Westminstenders: Tachographs and Empty Shelves

[pointythings]

So Grant Shapps' solution to the shortage of lorry drivers is to allow them to drive longer hours.

Leading to more accidents and deaths on the UK's roads. But Brexit is Job Done and all is well - isn't it?

UK is rapidly on the way to be a skip fire clusterfuck. That said if you are a tradesman or a HGV driver or someone on minimum wage in hospitality Brexit looks like it is working for them. Couple that with a kick in middle-class entitlement then I can see the logic not that that was ever the plan. The plan in that there was one was never to win and boost Johnson and Gove in party rankings. That seems to have worked as well.

We allowed a narccistic amoral devious bufoon to basically smash up our ordered estate. We are not a serious country anymore sadly.

I am not sure that it is really working for HGV drivers - many of them are getting on a bit, and find the conditions unwelcoming, so a cash bribe might not work.

Question - will Johnson's new Red Wall voters make up for a loss of aggrieved middle class Tory voters? I don't know. Johnson won't want any more Chesham and Amersham style by-elections. (Although they wouldn't be as complacent the next time round.)

More great negotiation skills
news.sky.com/story/exclusive-ministers-bowed-to-pressure-to-drop-key-climate-commitments-for-uk-trade-deal-with-australia-12401988

That said if you are a tradesman or a HGV driver or someone on minimum wage in hospitality Brexit looks like it is working for them.

?

No shortage of HGVs on the road this weekend just gone. Which suggests that if those vacancies were all filled, the UK would simply grind to a halt - the traffic is bad enough as it is.

And tradesmen remain as shit as ever. Those that actually turn up, that is. It's usually faster and cheaper to take a course in whatever you need doing than hire someone to have ago at it for you.

I speak as someone who put a £1,000 job on all the local social pages in April and is still waiting for replies.

I do hope the wages rise for the lower paid too. Although it'll just be lost in the new taxes and inflation.

But since Johnson is only really interested in England, he could have increased income tax here and encouraged the devolved Governments to do the same.

Oops posted on wrong thread..

In case you missed it ...
This is how they promised the NHS would be after Brexit

Scumbag liars doesn't even touch the sides of the deception.

twitter.com/i/status/1435545410517540868

@Peregrina

But since Johnson is only really interested in England, he could have increased income tax here and encouraged the devolved Governments to do the same.

I smell a clumsy attempt to try and buy off independence with the threat of being less well off.

To which the canny Scots will say "Get ye"

It's interesting that one of the drivers behind the Talibans success is to appeal to a sentiment that it's better to be free and poor than rich and occupied. I believe Milton summed it up ...

Ultimately this is the same sentiment driving Brexiteers too. They'd rather you were poor and free etc etc ...

Yes, well, people on here were predicting this some considerable time ago.

www.bbc.com/news/business-58484454

I'll pick out some of the most pertinent parts, shall I?

"The UK is expected to drop out of the list of Germany's top 10 trading partners by the end of this year, official German statistics suggest.

Germans spent £13.8bn, or nearly 11%, less on British goods in the first six months of 2021, according to data from the Federal Statistics Office.

The UK has been in Germany's top 10 trading partners since 1950.

But with Brexit-related hurdles taking a toll, it looks set to drop to the 11th spot by the end of 2021."

"Before the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016, it was Germany's fifth most important trading partner.

But it came ninth last year and is now expected to fall another two places."

"Mr Schmidt said the new trade realities would have hit small UK companies more than German ones, as they were less accustomed to selling their goods outside the EU."

[Funny that, German firms being more accustomed to selling outside the EU than UK companies, despite being in the EU. Who'd have thunk it? Ed]

""For many small British firms, Brexit meant losing access to their most important export market," he said.

"It's like shooting yourself in the foot. And this explains why German imports from Britain are in free fall now."

Gabriel Felbermayr, president of the Kiel-based Institute for the World Economy, said: "The UK's loss of importance in foreign trade is the logical consequence of Brexit. These are probably lasting effects.""

[And the last sentence is priceless.]

"The Department for International Trade did not immediately respond to the BBC's request for comment."

If I've read correctly the UK has also been denied entry to Lugano. Which will be interesting.

