A thank you to Brexiteers.

[Maggot]

Shipping in cheap labour and pushing down costs for business is kind of the raison d'etre of the EU and why they were so keen to get Romania and Bulgaria on board and why they are eying up Serbia and the other Balkan states.

Not true at all. If that was the case why did Bulgaria and Romania not join the EU until 2007, a long time after it was formed?

 

[Pickman's model]

Anyway there's a load of burrata available in the UK, just maybe people in Waitrose are buying more than usual. Certainly there's no shortage in m&s in dalston. it's like the bog roll nonsense last year, there was loads about if you bothered going to shops other than Tesco or Sainsbury's

 

[andysays]

Not true at all. If that was the case why did Bulgaria and Romania not join the EU until 2007, a long time after it was formed?

 

[gosub]

Except I haven't actually done that.

Brexit clearly has resulted in various problems, some of which are almost inevitable when one country leaves a large trading block it's been part of for decades, and loads more which have been caused not by Brexit itself but by the inept way it has been negotiated and delivered by the government, and the lack of proper planning and organisation by employers to deal with issues it was likely to throw up.

tbf The government and Parliament should shoulder some blame with regards any deficiencies in planning and organisation by employers

 

[The39thStep]

I suspect haulage drivers in the EU will be employed by companies in the countries from where their cargo originates, so drivers carrying oranges far more likely to be employed in Spain than bulgaria

I know two long distance truck drivers from the bar one works for a Portuguese firm the other a Spanish owned firm in Portugal . They are both paid local rates.

 

[Pickman's model]

I know two long distance truck drivers from the bar one works for a Portuguese firm the other a Spanish owned firm in Portugal . They are both paid local rates.

Which is in line with my expectations tbh

 

[The39thStep]

tbf The government and Parliament should shoulder some blame with regards any deficiencies in planning and organisation by employers

Of course , I dont think anyone is defending the governmemt or the employers.

 

[The39thStep]

Anyway there's a load of burrata available in the UK, just maybe people in Waitrose are buying more than usual. Certainly there's no shortage in m&s in dalston. it's like the bog roll nonsense last year, there was loads about if you bothered going to shops other than Tesco or Sainsbury's

We still havent got down to the root of the UK pea shortage.

 

[Pickman's model]

We still havent got down to the root of the UK pea shortage.

Over the past fortnight I can tell you from personal observation there is no shortage of peas either garden or mushy in either North Yorkshire or north east Lincolnshire

 

[Ax^]

Yorkshire and Lincolnshire is hording the supply chain

 

[andysays]

Over the past fortnight I can tell you from personal observation there is no shortage of peas either garden or mushy in either North Yorkshire or north east Lincolnshire

No shortage in my freezer, including plenty from the allotment with zero food miles and no dependency on the haulage industry

 

[prunus]

We still havent got down to the root of the UK pea shortage.

I think there are clues…

Recipe - Pea and Burrata Salad

 

[two sheds]

Satnavs also made it much easier for foreign drivers to make deliveries over here.

 

[andysays]

TBF they're not going to improve pay and conditions when there's people from other countries prepared to do it for less. And as for training more drivers, you can't force people to become drivers!

One of the things mentioned in the video I posted is that when drivers from Poland started working over here for less than the then going rate, they soon realised what was going on and began (quite rightly) to demand more (I'm guessing these are drivers employed by UK companies, though maybe not). The employers then starting to bring in Rumanians to undercut the established Brits and the Poles, until they too began to demand more.

In other words, using people from other countries prepared to do it for less only works as a very limited short term measure, you can't successfully build your whole industry around it, as the haulage industry should have started to recognise even before Brexit kicked in.

 

[two sheds]

Was talking to a truck driver last night. Another reason it's getting less popular are the truck "driver management systems". They're continually rated on accelerator and brake and economy driving (etc.) and in one company at least if they don't do well they get fined.

