If freight isn't allowed in from France

[justgeton]

What does this mean for our food chain?!

Definitely concerned. I heard freight and thought, uh-oh. Then heard COBRA and realised I should be even more concerned.
This, plus brexit. Fuck... It's going to be a messy week.

Whereas this is definitely a clusterfuck of epic proportions a lot of speculation on Twitter that this will only last as long as it takes to figure out that the new strain is all over Europe already
Also suggestions that it’s a negotiation tactic to get brexit sorted ASAP

Surely they could do containers? So load on in France, unload onto lorries uk side.

It would be slower

@chomalungma

It's a reminder that countries in the EU do have control over their borders.

Maybe it's political. But there will be panic buying tomorrow.

We depend on imports from the EU more than they depend on us.

Tomorrow is my only day off until Christmas Day and I have to go to the supermarket. I am dreading it. I won't be panic buying, though. I've kept my stocks of essential non perishables up since around May, so I only really need veg and bread.

@NichyNoo

Never mind food....you do realise the vaccine is made in Belgium and comes into the UK via France.....???!!!

They had back up brexit chaos plans for this that involve planes. So should be OK (hmmm).

Without meaning to sound thick, just how long can they hold us to ransom? As surely we are their customers, they need our money for what they export.

They aren’t holding us to ransom, they’re closing their borders until they can get a handle on how serious this new COVID strain is. As millions of brits (including me) wanted the UK gov to do with flights from China in Jan/Feb.

The EU governments may decide that it would be better to compensate their exporting producers than to import a more contagious strain of COVID. It may be cheaper overall for them to do so. I hope that won’t be the case, because I don’t want to be in a situation where we need the military to collect essential supplies from the continent.

France is trying to protect its peoples, that's all

There is no way that strain is only here, in the UK.

Dear God, the ‘they need us more than we need them’ posts on this thread highlight the Brexit supporters

Are you really still banging that drum?

France have banned all our incoming travel, what part of that don’t you understand?

I wonder what WTO terms permit de facto closing down of all passing trade?
What does the WTO have to do with an internal EU matter during a pandemic ?

Never mind food....you do realise the vaccine is made in Belgium and comes into the UK via France.....???!!!

It'll be fine, they can just drop it out of planes, in fridges with little parachutes or maybe drone it over the channel in fridges , or stick it in fridges and send it back with repatriated holiday makers, honestly there are plenty of unlikely and largely unworkable options

@1frenchfoodie

I guess planes could do drops

Umm, no - big logistics companies will load trailers in calais, without cabs/drivers and drivers will pick up in Dover. It already happens, but currently as part of freight flow that includes accompanied loads too. Not an option open to all companies and tricky for the common ‘consolidated loads’ with consignments for multiple companies but better than plane drops..

Ahh okay, I didn't realise this was such a thing. I did wonder about unaccompanied when they mention accompanied freight but couldn't see how they could load lorries with no drivers!

Panic buying champagne

It's going to cause major problems, isn't it - just as people will have put Christmas plans on hold and need to get extra food in.

I don't think it matters why France have done it or if they are justified - at this stage it feels pretty scary.

@ChloeCrocodile

Without meaning to sound thick, just how long can they hold us to ransom? As surely we are their customers, they need our money for what they export.

They aren’t holding us to ransom, they’re closing their borders until they can get a handle on how serious this new COVID strain is. As millions of brits (including me) wanted the UK gov to do with flights from China in Jan/Feb.

The EU governments may decide that it would be better to compensate their exporting producers than to import a more contagious strain of COVID. It may be cheaper overall for them to do so. I hope that won’t be the case, because I don’t want to be in a situation where we need the military to collect essential supplies from the continent.

You really believe it's because of the new virus strain?

@waltzingparrot

I reckon diverted to Felixstowe / Harwich / Hull

Have those ports left the UK then? 🤔

Access to Dover currently quite tricky, of course...

Of course its serious. Its unprecedented in hundreds of years, comes after ports are already back logged and as Europe (yes because of those who voted for Brexit) no longer needs to work with is.

If you want to understand things study history and political theory rather than listening to idiots on a forum saying things that are demonstrably false.

If our own Government are telling us that people shouldn’t travel in or out of Tier 4, it’s hardly surprising that other countries don’t want us coming and going. We have control of our borders, which apparently was very important to us (even though we’ve never made any practical attempts to implement control) - they have control of theirs - it’s symmetrical. Surely all Leave voters must welcome this? It’s only what they wanted, after all.

If only someone had warned us four years ago that our food supply chain depends on fast and unbureaucratic movement of goods across the Channel! WHY DID NOBODY TELL US???

How bad is this new strain, really, for everyone to ban flights from the UK?

Is there any chance that it will be under better control before Brexit kicks in?

It was reported in the news last week that Brussels were threatening to ban UK air travel over Europe as of January if a deal couldn't be agreed. Then, who'd of thought it, a mutated strain of covid causes an overnight u-turn by the government over Christmas rules (despite it knowingly having been in circulation for a couple of months now) and a number of European countries ban flights to/from the UK as a result. All rather convenient really...

The cynic in me says it's an opportunity for a negotiation tactic over Brexit. The French give the British public a taste of what No Deal will be like and a weak and panicked government thrash out a deal before the end of next week.

It's not cynical, it's reality.

And we are the ones who will suffer.

This has played right into their hands. We had pretty much no bargaining chips anyway and now we have got even less.

French, thanks re non driver freight but even then with the grid lock can anything get through?..

Wasn't there 20 miles plus of queues recently?.

I'm not convinced re others being more than worried about this new strain, more than us.

I'm sure we would be doing the same about shutting things down if this was rampaging across eu.

I find it suspicious that after managing the crisis well, all of a sudden Germany has cases going out of control, I know its colder there and the virus loves the cold but....

Planes could do drops? Don't you need allies willing to do that?

Macron’a seen the end of 28 Weeks Later that’s all.

Our new super-Covid just makes all the zombies run faster.

@ListeningQuietly

I wonder what WTO terms permit de facto closing down of all passing trade? What does the WTO have to do with an internal EU matter during a pandemic ?

It is the response to the spurious nonsense "this is the inevitable result of Brexit".

France choosing to close the main passage through which our goods now flow is not the inevitable result of Brexit. It isn't even the inevitable result of covid. It's something else and we would do well to remember this in future.