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Brexit

Westministenders: Festive Edition

999 replies

RedToothBrush · 22/12/2020 21:00

Good King BBBBaBoris looked out,
on the Port of Dover,
There the shit lay round about,
Deep around the stopover;
Brightly shone the moon that night,
Tho’ the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight,
Delivering stuff for Yule.

“Bugger SAGE and stand by me,
We've all stuff that needs selling,
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?”
“Sire, he lives a good league hence,
The other side the EU;
Though relations maybe tense,
He's trying to get goods through.”

“Oh god I need another wine,
I have many crisis to consider:
We must tell them its all fine,
I must not be seen to dither.”
SAGE and monarch, forth they went,
forth they went together;
Through the nation's sad lament
and really crappy weather.

“Sire, our plight is darker now,
And the covid transmission stronger;
Fails my heart, I know not how;
To keep Tier 2 much longer.”
“Soon we can drop their wage.
And treat them all more coldly
In Britain's new chrony age
A time to rob more boldly.”

In their master’s steps they trod,
On the quest to get minted;
Each and every last sod
Needs to be fingerprinted.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure,
DWP claimants are processing,
Ye who now will bless the poor,
God its all so depressing.

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Thread gallery
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Pepperwort · 23/12/2020 12:37

It’s not as if it was predicted at all, was it? Big bad French bullies need their bottoms smacking. It’s just not cricket, the bally foreigners should have given us what we want. Gift wrapped, preferably.

It sounds like RTB is having much the same emotional reactions as me.

OhLittleBoreOfWhabylon · 23/12/2020 12:40

Just heard a caller to radio station saying that a Spanish truck driver has been seen collecting rainwater to drink Sad Angry

HappyWinter · 23/12/2020 12:46

This was on another thread about supermarket shopping from @em777

I think we can definitely expect shortages a few days after Christmas:

Rod McKenzie, the director of policy at the Road Haulage Association (RHA), said the delays caused by the two Governments' wrangling over testing had been "disastrous".

"It's been a major disruption to the supply chain. Conditions at Manston Airport are terrible. Very few loos. Two thousand trucks parked and no food. It's just awful," he said.

"It's damaging because if I was an East European lorry driver I would not want to do this run again. So that damages us. I don't think the Government has gripped it at all.

"There's a backlog of 6,000 to 7,000 lorries which will take days to clear even with the rapid lateral flow tests. What is really worrying is that it is beginning to impact on the supply of food for the New Year. We will start to see problems with salads, green vegetables being in short supply in the run-up to New Year."

According to the British Retail Consortium, 40 per cent of supermarket food imports come via the Dover straits.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/22/uk-france-agree-deal-allow-mass-covid-testing-lorry-drivers/m

DoctorTwo · 23/12/2020 12:47

These threads are great at cutting through the beau de lollox coming from our government. Thank you all.

quiteathome · 23/12/2020 12:47

Even British produce relies on things from Europe to help to grow it/ produce it. Why don't people understand this. All very well telling me to buy British

HappyWinter · 23/12/2020 12:47

@OhLittleBoreOfWhabylon

Just heard a caller to radio station saying that a Spanish truck driver has been seen collecting rainwater to drink Sad Angry
That's awful, I hope the government will help them soon. There's a Sikh charity helping them at the moment.
Peregrina · 23/12/2020 12:47

Even if this does get sorted out soon, a lot of continental drivers are going to think twice before they come over again in a hurry. But leavers did want to control our borders - but it only had to work the one way!

RedToothBrush · 23/12/2020 12:54

@quiteathome

Even British produce relies on things from Europe to help to grow it/ produce it. Why don't people understand this. All very well telling me to buy British
The new regulations on seed purchasing are awful. No more tulips from Amsterdam as a gift for your mum...
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RedToothBrush · 23/12/2020 12:58

@Pepperwort

It’s not as if it was predicted at all, was it? Big bad French bullies need their bottoms smacking. It’s just not cricket, the bally foreigners should have given us what we want. Gift wrapped, preferably.

It sounds like RTB is having much the same emotional reactions as me.

Who needs Eastenders when you have BBC News?

Every day has a 'duff duff' moment right now.

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RedToothBrush · 23/12/2020 13:01

BBC:

The entrance to the Port of Dover is currently closed with a line of police officers is blocking it.

They told me they will not start allowing vehicles through until “protesters” move from the roundabout at the entrance.

The “protesters” are several dozen drivers standing outside their vans and trucks, some shouting, but they are largely peaceful.

They told me they will not move as they do not want to go to the back of the queue and cannot move anyway as the road is blocked in both directions. Central Dover is completely gridlocked.

Oh well thats helpful. Now the ones at Manston who get a negative test won't get through within the 72 hour window that France is allowing...

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TokyoSushi · 23/12/2020 13:03

Taken my eye off the ball slightly this morning, had to do some actual work since I've been sitting on here fairly constantly since Saturday.

So they're doing what with the Dover queue? Saying you have to get out of the queue, that you've been in for 4 days, drive somewhere, get tested, and then when you have a negative result, go and get back to the back of the queue for the port?

