrendydustman, is the most sensible post in this entire conversation. But it's far easier to blame the Tories.

Villssev · 02/04/2023 14:55

RedEyeBaby · 02/04/2023 14:53

That in case of delay we wouldn't have to turn around and drive home. I thought that was the point of the thread.

Yes but this was never going to a journey that required two coach drivers. if everything had gone to plan, one would have not involved the driver being awake for an inordinate amount of time

Celeriacsoup · 02/04/2023 14:56

Luckydip1 · 02/04/2023 14:12

Don't forget, the Tory PM urged everyone to vote against leaving Europe for the referendum.

He was woefully complacent about it though. The Leave campaign was much better than that of Remain’s, largely because it had the right wing Murdoch and Rothermere press backing it.

And Boris of course saw an opportunity for himself and swayed the vote. And his ERG cronies helped him.

The Tories allowed their own party, and their own moderate centre to be completely overwhelmed by the right.

Even once the vote in favour of Leave became known, no one really knew what “flavour” of Brexit we would have.

Tories could have led the way in voting to stay in the single market but Theresa May ruled that out as a possibility, and she made the disastrous decision to call an election, which opened the gates for Boris to become PM and take the party even further to the right and in to the hands of the ERG.

And do you remember as an aside that this then ultimately allowed Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng to lose an estimated £30 billion from our economy and no one ever mentions it again?

Maybe Sunak has pulled it back a little but he was never a Brexit supporter. He voted to Leave and has almost always voted for pro-Brexit policies.

So yes I think we have very good cause to blame the Tories for Brexit - who else is there to blame - and the parlous state that the UK is in atm. And I for one shall never forgive them for it.

Even if Cameron had had the wit to insist that there needed to be a majority vote to leave or remain within Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England individually, in order to determine the referendum vote, we could have avoided this current shit show.

Sockloon · 02/04/2023 14:57

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

myoldmansatrendydustman · 02/04/2023 14:57

TheSnootiestFox · 02/04/2023 14:55

This, @myoldmansatrendydustman, is the most sensible post in this entire conversation. But it's far easier to blame the Tories.

Thanks for that.

I'm leaving now as IMO this thread is getting silly.🙄

RedEyeBaby · 02/04/2023 14:58

myoldmansatrendydustman · 02/04/2023 14:51

Have you even read one word of my post?

You could have 100 people checking passports but that won't speed up the loading.

ANPR won't speed up loading either - it just moves the 'bottleneck' on to the dock.

Yes, I read every word of your post and I found it really interesting.
So I'm not convinced that we can lay the blame at the government's door, and the increased car traffic for easter must surely add to the problem.

Since we no longer manufacture here we are importing more of everything. Ever more lorries to and from the continent.

jgw1 · 02/04/2023 14:59

Naunet · 02/04/2023 14:48

The public are fully capable of informing themselves. I believe in democracy, even if I don’t agree with the outcome, I never claimed to be an expert, no need for dramatics.

@Naunet You are clearly a Brexit expert.
Could you explain how it is possible to have different regulatory regimes in the UK and the EU, but no border either on the island of Ireland or in the Irish Sea?

RedEyeBaby · 02/04/2023 15:00

Villssev · 02/04/2023 14:55

Yes but this was never going to a journey that required two coach drivers. if everything had gone to plan, one would have not involved the driver being awake for an inordinate amount of time

Why not? Do you know where in the UK they drove from, and which ski station they were going to?
If turning for home were the answer, how did the single driver manage to drive home?

IClaudine · 02/04/2023 15:00

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

What a deeply and well thought out response. Bravo!

Livinginanotherworld · 02/04/2023 15:01

Catuscatish · 02/04/2023 13:16

Blame the people who voted for Brexit. There now seems to be this pervasive idea that people simply had no idea what they were voting for. They were lied to, they couldn't have known .

Except it's rubbish. There were many many voices beforehand warning of the dire consequences including issues caused by restricted freedom of movement . They were dismissed as project fear. No doubt you'll find old threads on here if you look.

The people that voted for this shitshow are the people to blame for the mess we are in. They each bear their own degree of personal responsibility. They each used their own tiny bit of power to give us what we have now.

Blame the Conservatives if you will, but they only implemented the will of the people.

That's democracy.

This 100%

AFlockOfTigers · 02/04/2023 15:02

There were many ways to implement departure from the EU, and many Leave campaigners asserted that we'd be staying in the customs Union. Nobody forced this particular flavour of Brexit on the Johnson government.

aholidaynotacarpark · 02/04/2023 15:02

Villssev · 02/04/2023 14:49

Personally Op

i would be very relieved by this restriction OP. Who’d want their child being driven on montano roads by a coach driver who’s basically not slept for a day

The OP will fully understand and agree with the restriction. She's passed off about the situation that caused the coach driver to go over their safe hours, which ultimately is Brexit.

Never not once have I read or heard a leader highlight anything that is an actual tangible benefit of Brexit. Absolutely zilch.

It's an utter fucking unmitigated disaster. As most of us knew it would be.

Ionlydrinkondaysendinginy · 02/04/2023 15:03

I can't believe how many peoples messages have been deleted and are probably banned now. Never ever discuss politics. We all know people can't handle it when others don't agree with them.

Villssev · 02/04/2023 15:04

aholidaynotacarpark · 02/04/2023 15:02

The OP will fully understand and agree with the restriction. She's passed off about the situation that caused the coach driver to go over their safe hours, which ultimately is Brexit.

Never not once have I read or heard a leader highlight anything that is an actual tangible benefit of Brexit. Absolutely zilch.

It's an utter fucking unmitigated disaster. As most of us knew it would be.

Every single year, pre brexit, the diver queues for Easter getaway made the news

Villssev · 02/04/2023 15:04

RedEyeBaby · 02/04/2023 15:00

Why not? Do you know where in the UK they drove from, and which ski station they were going to?
If turning for home were the answer, how did the single driver manage to drive home?

Clearly it didn’t require two drivers

otherwise… there would have been two drivers on board 😂

Celeriacsoup · 02/04/2023 15:04

The ferry companies have all said that their checking in process is free flowing though. There isn’t a delay there. The ferry companies have the capacity to load at their normal rate. They haven’t got enough coaches to load purely because they are stuck the other side of border control.

^^ That’s very interesting Another76543

DuncinToffee · 02/04/2023 15:04

Did you not see the heightened security after Munich terror attack

Bit different to Easter holiday traffic Hmm

whatistheworld · 02/04/2023 15:05

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

of course you can who else is to blame? We took back control of our borders! what are the French and EU supposed to do?? FFS

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

This thread is not accepting new messages.
Swipe left for the next trending thread