Peter wrote:
The public panic was engineered by a leak, to bounce the govt into issuing visas so that BP could carry on paying drivers 30k. It didn’t work; the govt just did it for a few months.
Let’s hope that this artificial shortage and its background finds it’s way to the British public so they can take care of those who set it off.
Peter wrote:
It’s great to know that this does not reflect public opinion
It certainly reflects the opinion of most newspapers and it is also clear that EU powers that are are rubbing their hands and gloating. It was always clear that the EU would miss no chance to point out adverse consequences of Brexit, if true or not, because they have several other countries who are looking carefully just how they might pull off the same thing.
And he does have a point, even if the current lorry driver crisis may be the wrong one to make. The calls for expelling foreign workers, particularly from Easter Europe and elsewhere, is rampant in many countries, yet in practice it is totally unworkable. Why? Because there are many jobs which local workers don’t want. Farm hands, health sector workers, just to name a few low paid jobs with which locals can’t make a living but seasonal or immigrant workers will. We saw the example for this when Covid hit in the South of Switzerland and in the border regions to France: It was not possible to close the broders then because the health sector depends to a large extent to border crossing foreign workers. The same goes for a lot of other jobs.
So the main thing is: If a country wishes to become independent of foreign workers and thus reduce immigration and influx of seasonal workers, it will have to practically abolish low wage jobs and either automatize them or make them sufficiently attractive again, so local people can actually live of the wages. Clearly this will make some stuff more expensive, but there is a price to independence. At the same time, it is necessary to stop outsourcing manufacturing to cheap countries as well (mostly via tarifs on import) so that it becomes profitable again to manufacture inside the country.
Some of this will happen anyway as a consequence of lessons hopefully learnt through covid (vaccines, masks, sanitary equipment) others may be more difficult to achieve as again, it will cause prices to rise. On the other hand, is it really a good thing that we live off mostly garbage electronics and low quality clothes and other low wage products? Personally I think it is not. But it requires re-thinking and that is not cheap either.
Running an economy focussed on the inside of a country is by nature expensive, but it does not have to be a bad thing per se. But it is quite difficult to deliver on promises done on false pretexts. Hence Europe is now quite happy to express Schadenfreude, as inappropriate as it may be. And for their own propaganda, it does not matter if the crisis is engineered or not, all that matters is what EU countries see and what their population believes.
gallois wrote:
I wonder how many Brit columnists are writing opinion pieces in German newspapers.
I wonder how many German papers would publish it if one cared to do so.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
And for their own propaganda
That is a true point to be observed very carefully. The EU has no interest in that other countries follow the U.K.’s lead. So there is an interest in placing that information throughout the EU that an exit was worse than staying. And in any couple the one left behind is hit hard and wants to bite back. So in reality, any news has to be read in the light of its backgrounds (not the exact specialty of the Bild bog roll, by the way).
Peter wrote:
It’s great to know that this does not reflect public opinion
Of course it reflects public opinion. The UK has shot itself in the foot royally and I really feel sorry for every Brit who voted remain.
The point is that we (in the EU) don’t care much anymore. We’ve accepted the situation and moved on and don’t gloat about it. (Sure, you can always find the odd person who does, like in your Bild article.)
Empty shelves in Brussels. Brussels Times link Bit difficult to blame that on Brexit too.
I think the vaccine disaster of the eu purchasing strategy has showed the issues as they are.
In a fuel situation update, I drove past 4 filling stations on my way out this morning. All had petrol and diesel, none had queues.
