Brexited | the worst threads live the longest

[Withnail]

I made my point clear and mentioned three reason that affect the UK in a particular way, one of them being brexit. I don't really know what to tell you outside of it, other countries don't necessarily lack drivers or international trucking companies, they aren't affected by the crossing of borders due to brexit and they aren't affected by the crossing of borders due to covid because many countries have agreements on that point.

At no point did I say that Brexit wasn't one of the reason, I specifically named brexit as one of them.

I was interested to hear more about how Ireland was benefiting from Brexit and if the UK would have these problems anyway and you hinted at some insight there.

I was assuming, rightly or wrongly, it was Brexit because as far as I'm aware all things being equal Ireland should have similar problems to the UK.

If I gave you the idea I was being confrontational or argumentive for the sake of it then you have my apologies.

 

[Ramshock]

Business is booming in Ireland thanks to the protocol but there are still some, albeit dwindling, people who are more concerned with their Britishness than the economy.

 

[JPRouve]

I was interested to hear more about how Ireland was benefiting from Brexit and if the UK would have these problems anyway and you hinted at some insight there.

I was assuming, rightly or wrongly, it was Brexit because as far as I'm aware all things being equal Ireland should have similar problems to the UK.

If I gave you the idea I was being confrontational or argumentive for the sake of it then you have my apologies.

I see. With Brexit, Ireland is less reliant on british road transport and then ferries from the northern ports. There has been a development of direct transport from the continent to Ireland, so you are less impacted by driver shortages within the UK.

 

[Paul the Wolf]

They will then follow the government line and blame the pandemic. Anything but Brexit I am afraid.
Most people attention span, particularly when it comes to something they have little or no interest in like politics, is very limited.
Yes there are gaps on the shelves. And yes, that was predicted by Remain.
But there were gaps on the shelves during the hight of the pandemic. So it is nothing new.

And despite all the systematic lies and abject failures of the Tories, Boris remains firmly in charge.
There is no real appetite for a change. It is going to have to take something massive for there to be any sort of appetite for a change.
We are just going to have to accept that whether we live it or not.
Sorry to sound so negative. But it is what it is. Apathetic.

I understand what you're saying but I'm thinking a bit further down the line.
They can try to blame the problems on the pandemic for a certain amount of time and they'll get away with that.

When the grace periods end and new requirements come in on during the next couple of years and things get progressively more problematic and by then hopefully the pandemic has eased considerably.
It will be far more serious than a few empty shelves. Blaming whatever or whoever will not solve the problem.

But to placate the current concern Raab says, don't worry we will join the CPTPP. That's what the UK has to look forward to? The UK will be lucky to match the trade with the CPTPP countries pre-Brexit nevermind increase it to cover the loss of trade with the EU.

You're right, it's apathy, until one day the country wakes up and realises how much deep sh!t they're in.

 

[Paul the Wolf]

Reports say a combination of:
Brexit, tens of thousands less EU drivers.
Pandemic.
Unattractive working conditions.
Increased waiting times to load/unload due to general manpower shortages.
Apparently, the average age of truck drivers in the UK is over 57. And very few younger people are interested in that job.

But all the above could be true of all countries, except your first line.

There will always be low-paid jobs in all countries, care-workers, factory processing plant workers, packers, fruit and veg pickers, cleaners and the list goes on ad infinitum.

 

[Penna]

Just in case anyone living outside the UK needs to renew their British passport, I've just got my new one today and it took a month from sending the old one to getting the new one. I did an online application using a selfie and one of those picture apps which gives you a code to submit.

I never wanted a nasty blue passport.

 

[Maticmaker]

I read that the British car industry won't collapse after all, as the Nissan factory in Sunderland is expanding to produce electric cars,

Yes, very true, Britain is ideal place to pioneer electric car uptake, the Island is so small you can drive from anywhere, to anywhere, on one tank of electricity!

 

[africanspur]

Lack of blood test tubes for GPs and the NHS really should be a bigger story I feel than currently is.

