Why would the Government even need to think about rationing food, the ports in France are putting plans in place as are our ports.
But the Government is already thinking about rationing - or at least about how to ensure that food and medicines are fairly distributed. At the moment they are talking about voluntary rationing - e.g. supermarkets limiting the quantity that can be bought – but that doesn’t work if the public begins to panic, or when some chancers decide that they can buy what they want and that the little security guard at the supermarket is not going to stop them. Otherwise there is rationing by price (you can only buy if you can afford the new, higher prices) or finally formal rationing through books, coupons or plastic cards and ID.
The French Customs worked-to-rule in March in protest at the inadequate Brexit preparations. The queues stretched back for over 30km and took days to clear. Note that these were the current 'rules' - after Brexit a whole raft of new and unfamiliar rules will be applied, severely delaying traffic. The UK haulage industry also believes that facilities on both sides of the Channel are ill-prepared to cope with Brexit.
There may be some disruption to begin with and there may be some temporary shortages of certain products…
‘Temporary shortages of certain products’ will become the new normal. Brexit is not an isolated incident like a heavy snowfall, where the shops can re-stock in a day or two. Brexit will mean ongoing shortages for the next few months, if not years, while the UK renegotiates hundreds of trade deals. [Unless the plan all along has been to flood the UK with low-quality food from the USA].
In addition, the UK food industry is highly dependent on labour from the EU to pick, process, pack and distribute food produced in the UK. 90% of the vets in the food industry are from other EU countries. If these workers begin to encounter a hostile environment (e.g. they can no longer access healthcare) they are not going to stick around very long. They can move to other EU countries where wages are increasing in comparison to the falling UK Pound.
I do wish people would stop catastrophising
If those expressing concern are wrong, nobody will suffer any ill-effects and we’ll all rejoice, albeit with a large slice of humble pie. But if those concerns prove to be justified everyone will suffer, including those who have been fantasising about the benefits of Brexit for the last 3 years.
We are not going to starve
Perhaps not – although there are already millions in the UK who struggle with food poverty, and a rise in prices coupled is not going to make these numbers smaller. Anyway, here’s a picture of what rations looked like last time. These are the rations for a week – little more than some people currently consume in a day. People didn’t starve to death, but they were often hungry and malnourished. Read Eric Sykes’ autobiography for a vivid description of life in London after the war when he literally didn’t have the money for a crust of bread.