Britain outside the EU

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Some people are pointing to the container ships waiting to get into British ports being due to Brexit. However, the problem is worldwide and clearly nothing to do with Brexit.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...ins-shortages/

[EXTRACT]

Standing on the Pacific coast in California, a casual observer might find themselves thinking America had just severed close ties with its biggest trading partners.

Outside Los Angeles and Long Beach - the country's two biggest ports - a queue of container ships stretches to the horizon, waiting to dock and offload their wares.

But this clear evidence of a supply chain crisis has nothing to do with any Brexit-style rupture. Instead, it has been caused by global chaos as ports struggle to recover from Covid shutdowns and the world struggles with a massive shortage of lorry drivers.

The turmoil in America is linked directly to disruption in Britain which critics here are keen to blame on our departure from the European Union - despite clear evidence of the same issues not just in LA, but across the Continent as well.

“Britain is by no means alone in suffering these problems, there have been issues at Rotterdam, Hamburg and Antwerp, and we have not been so badly hit as some which have much bigger volumes going through them as containers hang around for longer,” says Richard Ballantyne, chief executive of the British Ports Association.

“This is not a Brexit issue - rather than the haulage problem - and it’s unfair to say that border controls resulting from leaving the EU are a cause of this.”

The Port of LA, known as ‘America’s Port’, is the biggest entry site in the US for overseas imports. Its (literal) next-door neighbour, the Port of Long Beach, is also struggling. Together, the pair operate 13 private container terminals and account for about a third of US sea imports.

The sites, both in Long Beach, LA, have been chockablock for months, with vessels waiting weeks just to make it to the docks.

The Remainers won't like you for pointing this out, OB.
I can think of two in particular.

[TheDaddy]

Glad this has all been cleared up, the ones that left the country clearly wouldn't have made any difference after all

[Carth]

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

Glad this has all been cleared up, the ones that left the country clearly wouldn't have made any difference after all

wait . . what . . we've had ports leave the country?

No wonder the remaining ones are struggling

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

Glad this has all been cleared up, the ones that left the country clearly wouldn't have made any difference after all

One.

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

One.

One what, one person glad the truths finally out, clearly when you are tens of thousands of drivers short losing thousands more on top will only help the situation

[heero_yuy]

DVLA are partly to blame as they've not processed around 45,000 HGV licence renewals. Covid was the excuse but they're very slow at getting the backlog sorted out.

[mrmistoffelees]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

The Remainers won't like you for pointing this out, OB.
I can think of two in particular.

I'd like you to point out where someone on this forum has held Brexit 100% accountable for the issues we're currently facing with regards to the HGV/supply chain issues. Everything i've read on here suggests Brexit is exacerbating the situation, not the root cause.

You wouldn't be partaking in wilful misrepresentation, would you old bean?

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by mrmistoffelees

You wouldn't be partaking in wilful misrepresentation, would you old bean?

Seph, never, not a mischievous bone in his body.

[Carth]

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

DVLA are partly to blame as they've not processed around 45,000 HGV licence renewals. Covid was the excuse but they're very slow at getting the backlog sorted out.

Seems license renewals were in fact made easier, but if people didn't want to renew that's a different story

https://www.gov.uk/government/public...virus-pandemic

Applications for the renewal of lorry and bus driving licences during the coronavirus pandemic
Updated 29 June 2021

In consultation with the British Medical Association (BMA), GPs have agreed to aim to accommodate D4 medical appointments for working drivers to make sure that you are available to the transport industry.

If your lorry or bus driving licence is due to expire as normal, or if you’ve been issued a 1-year licence without a D4 medical report that is due to expire:

You’ll have been sent an ‘application for renewal of lorry and bus entitlement’ form 2 months before the licence expiry date.
You should arrange for an appointment for a D4 medical examination with a doctor and an optician as soon as you receive the reminder.
After the examination, fill in the form and send it to the address on the form as soon as possible and before the licence expiry date.
If your lorry or bus driving licence was automatically extended by 11 months:

You will not be sent another ‘application for renewal of lorry and bus entitlement’ form before your 11 month extension ends. You’ll have received a reminder letter, before the original expiry date that told you if you need to have a D4 medical examination to renew your licence.
If you’ve not kept the reminder you should order a D2 pack and book an appointment with a doctor and an optician for a D4 medical examination as soon as possible but no earlier than 2 months before the automatic extension to your licence is due to expire.
Book your D4 medical examination as soon as possible

Your appointment could be in several weeks so you need to be flexible about when you can attend.

June 2021 . . that's a while ago

[1andrew1]

Believe Johnson or believe Cummings.

