UK empty supermarket shelves ...

[Zeno Lorea]

The rest of Europe has Covid too. And while all of Europe is always recruiting drivers, only one country has decided to kick out a large percentage of its truckers, nurses, firefighters and baristas. They said those foreigners were "stealing our jobs" but no native Englishman seems to seize the opportunity to pick fruit and drive lorries.

And it ain't over yet...


https://www.theguardian.com/busines...etting-worse-in-london-and-south-east-england

 

[Latimer]

Temporary visas only? Stupid and shortsighted. There's probably a plumber shortage too. Good luck if your toilet clogs up.

 

[unloadonme]

The rest of Europe has Covid too. And while all of Europe is always recruiting drivers, only one country has decided to kick out a large percentage of its truckers, nurses, firefighters and baristas. They said those foreigners were "stealing our jobs" but no native Englishman seems to seize the opportunity to pick fruit and drive lorries.

And it ain't over yet...

https://www.theguardian.com/busines...etting-worse-in-london-and-south-east-england

I don't think we "decided to kick out a large percentage of its truckers, nurses, firefighters and baristas" at all. Pretty much everyone who came to live in the UK from the EU before Brexit was entitled to apply for "settled status" and remain if they wished. Those who left mainly did so by choice.

https://www.gov.uk/eusettledstatus

I agree that there's an issue persuading some of the approximately 1.5 million unemployed to do this work. The government seems reluctant to match people to vacancies and stop state benefits if they refuse.

 

[Latimer]

^
I read an article in the Spectator that said that there was no end to government incompetency in disseminating and processing paperwork, and that some workers just got frustrated and decided to wait out Covid in their native countries.

The implementation of Brexit seems to have been not well thought out. The government and the population seems to have figured they'd simply muddle through.

 

[Kahaih]

Perhaps any moment the simple fact of the matter will occur to them; there have always been too many shelves in stores.

 

[Essex Boy]

Would-be lorry drivers in the UK have to train at their own expense, and it isn't cheap. Many trainees get a loan and pay it back out of their wages when they start work. Wages are low and conditions are arduous--for instance, some jobs will involve overnight stays, possibly spent in the cab. The driver is responsible for the vehicle and the load, just like the captain of a ship. One of my neighbours who has worked as a delivery driver for donkey's years said that the roads in England are booby-trapped. Road haulage is tightly regulated and drivers have to be constantly on the lookout to avoid minor infringements of the many rules. Any sort of irregularity, even if it's unavoidable, incurs a fine which the driver has to pay.

HGV drivers tend to be not so young. It's no wonder young people aren't getting in to it. When we were in the EU the employers had no incentive to improve pay and conditions because they thought they had an endless supply of younger eastern Europeans who worked cheaply and couldn't afford to complain. Now we're out of it, the source of cheap labour has dried up and the industry is having to face the consequences of years of exploiting its workers.

Actually it's the public who are facing the consequences, not the people responsible for creating the problem. The haulage companies and the big supermarkets can always blame the shoppers (meaning everybody except themselves) for demanding cheap food and other goods, and keeping prices down means keeping wages down. This is their get out of jail card.

Take-home message for all you citizens of the world who seem to be so good at diagnosing the cause of Britain's woes from afar: The current shortage of delivery drivers is a result of years of underinvestment by the employers. Brexit, and the aftermath of 18 months of on-and-off lockdowns, have merely forced the problem into the light.

 

[rareboy]

Perhaps any moment the simple fact of the matter will occur to them; there have always been too many shelves in stores.

I have thought this many, many times. Does the world really need 12 different 'flavours' of the same overprocessed 'foods'?

 

[Latimer]

Financial Times Weekend published an article yesterday titled "Britain's winter blues" in which it is reported that on June 16--so three and a half months ago--industry chiefs met with the government to warn of a supply-chain crisis, but the government did nothing. The junior transport minister Lady Vere said "said there was a perception that the industry is crying wolf" and that the government did not want to "create panic."