For sure it should be but not sure this is the right thread for it as I'm pretty sure the supply issues are coming from an American company.

 

[africanspur]

Just in case anyone living outside the UK needs to renew their British passport, I've just got my new one today and it took a month from sending the old one to getting the new one. I did an online application using a selfie and one of those picture apps which gives you a code to submit.

I never wanted a nasty blue passport.

Happy mine lasts for a good few years yet. Don't want to be thinking of the buffoonery of brexit every time I have to whip my passport out.

 

[Penna]

Happy mine lasts for a good few years yet. Don't want to be thinking of the buffoonery of brexit every time I have to whip my passport out.

I know, the new ones are very weird, too. They have a little plastic window and your photo on the next page. Looks cheap and nasty.

 

[Cheimoon]

Yes, very true, Britain is ideal place to pioneer electric car uptake, the Island is so small you can drive from anywhere, to anywhere, on one tank of electricity!

A tank of electricity! I hope that will be an expression. I love it when we retain such things (instead of calling it a 'charge') - like 'hang up' on a cellphone.

(As an aside to this aside: I once heard a Dutch girl say on her cellphone 'ik ga hangen!' = 'I'm going to hang!' Without historical context, that makes absolutely zero sense. It's great!)

 

[Cheimoon]

an interesting read and how the hillsborough disaster influenced political opinions 30 years later

https://www.cambridge.org/core/jour...m-in-england/F530F8AB25994AD7C4BC1D0CAFAD75CF

That's fascinating - thanks for sharing!

 

[Rektsanwalt]

That's fascinating - thanks for sharing!

You're welcome, I enjoyed it a lot as well. This is cool too, but completely unrelated. Hope people don't mind too much about it being offtopic.

 

[Jippy]

Just in case anyone living outside the UK needs to renew their British passport, I've just got my new one today and it took a month from sending the old one to getting the new one. I did an online application using a selfie and one of those picture apps which gives you a code to submit.

I never wanted a nasty blue passport.

My passport runs out in March but it's the one we've used for my Singapore visa application, but that whole process keeps getting delayed. It seems almost certain it will have under six months left on it when we hopefully move in about 4-5 weeks, so hope that isn't a problem.
Useful to know it took a month to come though, thanks. Hopefully it doesn't take even longer to reach Asia.

 

[Maticmaker]

A tank of electricity! I hope that will be an expression. I love it when we retain such things (instead of calling it a 'charge') - like 'hang up' on a cellphone.

(As an aside to this aside: I once heard a Dutch girl say on her cellphone 'ik ga hangen!' = 'I'm going to hang!' Without historical context, that makes absolutely zero sense. It's great!)

Yes, that will puzzle our great great grand children, " did they really have a tank, inside their cars"? You can imagine hearing them asking their (also bemused) parents

 

[Cheimoon]

You're welcome, I enjoyed it a lot as well. This is cool too, but completely unrelated. Hope people don't mind too much about it being offtopic.

Yeah, those are fascinating. They've been posted before though, in the context of discussions about the US; but I can't find them back now with a quick search. Something to do with the elections, I think it was.

 

[JPRouve]

Yeah, those are fascinating. They've been posted before though, in the context of discussions about the US; but I can't find them back now with a quick search. Something to do with the elections, I think it was.

I think that it was in the context of gerrymandering, politicians have exploited what you see in those maps from day one. But that's not brexit related.

 

[Cheimoon]

I think that it was in the context of gerrymandering, politicians have exploited what you see in those maps from day one. But that's not brexit related.

I think it was in the context of voting patterns more generally for the federal elections, but either way, that's indeed what I meant: better post them elsewhere to discuss them there.

 

[finneh]

Is the driver shortage caused by mostly by Brexit or Covid

Our business runs a fleet of around 20 HGV's and in truth it's been a problem slowly getting worst for around 6 years.

We relied on a mix of casual HGV drivers (55+ age wise and driving a couple of times a week max), self employed drivers who we contracted as and when we need; plus salaried drivers who are full time.

