If freight isn't allowed in from France

[justgeton]

What does this mean for our food chain?!

Me too Jeremy. I think most people feel the same, it’s only the ERG headbangers and their followers who want to continue with brexit.

Closing the border is like shutting the stable door after the horse has been out for a week.

In light of what had come to light about reintroductions driving the pandemic and the importance of superspreader events I actually van see the logic in at least reducing border traffic to essential only.

Perhaps it will transpire that we have an excellent testing facility that has recognised this new strain before anyone else and whilst it is widespread in Europe, we spotted it first! Something to be proud of! 🤭

@justanotherneighinparadise

Perhaps it will transpire that we have an excellent testing facility that has recognised this new strain before anyone else and whilst it is widespread in Europe, we spotted it first! Something to be proud of! 🤭

I do actually think this is likely and/or that we were first to admit to knowing about it.

Slovakia's population is 5 and a half million, Austria is what, eight and half to nine.

You cannot compare those numbers to the UK.

Sainsbury's have tweeted and said they've got all Christmas food in, they might start to struggle with lettuce and cauliflower in a few days. It does look like food will be alright. Feel for the EU truck drivers stuck in the UK, there's such poor infrastructure for them.

Supermarkets have been clear on Twitter that there is more than enough fresh food in the country for Christmas.
There will only be a problem in the supermarkets if people panic buy so I hope they put plans in place this morning to stop that.

Meanwhile what about the thousands of businesses trying to export £££ of fresh food to the continent ahead of Christmas. Unless the situation is resolved in the next few hours they will have to dump it and refund their customers and face financial ruin.

@ChardonnaysPetDragon

Slovakia's population is 5 and a half million, Austria is what, eight and half to nine.

You cannot compare those numbers to the UK.

Is that relevant? Presumably they also have an infrastructure built to serve their population numbers, as we do.

Good! The supermarkets can stop the ability to stockpile by limiting quantities. They should be pros at this by now!!

@Frazzled2207

Supermarkets have been clear on Twitter that there is more than enough fresh food in the country for Christmas. There will only be a problem in the supermarkets if people panic buy so I hope they put plans in place this morning to stop that.

Meanwhile what about the thousands of businesses trying to export £££ of fresh food to the continent ahead of Christmas. Unless the situation is resolved in the next few hours they will have to dump it and refund their customers and face financial ruin.

How much bloody cauliflower do you need?

I don't eat much lettuce at Christmas.

@tootyfruitypickle

If Covid has taught us anything it’s that you can’t keep it out. It’ll be all over Europe. So as soon as that’s evident the borders will reopen.

If you look more globally, I think the lesson might be that you can keep it out and just have to tamp down the odd outbreak if you act quickly and decisively. There’s a reason the U.K. announcement has been met with the response it has until everyone has more info.

RTB no prawn cocktail?

My lettuce is already in the fridge.

Fortunately I love root vegtables and cabbage and even sprouts, slighty concerned about the cauliflower shortages that Sainsbury's have just mentioned, as cauliflower cheese is my go to comfort food.

As long as I can get some black pudding and a pork pie, all will be calm in the Frumpety household

I wonder if Sainsbury's over-ordered cauliflower and lettuce, and by telling people there may be a shortage they're hoping people panic buy them so they can shift 'em

Oh! What a tangled web we weave
When once we practise to leave.

@Parker231

Cobra meeting chaired by Boris tomorrow to discuss the freight problem.

I really wish that this was reassuring.... He’s just a stooge, there to deliver Brexit for his cronies. He’s totally incompetent.

Of course it’s relevant.

Mmm pork pie.
My kids will celebrate the vegetable news.

The real problem here is the drivers tbh

I am not fighting in the aisles for cruciferous vegetables. My arse will thank me for it.

The sprouts are everywhere. There will be no escape.

I believe it is perfectly reasonable to close the border to humans while assessing the situation. Did Macron do it just to be a dick? Well probably, but nevertheless it would have been reasonable if he'd done it for pure motives. France barely does any genome testing, they wouldn't know a new strain from an old one. I'd say with 99.999% certainty it'll be pointless grandstanding, because the strain is already in the EU and we probably got it from the mink in the Netherlands anyway, bit of a MASSIVE coincidence to have that same mutation if not. The EU can't keep their own citizens from coming home for too long either and most countries have no real quarantine facilities, so they'll struggle to have this last the week.

In an ideal world, the trucks delivering fresh supplies to France would be turned around immediately to deliver to UK supermarket warehouses, at least it would save wastage even if people have to buy anything different. I'm sure Londoners and SE would be grateful for the turkeys, hams, sausages, etc. Meanwhile everything coming in from the continent needs to be moved into unaccompanied containers. I hope the logistics firms don't have too many people on holiday already, lots and lots of overtime to be had today.

By the way, happy to sell some French red wine and champagne for £1000 per bottle, just send a PM and I'll dig it out from the garage.

Where exactly are these unaccompanied containers going to come from? One of the problems is that the container ports are jammed, so they can't unload the containers, so therefore they are stuck in places like Felixstowe, which is no good if they are needed in Calais.