Well, the government is now acting on all of the requests made at that time, but it is going to be too late to avert projected shortages in food and fuel, the result being--quelle ironie!--the UK will need to import Christmas turkeys from France and Poland to fill projected demand, and given the paperwork required even that is problematic.

Additionally, an energy analyst is quoted as saying. "We are still very much uncertain how we will make it through this winter without the UK running into very serious supply issues."

 

[Telstra]

I have thought this many, many times. Does the world really need 12 different 'flavours' of the same overprocessed 'foods'?

Aldi a german supermarket did the right thing by only stock 1 or 2 brands of each item, their prices are good, and very fast at the checkout.
If the local supermarket don't wake up to the basics of shopping, they will loose.

 

[Zeno Lorea]

I don't think we "decided to kick out a large percentage of its truckers, nurses, firefighters and baristas" at all. Pretty much everyone who came to live in the UK from the EU before Brexit was entitled to apply for "settled status" and remain if they wished. Those who left mainly did so by choice.

I guess you haven't watched the news or read the papers for the past five and a half years. The horror stories of people who had been in Blighty for 10 years, 20 years, even over fifty years and suddenly got into the most kafkaesque problems conceivable. No wonder so many others "left by choice."

Kicking them out was the very point of Brexit since day one.

 

[unloadonme]

I guess you haven't watched the news or read the papers for the past five and a half years. The horror stories of people who had been in Blighty for 10 years, 20 years, even over fifty years and suddenly got into the most kafkaesque problems conceivable. No wonder so many others "left by choice."

Kicking them out was the very point of Brexit since day one.

I've absolutely no idea what you're talking about. The only group I can think of who have been facing Kafkaesque deportation threats is the "Windrush generation" from the Carribbean, but that has nothing to do with the EU or Brexit. The UK government has always been clear that EU nationals who came to the UK legitimately prior to Brexit under the freedom of movement regime were free to stay.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43782241

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

I've absolutely no idea what you're talking about. The only group I can think of who have been facing Kafkaesque deportation threats is the "Windrush generation" from the Carribbean, but that has nothing to do with the EU or Brexit. The UK government has always been clear that EU nationals who came to the UK legitimately prior to Brexit under the freedom of movement regime were free to stay.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43782241

I've read those stories too.

 

[Zeno Lorea]

I've absolutely no idea what you're talking about. The only group I can think of who have been facing Kafkaesque deportation threats is the "Windrush generation" from the Carribbean, but that has nothing to do with the EU or Brexit. The UK government has always been clear that EU nationals who came to the UK legitimately prior to Brexit under the freedom of movement regime were free to stay.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43782241

And yet there's been a lot of those stories. With people from France, Germany and other EU countries. Even grandparents who had been in the UK for three or four decades...

 

[rareboy]

Conservative commentator Kimberly Klacik posted a photo of empty supermarket shelves, with a hashtag falsely suggesting they were depleted by Joe Biden’s policies. The photo was from a U.K. store in March 2020, during the earliest weeks of the pandemic. Klacik has since deleted the posts. We rate them False.

*******/3mTSO92

So. Fucked. Up.

 

[Vannie]

How will I have my afternoon tea?

 

[eddielee]

I've noticed that American supermarket shelves are starting to go bare, or at the very least they are not being quickly restocked.

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

I have thought this many, many times. Does the world really need 12 different 'flavours' of the same overprocessed 'foods'?

Get out of my head

 

[unloadonme]

I've noticed that American supermarket shelves are starting to go bare, or at the very least they are not being quickly restocked.

There is apparently a global issue with shipping. This piece is mainly about Felixstowe in the UK, but it mentions similar problems in Los Angeles.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58907306

 

[rareboy]

yup.

the supply chain issues are global now....as the system bogs down with delays at every stage.

We see some thin product supply in the Loblaw and Sobey's chain stores, but nothing too severe. We don't buy a lot of processed foods except for condiments and always have at least one or two of each ready in the pantry....and when something has gone awol during the last 18 months, we just think about alternatives we can substitute. Of course, we are now at the end of our own fresh vegetable and fruit season so we might notice some shortages, but I guess we'll see.

 

[rareboy]

The reason for the supply chain disruptions has now been identified.