The first category got wiped out due to the CPC course. We had a few we used regularly who said it simply wasn't viable for them to spend the money to pass the course (we offered to put them through the course for a commitment of driving days but they said they weren't interested). Some also wouldn't do the course out of principal "why would I have some twenty something try to tell me how to drive a vehicle after 30 years experience".

The second category got decimated due to IR35. We contracted a couple of drivers who were self employed. When asked to go permanent they said they'd need to be paid £34k to cover the tax benefits of being self employed. One had his wife as his secretary, his home as his office, expensed mileage etc. He paid £300 tax and NI in total on a £23k salary. Speaking to other businesses this practice was common place.

Then Covid hit and the backlog in being able to pass the course I'm told is now 9 months. We have people wanting to become drivers, we're willing to pay for them to do so and we have the product demand for them but bureaucracy is holding things up for months on end. People retiring every week and they can't be replaced either. Add in that people have been buying things online at a rate unseen before (we've had HGV drivers poached to drive transit vans for DX freight, something unheard of 2 years ago).

Brexit of course is also a factor, although probably moreso for other businesses than ours (our insurance require 3 years driving in the UK); but it has a knock on effect.

Essentially a perfect storm.

 

[4bars]

I mix of factors. Maybe? but the big catalyzer should be Brexit by far as as far as I know this shortage of truck drivers don't happen in EU. You can blame covid in other industries that you can see across the countries (waiting staff for example), but not track drivers and is mainly because often times is an industry that requires crossing borders and Brexit made it more difficult for international truckers to find a job and for national truckers to drive abroad into the EU.

 

[berbatrick]

You're welcome, I enjoyed it a lot as well. This is cool too, but completely unrelated. Hope people don't mind too much about it being offtopic.

there's a cool one like that about the reformation/catholicism and nazi voting in germany.
...

on-topic, saw this headline: https://www.theguardian.com/environ...rtages-leave-uk-farms-with-70000-surplus-pigs
combined with the milkshake news, reminded me of this:

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2012/12/the-red-and-the-black

Items that became unavailable in Hungary at various times due to planning failures included “the kitchen tool used to make Hungarian noodles,” “bath plugs that fit tubs in stock; cosmetics shelves; and the metal box necessary for electrical wiring in new apartment buildings.” As a local newspaper editorial complained in the 1960s, these things “don’t seem important until the moment one needs them, and suddenly they are very important!”

 

[Penna]

My passport runs out in March but it's the one we've used for my Singapore visa application, but that whole process keeps getting delayed. It seems almost certain it will have under six months left on it when we hopefully move in about 4-5 weeks, so hope that isn't a problem.
Useful to know it took a month to come though, thanks. Hopefully it doesn't take even longer to reach Asia.

Mine was valid until May next year, but then in July I read on the UK Gov pages that in addition to having 6 months left, the passport also mustn't be more than 10 years old. I had an extra 9 months on my old one as I renewed it when I changed my surname (when we got married), but it was 10 years old this month.

I applied for my post-Brexit new residency card for Brits with the old passport, and I think in theory you should get another card when you change your passport, but the passport number isn't written on the card so I'm hoping it's OK. I'm going to take my old passport with me when we travel, just in case.

The courier service took 3 days from England to the wilds of Italy, which is pretty good.

 

[esmufc07]

Great idea

 

[TheGame]

 

[golden_blunder]

While there's a lot going on, we're not having these problems in Ireland so Brexit is a major factor.

Well we ordered a McDonalds Monday and milkshakes are off the menu. In Dublin.

 

[Withnail]

Well we ordered a McDonalds Monday and milkshakes are off the menu. In Dublin.

Oh they're regularly off the menu on an individual basis. As far as I'm aware, usually they're either cleaning the machine or they don't want to clean the machine so they say they've none.

Unless you're trying to tell me Ireland now has a milk shake shortage?

 

[golden_blunder]

Oh they're regularly off the menu on an individual basis. As far as I'm aware, usually they're either cleaning the machine or they don't want to clean the machine so they say they've none.

Unless you're trying to tell me Ireland now has a milk shake shortage?