UdoR wrote:
The EU has no interest in that other countries follow the U.K.’s lead
Let’s not forget that the two richest countries in Europe, the two countries with most satisfied citizens are Norway and Switzerland, the top of the pops so to speak. One can include Iceland as well, and Lichtenstein. None are members of the EU, has never been members, and will likely never become members. One could say that all these countries leeches off/piggybacks on the free EU market, and to some extent this is true. The reality is that these countries are very pro the open market, but very much against the ivory tower accumulation of central power in Bruxelles. All these countries would have the same kind of free market if there was no EU at all (although not too sure about Switzerland 
)
That is the main difference here. The UK think they somehow can “make it” without a free market. Of course they can. This will work just fine, no problem, if the average population is willing to lower their standard of living considerably from today’s standard. Meaning the division between those who have and those who haven’t becomes larger. This will eventually result in people from the UK moving elsewhere, to the EU mainly, to take jobs that today are taken by east Europeans. I can’t imagine EU or Norway/Switzerland would do anything but welcome those people with open arms. How is the UK government going to stop this? Put up a wall?
The corona situation has really shown how dependent we are on foreign labor. Without Swedes, Polacks and Germans in the health sector, it grinds slowly but surely to a halt. Without people from eveywhere in fact, the elderly care grinds to a halt. Without Polacs, the Baltic states and China, pretty much all of construction work will stop. Not to mention hotels and restaurants. Most of these jobs are not poorly paid jobs, there simply are too many jobs for Norwegians to fill up. Most people coming stay for good, except short time seasonal jobs.
For my oldest boy we had a Swedish midwife, almost 30 years ago. She had these “courses” we had to attend. Still today, my vocabulary about this stuff is filled with Swedish words, and I have no clue what the Norwegian words are
Peter wrote:
It’s great to know that this does not reflect public opinion
Papers writes what people want to read. This is obviously intended for a british audience so the average Jo can shout out “this is exactly what I have said all along”.
I really feel sorry for every Brit who voted remain. the point is that we (in the EU) don’t care much anymore. We’ve accepted the situation and moved on and don’t gloat about it
I think many people have done the same including those who voted remain, just get on with it and move on, there is load of people in UK who still debate (although it’s becoming reality but self consciousness is not there yet), also some few in mainland Europe who did not move on yet…
However, I do feel sorry for those who did vote remain and got their life, jobs and finances badly affected, while someone who voted remain and end up better off on life/finances because of brexit should be happy overall, those who voted brexit got what they wanted/deserved but I am sure some are happy and some are disappointment
Let’s hope some will “own it”
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/nigel-farage-told-own-brexit-160344519.html?
Off_Field wrote:
I think the vaccine disaster of the eu purchasing strategy has showed the issues as they are.
That “disaster strategy” has saved out butts, and we are not part of EU, we only came along for the (vaccine) raid literally speaking From my point of view the EU did very good with the vaccines. And we have only used two vaccines, Pfiser and Moderna, when AZ proved to be a “death trap” and JJ not much better.
I don’t know the reality of fuel situation in the UK.
Whether its the result of Brexit, Covid19, low wages, or poor working conditions for drivers, depends who you listen to. But according to most reports the shortages are over now and most petrol stations have fuel. Just a blip.
We have been lucky here and have had no problems with fuel shortages or queues at petrol stations.
@Off_Field wrote:-“I think the vaccine disaster of the eu purchasing strategy has showed the issues as they are.”
Yes there were problems early on but now I believe France has double vaccinated a higher percentage of the population over 12 years old than the UK. Its not something to crow about. It is just the way it is. But one could legitimately ask the question, what disaster has struck the UK to put them behind other EU countries when they had such a head start.
Ibra wrote:
However, I do feel sorry for those who did vote remain and got their life, jobs and finances badly affected,
On 1st January 2021 I said to my wife, give it 6-8 months for the reality of Brexit to kick in. Well here we are. I believe we have still to see the ultimate effects, but we are certainly on a downward spiral. Trade Deals, well not really, prosperity, well not really, A brave new world, well not yet. A busted flush, could well be argued. When you give a fairly dumb population the right to determine their countries future, well it can only go one way.
I hope I am totally wrong. I hope the UK prospers, we march on, and prove to all that it was the right move. But at the moment we are a cornered kid in the corner of the dancefloor wondering which way to progress to get to the prize.