WTF? No wonder the drivers are furious! Why are they not just testing them, in situ, in the bloody queue? The front of the queue could be moving in half an hour. I'm not sure if it's possible due to space but surely if you're positive, THEN you turn around and get out of the queue and go to wherever godforsaken place you have to isolate. Although judging by the groups of drivers and the lack of masks/distancing, I wouldn't be surprised if COVID was now rife amongst the drivers!

Live pictures now on Sky and it looks bloody awful!

TokyoSushi · 23/12/2020 13:07

So if this has blown up in such a manner, what marvelous plans do we have in place to stop this exact thing from happening in the case of a no-deal Brexit in just 10 days' time?!

I'll say it again, my dog could do a better job than this!

TurquoiseBaubles · 23/12/2020 13:11

Do the army not have a helicopter? Surely just get to the front of the queue and start testing, the results will be back before the trucks get to the docks. Stop fucking about with traffic management; it's too late for that.

RedToothBrush · 23/12/2020 13:12

The lorry drivers at the front of the queue have been told to go to Manston or Canterbury to get a test before they will be allowed to board.

The trouble is there are no tests available at either atm. (BBC now saying that they have just arrived)

And the lorries at the front can't move anyway because the town is gridlocked.

The police have now closed the port, saying that those at the front have to move. (they can't)

The trouble is you now have those at Manston having the paperwork to travel, but unable to move because the roads are gridlocked... whilst those unable to move in Dover are unable to get the paperwork.

It reminds me of the guy who was told the records said he was dead and he couldn't legally prove he was still alive.

We have reached that level of beaucratic clusterfuckery.

And we now have a standoff between the police and the lorry drivers which can only possibly be solved by a man getting on a motorbike with tests or forceably removing a bunch of gridlocked lorries (good luck with that one) or by the french relaxing their new rules.

Piss Up. Brewery.

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TurquoiseBaubles · 23/12/2020 13:12

x-post Tokyo. It's bonkers. If I was in that queue there is no way I would move.

AuldAlliance · 23/12/2020 13:13

Feck. It's like a rerun of the 1948 Berlin airlift, with the roles reversed.

Ich bin ein Londoner or summat, eh?

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/23/lufthansa-fly-fresh-food-uk-shortage-fears-fruit-vegetables-border-french-blockade

RedToothBrush · 23/12/2020 13:13

Don't worry Priti Patel is on the case.

The home secretary has said the border between UK and France is reopening and the "priority is to get lorries moving and mass testing is under way".

Writing on Twitter, Priti Patel said the government is urging lorry drivers not to travel to Kent as work is done to "alleviate congestion".

"Travelling now will slow things down. Tourist travellers who are not French residents should not travel," she added.

Might be over by next Christmas then.

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TatianaBis · 23/12/2020 13:19

Sikh volunteers from the Gravesend Gurdwara cooked up 800 free hot meals for stranded lorry drivers. They were distributed by Sikh charity Khalsa Aid. ❤️

SabrinaThwaite · 23/12/2020 13:19

According to my Brexiteer DM, it’s the civil servants fault and Macron being French (she doesn’t like the French).

Couldn’t possibly be due to decisions made by the Government and fucking stupid public statements made by Ministers.

FatCatThinCat · 23/12/2020 13:22

So they're doing what with the Dover queue? Saying you have to get out of the queue, that you've been in for 4 days, drive somewhere, get tested, and then when you have a negative result, go and get back to the back of the queue for the port?

The queue is apparently 4 days long. So once they get to the front, again, their negative test will have expired and they'll have to go get another one.

wewereliars · 23/12/2020 13:25

An absolute shit show . This government is an absolute shower of incompetent psychopaths. We are so fucked, none of those EU drivers will want to set foot in this country again.

baroqueandblue · 23/12/2020 13:25

This is how the people who bring food to our ungrateful little country are treated now? And meanwhile the good people of Kent shout foul at the French from the sidelines, egged on by a criminally complicit bunch of cowards in government who take the piss by saying "oh well then, we'll just get our mates in planes to do it instead"?!

My only consolation right now is that my unbearable sense of national shame will one day die with me.

mrslaughan · 23/12/2020 13:26

Macron on believe said in Sunday - that when the boarder reopened , the divers would need a negative test. WTAF they didn't get a couple of trained staff on motorbikes to swab those at the front (name , passport number /vehicle reg and what three words location, phone number) . Those results could be processed by now......

We on this thread know why that wasn't done - but seriously- we are completely tucked in this country as the government has not ability to plan ..... it's all incompetence tied in with flying by the seat of their paints ..... compete fucking disaster.

I am also getting kissed off with threads about buying caulk and broccoli from British farms - of course we will! But when that runs out? Not like they can plant crops to be ready in a week....

RedToothBrush · 23/12/2020 13:28

@FatCatThinCat

So they're doing what with the Dover queue? Saying you have to get out of the queue, that you've been in for 4 days, drive somewhere, get tested, and then when you have a negative result, go and get back to the back of the queue for the port?

The queue is apparently 4 days long. So once they get to the front, again, their negative test will have expired and they'll have to go get another one.

Exactly.

Its nuts. And the management of it by the government is nuts.

I bet Patel just says on the tv the lorry drivers at the front should move and then sits on her hands and goes home for christmas.

At this rate we will have riots and a full blown humanitarian crisis in Dover. Shall we call Unicef now or later?

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TheDinosaurTrain · 23/12/2020 13:29

Any sign of if / when today’s press conference will happen?

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