Government listens to British Industry, hurrah!

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"Some crises come with plenty of advance warning.

More than three months before brawls broke out on Britain’s petrol station forecourts this week and pictures of empty supermarket shelves filled the newspaper front pages, industry chiefs met government ministers to warn of a supply-chain crisis.

The executives came to the June meeting armed with a list of potential fixes: temporary visas to recruit overseas HGV drivers; action to clear the Covid-19 driving test backlog; extended driver hours; and a campaign by the government to urge retired British HGV-licence holders to get back behind the wheel.

But junior transport minister Lady Charlotte Vere was reluctant to act, according to two people present at the meeting. Instead she told the executives that there was “a perception that the industry is crying wolf” and that the government did not want to “create panic”.

The department denied at the time it was being complacent, but it was not until Monday - some 73 days after that June 16 meeting — that ministers finally agreed to all of the industry’s requests. Some 10,500 temporary visas have been issued to drivers and poultry workers, and Vere herself has signed a letter sent to a million HGV drivers this week begging them to get back on the road."



FT.com
 
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Cheer up John, take a look at the sh*tstorm that's engulfing Europe. No supply chain, No gas, No fish and No submarines.(y)
 
Cheer up John, take a look at the sh*tstorm that's engulfing Europe. No supply chain, No gas, No fish and No submarines.(y)
You can of course provide a link to those claims?

BERLIN, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Germany does not see any sign that it could face the same kind of fuel shortages suffered in Britain, a spokesperson for the economy ministry said on Wednesday.

"We do not see any shortages in Germany," the spokesperson told a government news conference. "The supply situation is good, security is high."
 
You can of course provide a link to those claims?

BERLIN, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Germany does not see any sign that it could face the same kind of fuel shortages suffered in Britain, a spokesperson for the economy ministry said on Wednesday.

"We do not see any shortages in Germany," the spokesperson told a government news conference. "The supply situation is good, security is high."


:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
 
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Going to Czech Republic for 4 weeks later this month, hopping over the borders into Slovakia and Poland while I'm there. Let's see if there are any shortages or signs of chaos that we have. Unlikely. CZ has realised it's stronger in a union with it's neighbours. These countries aren't trying to police other countries or worrying about vainly trying to save the third world. They don' t welcome third world migrants to come in and sponge off of hard pressed taxpayers. (Note - housing is cheap and plentiful in CZ, they haven't filled them with the third world, so Czechs have the dignity of a good home without sky high rents and mortgages.) They're just busy with making sure their countries are safe and secure for their own populations. Maybe these Eastern/central European countries could teach us a thing or two.

And it's 73 degrees and sunny over there at the moment.
 
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Now come on be fair. The shortage of HGV drivers positive spin is levelling up due to pay rises. Exactly the same in some other areas. Just as promised people will be richer etc we will level up.

:( Trouble is we will all have to pay more for stuff due to an increase in transport costs and there still isn't enough of them and they are going up anyway for other reasons especially imports. Looks like the forces have been doing a lot of rapid training as the numbers of those to be on the road soon has increased.

Care costs - probably increases there too if people will take the jobs. Training?

Fruit etc picking. Well during lockdowns many Brits tried it and went home with bad backs after a week.

A lady has 3,000 pigs to slaughter - were are the butchers she needs. She reckons they may have to be culled. May have been 5k actually.

There is no quick fix, Maybe copy the USA with terrorists. Armed forces go out incognito and grab the needed people and bring them here by force.

Maybe bring back the poor houses after a fashion. Huge barracks, support them and send them out to work - no choice.

Nothing ever good comes out of a proportion of a nation feeling they are special, It never has and usually results in war but that isn't an option really these days.
 
I see your article referred to empty shelves in EU, those empty shelves were in one supermarket chain only, caused by their (and only their) delivery drivers going on strike over a relocation to Netherlands, I think.
It was reported by some so-called EU expert (James Holland) and was trending on twitter a couple of days ago, but the rest of twitter soon put him right.

https://twitter.com/James7Holland/status/1443877723026477077/photo/1

https://twitter.com/SbeattyStephen/status/1443894346797957120

This is a local media site reporting the situation more informatively:
https://www.rtbf.be/info/economie/d...s-difficultes-d-approvisionnement?id=10849689
If you open it in google, you can use google translate.
 
It was just the first article on a search for "shortages in the US" to which which my post saying "even in the US" related about which I heard on a US chat show last night.

I knew you wouldn't believe me if I had just said that so I'm sorry the linked article was not completely to your satisfaction.
 
I see your article referred to empty shelves in EU
It says "Europe", not the "EU", the photo is of a UK supermarket, and the only mentions of "Europe" are "Walk around a supermarket in the U.S. or Europe and you will see some empty shelves once more" and "Aldi and Lidl, which have already conquered Europe and are now expanding across the U. S."

Other than that its all about the US situation.
 
It was just the first article on a search for "shortages in the US" to which which my post saying "even in the US" related about which I heard on a US chat show last night.

I knew you wouldn't believe me if I had just said that so I'm sorry the linked article was not completely to your satisfaction.
As it referred to shortages in Europe, and there is none that we are aware of, other than the grossly exaggerated report by James Holland, can we safely assume that the article is not reliable?
 
It says "Europe", not the "EU", the photo is of a UK supermarket, and the only mentions of "Europe" are "Walk around a supermarket in the U.S. or Europe and you will see some empty shelves once more" and "Aldi and Lidl, which have already conquered Europe and are now expanding across the U. S."

Other than that its all about the US situation.
It slipped in a reference about shortages in Europe, without explaining any further. That sort of reporting is irresponsible.
 
Boris is saying all of this is part of the master plan. A short period of adjustment to a changed UK.

Obviously blustering as well. Unusual for him.

True, it is in some ways. Some of that has been obvious from day one in some ways. Timescales should be interesting.
 
Boris is saying all of this is part of the master plan. A short period of adjustment to a changed UK.

Obviously blustering as well. Unusual for him.

True, it is in some ways. Some of that has been obvious from day one in some ways. Timescales should be interesting.

It's interesting that many on here have spent years denying the fact that immigration has helped suppress wages, now every politician from every party acknowledges that wages have stagnated for ten years because of cheap imported labour.
There will be a period of adjustment, how long?, who knows. I'd expect to see positive results before the next election.
 
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