In a series of tweets, Dominic Cummings said: "What I've said does NOT mean 'the PM was lying in General Election 2019', he never had a scoobydoo what the deal he signed meant.

"He never understood what leaving Customs Union meant until November 2020."

Mr Cummings added that when Mr Johnson did finally understand, "he was babbling 'I'd never have signed it if I'd understood it' (but that WAS a lie)".

He also said it was always the aim to get "the trolley" - his derogatory nickname for the PM - to "ditch the bits we didn't like" after winning the 2019 election.

https://news.sky.com/story/brexit-eu...tocol-12432447

[Carth]

Everybody hide, Cummings is back with more 'look at me' tweets

[mrmistoffelees]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

Believe Johnson or believe Cummings.

https://news.sky.com/story/brexit-eu...tocol-12432447

That's like asking to choose between herpes & gonorrhea? BTW i'd take gonorrhea, herpes stays with you forever, like luggage

Personally, I'd err towards Cummings, but just.

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by mrmistoffelees

That's like asking to choose between herpes & gonorrhea? BTW i'd take gonorrhea, herpes stays with you forever, like luggage

Personally, I'd err towards Cummings, but just.

Less of the "err" please.

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Some people are pointing to the container ships waiting to get into British ports being due to Brexit. However, the problem is worldwide and clearly nothing to do with Brexit.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...ins-shortages/

[EXTRACT]

Standing on the Pacific coast in California, a casual observer might find themselves thinking America had just severed close ties with its biggest trading partners.

Outside Los Angeles and Long Beach - the country's two biggest ports - a queue of container ships stretches to the horizon, waiting to dock and offload their wares.

But this clear evidence of a supply chain crisis has nothing to do with any Brexit-style rupture. Instead, it has been caused by global chaos as ports struggle to recover from Covid shutdowns and the world struggles with a massive shortage of lorry drivers.

The turmoil in America is linked directly to disruption in Britain which critics here are keen to blame on our departure from the European Union - despite clear evidence of the same issues not just in LA, but across the Continent as well.

“Britain is by no means alone in suffering these problems, there have been issues at Rotterdam, Hamburg and Antwerp, and we have not been so badly hit as some which have much bigger volumes going through them as containers hang around for longer,” says Richard Ballantyne, chief executive of the British Ports Association.

“This is not a Brexit issue - rather than the haulage problem - and it’s unfair to say that border controls resulting from leaving the EU are a cause of this.”

The Port of LA, known as ‘America’s Port’, is the biggest entry site in the US for overseas imports. Its (literal) next-door neighbour, the Port of Long Beach, is also struggling. Together, the pair operate 13 private container terminals and account for about a third of US sea imports.

The sites, both in Long Beach, LA, have been chockablock for months, with vessels waiting weeks just to make it to the docks.

"Clearly nothing to with Brexit"?

Strange that Richard Ballantyne, quoted by the Telegraph, said something different late August…

https://britishports.redwiredesign.c...ain-pressures/

The lack haulage capacity has contributed to inefficiencies across the supply chain. We are seeing increased wait times at ports. The shortages pushes up costs and puts suppliers under more pressure. As many have warned, Covid and Brexit have obviously contributed to haulier shortages and we are very supportive of the haulage industry’s calls for a review of the post Brexit immigration rules for European based HGV drivers. Action is needed now, particularly ahead of the introduction of new enforcement controls for imports in January which could add more pressures on the supply chain.

It doesn’t help that OB prefers to talk in absolutes and has trouble with shades of grey. However, Ballantyne is all over the BBC today blaming covid for interrupting the normal smooth movement of containers around the world and not blaming Brexit at all.

There is of course a difference between “nothing to do with” and “contributing factor”, however within the phrase “contributing factor” is a whole range of meanings. It seems to me that last summer, and up to the last few weeks in fact, it has been the (IMO fairly lazy) cop out to simply name-check Brexit, because plenty of people said this *would* happen and too few journalists have been prepared to actually check if it *is* happening, despite the rather obvious alternative explanation. Time and time again we have seen the figure of 100,000 too few lorry drivers in the UK, but only recently did anyone start actually doing the maths and asking whether it’s fair to name Brexit at, or in fact anywhere near the top, of the list of contributing factors when the Road Haulage Association’s most pessimistic estimate is that only 20% of those vacancies were caused by EU drivers returning home (and in fact, even a proportion of those drivers left because of the pandemic rather than Brexit).

Brexit is clearly a contributing factor in the shortage of lorry drivers we are currently experiencing, however based on the most recent reports it seems quite unreasonable to name it near the top of that list.