To add to the stream of good news resulting from the fallout consequences of leaving the EU....

M&S warns of new food supplies threat as Brexit rules change https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58462351

But, but, but . . . what will happen to all those poor German car makers?

Imports to the UK from Germany are still increasing - according to the article, because they are used to the paperwork involved in exporting to a 3rd country

Pesky EU allowing countries to have an unfair advantage by letting them export outwith the EU

The Telegraph is not happy with Johnson.

The main paper had a banner about 'blue socialists'. No, I don't think so.

.

HGV drivers not wanting to come back to the UK even if they have the right to

Why eastern European truckers are not planning to return to the UK

[If you're struggling to get behind the pay wall, Google the exact title above]

https://www.ft.com/content/0231f4b2-a6e3-4e08-bbbc-ff0a6b791262?fbclid=IwAR0FyFUEYN40bcVtu0GMiJ4f50ZwpEso4HpkTNUZa86ibKRM2a3MLikVKek

Also was looking at a FB thread today (anecdata, I know ) where pro-EU (or anti-Brexit) members of the group were asked if there were any shortages in their countries. Except for building supplies, the answer was No. No food or medicine shortages.

So there might be a European wide shortage of HGV drivers, but as they can do cabotage between deliveries/countries, they can do their jobs more efficiently.

Non-anecdotally, the fact that Nando's and MacDonald's don't have any problems on the island of Ireland is pretty telling as to where the real issue is

More winning
www.bbc.com/news/technology-58501527
"Three brings in EU roaming charges and ends global scheme"

How was it supposed to go? Mobile network providers would be free to stick with free roaming in the EU for UK customers after Brexit? Or, as it turns out, free to raise costs anywhere outside the UK.

Along with "Whatever happened to the £350 million a week ?" that nobody is asking Boris about, could be added the question "Whatever happened to the autonomous lorries" we were promised by 2021.

Joining in with anecdata, but I have heard claims that remembering what people said in the past - and reminding them of it - is a form of bullying. Apparently.

The still secret agreement with Australia had the climate change commitments stripped out of it at Australia's behest: because, according to Scott Morrison, it is a trade deal and that they need to be trusted on their climate change commitments (but as Sam Coates of Sky says, just how legally enforceable are "implicit commitments"?)

 Australia and UK governments at odds over why key climate targets were stripped out of future trade deal http://news.sky.com/story/australia-and-uk-governments-at-odds-over-why-key-climate-targets-were-stripped-out-of-future-trade-deal-12402967

To me, it also illustrates the relative strength and/or desperation of the negotiating parties: the fact that the EU required these climate change commitments in their deal, so they stayed in; whereas Australia didn't want them and therefore they were stripped out.

Says it all

@Chersfrozenface

More winning www.bbc.com/news/technology-58501527 "Three brings in EU roaming charges and ends global scheme"

How was it supposed to go? Mobile network providers would be free to stick with free roaming in the EU for UK customers after Brexit? Or, as it turns out, free to raise costs anywhere outside the UK.

The comments on that article are illuminating. Brexiteers getting their arses handed to them right royally.

We aren't that far from the average Brexiteer becoming an Alf Garnett caricature. Not sure where that leaves or leads us. But it's fascinating to watch.

We know what we need to do when Johnson hosts the Climate Conference - make as much noise as possible about how his Government is NOT committed, new coal mines, new oil exploration licences and an Australia trade deal stripped of binding agreements tell their own story.

The G7 Conference did not go the way Johnson wanted, and he was thoroughly sidelined over the Afghanistan withdrawal, so lets give him another failure.

Meanwhile, it's by turns pathetic and hilarious seeing the French running rings around Priti Despicable. Quite aside from the optics of a British naval commander having to claim they were "obeying orders" is the rather dim threat to withhold a piddling few million from the French. Which if realised would simply justify a Gallic shrug to completely look the other way. Probably with some sort of story in La Canard Enchaine about how post Brexit Britains sunny uplands were a migrant magnet.

Meanwhile the Guardian seems to think this is incompetence rather than malevolence. I am not so sure.

@pointythings

Meanwhile the Guardian seems to think this is incompetence rather than malevolence. I am not so sure.

I agree.

What was the Guardian link? It's been removed rather quickly.