Westminstenders: What the winds bring

[RedToothBrush]

The next few weeks are crucial. Eu talks, covid handling, the US election and any other unexpected events (its nearly November, lets face it will probably be the weather).

It feels a little like the car crash in slow motion is about to hit the wall of reality. I guess that just means all there is left to do is to brace for impact.

Re Hauliers

I started saying on my FB in early 2016
and on here as soon as I found these threads

that physically moving lorries and goods would be a MUCH BIGGER issue
than fluffy ideas like tariff rates

It is an indictment of the lack of real world knowledge of all the folks in Government and Whitehall
that the penny is only dropping with 70 days to go

We are all fucked my friends.

I feel like clinging onto you all whilst swaying and singing cum by yah 🎵🎶

What gets me is the number who still don't know quite how fucked we are....

Yep.

The thread about shit food standards and no labelling as a result of a UK/US trade deal is a scary peek into how confident people are that it'll all be fiiiine.

Because the customer is king; because the public wants good food; because you can go to your local farm shop; because supermarkets could get round labelling issues by sneaking food out in its original box, so if it says 'Somerset Apples' on it then all will be well. Because there's no way the US can impose its will on the UK; because we can import from SAfrica; and - my favourite - because a PP has lots of swedes in their garden this year that they can barter /share round.
Or, good old C&P says, because Aldi sells Scottish beef in its Scottish stores.

What gets me is the number who still don't know quite how fucked we are....

Eek! I keep adding to my stockpile...seriously considering putting a stash of our favourite Italian wine in the garden shed as space in the house and garage is rapidly running out.

Ellie
Booze is one of the few things I am not stockpiling
because I know how big and how full the UK's bond stores are

We may all be slim after Brexit
but our livers will be mashed

news.bbc.co.uk/local/wiltshire/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8411000/8411511.stm

I would get european products you use regularly.

I shall be putting in a large order with an Italian wholesaler next month (wholesalers are desperate for trade too so its not upsetting supermarket supply chains). We eat a lot of Italian style food in our house as DS is a fussy little monster.

I really think that very few people had any idea what they were letting themselves in for.
For example I have a very pro-EU relative who is very intelligent and very highly educated, and has lived and worked in the EU. He was against Brexit of course, but for a very long time after it happened he anticipated that there would be a fairly modest downturn in the British economy but that apart from that things would pretty much carry on as before. He has only very recently started to become more pessimistic about how things are likely to go.

Yeah not stockpiling booze... We homebrew and are well stocked- i hear there are shortages of grain for homebrew atm though.

Half my stockpile is going off or not far off - all the bloody false alarms! I've started the last minute process of cooking and freezing lots of decent meals to keep us going through the cold months. I'll be freezing some continental cheese and buying in some oriental cupboard food.

We home distil - and have plenty of sugar. And some careful kitchen chemistry has seen us replace the currently unavailable Limoncello mix with our own (hence my making my own invert syrup).

The lack of job adverts for people to deal with the ECMT regime is it's own statement. I'd say if you run more than 10 lorries, that's one new full time job you have created.

Oh, and the elephant in the room is surely the simple fact this is a UK Government IT project. So we don't even need to what can go wrong. Just how soon after launch it does. My money would be on sub 24 hours.

This is the list of sectors on that doc for hauliers:
food products
unrefined fuels
metals
textiles
wood
refined fuels
chemicals
other non-metallic mineral products
transport goods and machinery
furniture
waste and raw materials
mail
none / more than one of these sectors

If they are in order of priority, I'd be wondering about aspirin, paracetamol, soap, bleach, disinfectant, toothpaste, etc...

Worried about my parents, as ever.

Not quite sure how hauliers that handle mixed loads have to apply ?

And you know that if a vehicle is selected for inspection it will be the first-loaded order that will need checking.

So that's a minimum of £133 per journey (plus the overhead of managing the application) where before there was zero. And that's before you factor in the delays and the Kent border pass etc.

All I know is if I were in government, I'd want the media to be talking about anything else for the next 70 days.

My dad had the good sense to die last year at the age of 98.
He lived a charmed life, London blitz, North Africa with the 8th Army, and had a full meaningful medical career.
I am just so glad he missed all this, Brexit and Covid.
Small mercies and all that

Not quite sure how hauliers that handle mixed loads have to apply ?
A lot of the cross channel freight is groupage
anything up to 100 different shipments on one truck

That is 100 sets of paperwork in both France and the UK on one vehicle and possibly many pickup and many drop off locations

the UK folks designing the rules really have no idea

@KonTikki , god forgive me but I have been thinking the same thing about my parents.

@ListeningQuietly

Not quite sure how hauliers that handle mixed loads have to apply ? A lot of the cross channel freight is groupage anything up to 100 different shipments on one truck

That is 100 sets of paperwork in both France and the UK on one vehicle and possibly many pickup and many drop off locations

the UK folks designing the rules really have no idea

Those that do mixed haulage (although presumably not necessarily on the same truck) get priority so that will presumably apply to most who get the permits.

Not quite sure how hauliers that handle mixed loads have to apply ?
Pfft. Stop being so neeegative.
S'obvious, innit?
They tick this box, which covers an interesting range of options and will doubtless provide a equally interesting range of solutions.

none / more than one of these sectors

Olive oil, balsamic vinegar, pasta and jars. Even things that are made here use ingredients from the EU and outside. A manufacturer I used to work for got most of its fruit from Poland. No blueberry muffins..

So I will stock freezer with frozen fruit etc.

And make some meals for the freezer- which is sensible in normal times anyway.

Those that do mixed haulage (although presumably not necessarily on the same truck) get priority so that will presumably apply to most who get the permits.

Ye gods they really have not thought that one through have they !!!

Oh look, as if by magic every truck becomes split load multidrop

ListeningQuietly

If I ever manage to drive up from the south of France some time after mid-2021 (an optimistic earliest date, I think) to see my family, I can see a whole new business opportunity opening up, involving olive oil, pasta, savon de Marseille, Provence wine, etc.

Now, where did I put that takeaway menu, so I can turn it into an order form?

Ahhh, balsamic vinegar my favourite tariff page

www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/commodities/2209009100

THIS is what the ministers have never understood
it is not the duty rate that matters
its the specification that matters

Being a software hack, the lack of integration jumps out at me. Applying for permits really needs to be baked into whatever order and scheduling system hauliers are using so that it's handled automagically.

Where are the specs ? Up Boris Johnsons arse would be as good a reply as any.

I'm in Ireland and I'm currently going through my cupboards to see what comes from GB. My plan is to source EU alternatives if possible or to stockpile if I can't. People were a bit at me stockpiling last time but more people seem to be doing it this time round.