Well I did wonder, my wife read an article to me a few days ago and it mentioned Irish shortages as well.

but you could be right, let’s hope so because I like their milkshakes

 

[Fluctuation0161]

Scumbag.

 

[Jericholyte2]

Just so typical of the establishment, post-Empire ENGLISH exceptionalism going on.

• We can leave because we're a global superpower and things will be fine - WRONG
• We can screw around with the Good Friday Agreement and 'sacrifice' Northern Ireland - WRONG
• We can tell the US what to do because we're an equal part of this 'special relationship' - WRONG

One of the best Brexit stories I found out recently concerned the Turkish immigration numbers. Part of the Farage / Leave campaign had posters about us being at 'breaking point' complaining that Turkey was moments away from joining the EU, which it never was, and making everyone fear Turkish immigration. Since we left the EU, Turkish immigration to the UK has reportedly nearly quadrupled!!!

So we left the EU because (in part) people were afraid of how easy it would be for people from Turkey to travel across the EU and immigrate to the UK, but because we left the EU it's now easier for these people to travel to the UK - you couldn't make it up!!!

 

[RedSky]

Argh, I fecking hate these cnuts.

 

[TheGame]

 

[Pexbo]

I would love to see Wetherspoons go bankrupt. Love it.

 

[Pexbo]

 

[Jippy]

Just so typical of the establishment, post-Empire ENGLISH exceptionalism going on.

• We can leave because we're a global superpower and things will be fine - WRONG
• We can screw around with the Good Friday Agreement and 'sacrifice' Northern Ireland - WRONG
• We can tell the US what to do because we're an equal part of this 'special relationship' - WRONG

One of the best Brexit stories I found out recently concerned the Turkish immigration numbers. Part of the Farage / Leave campaign had posters about us being at 'breaking point' complaining that Turkey was moments away from joining the EU, which it never was, and making everyone fear Turkish immigration. Since we left the EU, Turkish immigration to the UK has reportedly nearly quadrupled!!!

So we left the EU because (in part) people were afraid of how easy it would be for people from Turkey to travel across the EU and immigrate to the UK, but because we left the EU it's now easier for these people to travel to the UK - you couldn't make it up!!!

That was so stupid, given the UK had a veto on them joining anyway. There are entrepreneur's visas and other means for Turkish people to move to the UK, we actually have a good longstanding relationship with the country on that front.

 

[JPRouve]

That was so stupid, given the UK had a veto on them joining anyway. There are entrepreneur's visas and other means for Turkish people to move to the UK, we actually have a good longstanding relationship with the country on that front.

And Cameron openly supported Turkey's membership, some of the Brexit talks have been particularly weird.

 

[Paul the Wolf]

Except that NI has the best deal of all of the 4 UK countries:
They are part of the EU CU and the UK so have the best of the deal.
Checks on animals etc was happening already from GB to the island of Ireland before Brexit.

The problem is the people in NI who think they are English.

 

[horsechoker]

 

[Jippy]

And Cameron openly supported Turkey's membership, some of the Brexit talks have been particularly weird.

I'd forgotten that. I don't remember Turkish membership ever being that close to a done deal.

 

[JPRouve]

I'd forgotten that. I don't remember Turkish membership ever being that close to a done deal.

It hasn't been close since maybe the 90s where it wasn't particularly close. Since then the big countries not named the UK have used every arguments against Turkey in particular when it comes to certain human rights then you have Cyprus who have a veto and are in conflict with Turkey and then Eastern Europe new members have been against Turkey's membership. But the most important point is that Turkey don't want to be a member.

 

[Pexbo]

It hasn't been close since maybe the 90s where it wasn't particularly close. Since then the big countries not named the UK have used every arguments against Turkey in particular when it comes to certain human rights then you have Cyprus who have a veto and are in conflict with Turkey and then Eastern Europe new members have been against Turkey's membership. But the most important point is that Turkey don't want to be a member.

Wow I didn’t realise it was that close to them joining, thank god for Brexit!