Isn't that a surprise - they could just as easily have made it a reward based system but no lets stress the drivers out even more.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

Excellent thread by Aaron Bastani (of all people) on planet remain and it’s politics re social value and union pay rates in public procurement when proposed by the left:

 

[The39thStep]

Excellent thread by Aaron Bastani (of all people) on planet remain and it’s politics re social value and union pay rates in public procurement when proposed by the left:

Just read that on Twitter, surprisingly good

 

[Dogsauce]

As I understand it, there is still a backlog in building material supplies as a result of the Suez Canal being blocked.

This attempt (not you) to blame Brexit for everything, including things that would have gone largely unnoticed pre-Brexit, is getting a bit ridiculous now.

I think it’s just demand, can’t see how a week-long break in the supply chain would take months to correct, plenty of stuff comes in via other routes (timber from Northern Europe, and still some stuff made here). People haven’t been able/willing to get work done during lockdown, also time spent furloughed or working from home gives you time to contemplate your surroundings and scheme what you would do to change it, or identify the need for a home office / garden room for wfh Etc.

Apparently the cost of building projects has increased massively, here in the south-west supposedly by 27%. We can’t even get anyone to quote for our flat refurbishment, people are booking work in for next spring. What we will be able to afford to do is likely to be less than planned which is a bit of a shitter.

 

[two sheds]

Neighbour said that scaffolding boards have gone from £4 to £20+ each. He didn't speculate on cause.

 

[andysays]

I think it’s just demand, can’t see how a week-long break in the supply chain would take months to correct, plenty of stuff comes in via other routes (timber from Northern Europe, and still some stuff made here). People haven’t been able/willing to get work done during lockdown, also time spent furloughed or working from home gives you time to contemplate your surroundings and scheme what you would do to change it, or identify the need for a home office / garden room for wfh Etc.

Apparently the cost of building projects has increased massively, here in the south-west supposedly by 27%. We can’t even get anyone to quote for our flat refurbishment, people are booking work in for next spring. What we will be able to afford to do is likely to be less than planned which is a bit of a shitter.

Yeah, I think I misremembered that, or at least exaggerated its significance.

Spymaster linked to a story discussing various causes and the Suez thing wasn't mentioned.

 

[Badgers]

Neighbour said that scaffolding boards have gone from £4 to £20+ each. He didn't speculate on cause.

Must be Covid of course

 

[bimble]

I think it’s just demand, can’t see how a week-long break in the supply chain would take months to correct, plenty of stuff comes in via other routes (timber from Northern Europe, and still some stuff made here). People haven’t been able/willing to get work done during lockdown, also time spent furloughed or working from home gives you time to contemplate your surroundings and scheme what you would do to change it, or identify the need for a home office / garden room for wfh Etc.

Apparently the cost of building projects has increased massively, here in the south-west supposedly by 27%. We can’t even get anyone to quote for our flat refurbishment, people are booking work in for next spring. What we will be able to afford to do is likely to be less than planned which is a bit of a shitter.

Yeah definitely mostly that, absolutely bonkers time in the Uk for building work and materials of all kinds because everyone who can afford to do it has either moved house or is doing to stuff to their existing one, which is completely covid.

Then this as well which has been a major impact recently, much more than the boat that got stuck in suez:

Yantian port to resume full operations on 24 June

Yantian Port is set to resume full operations on 24 June over a month after measures to combat a Covid-19 outbreak sharply reduced capacity resulting in major delays to global container shipping.

www.seatrade-maritime.com

i find it interesting because it shows how dependent pretty much everything is on some port in china now.
That isn't the only one but the biggest of the Chinese ports that have been shut down as they try to contain outbreaks there, so nothing moved basically for weeks, all the widgets were just sat there.

 

[Dogsauce]

But they knew as of 24 June 2016 that their current supply of drivers from other countries would be drastically reduced, yet still they took no action. Sure you can't force people to become drivers, but it's a well-established fact in the business world that if you increase pay and improve conditions, you will have a bigger pool of willing people to recruit from.

They didn’t know that at all, the ‘flavour’ of Brexit and what kind of limitations there would be on Labour wasn’t really determined until May got kicked out and el fuckchops took over running the show. Brexit wasn’t sold as a ‘hard Brexit’ at all and at least initially companies expected at there would be the single market ongoing. Half of it still seems to be all up in the air, how were organisations supposed to prepare?

It’s just market forces now, wage corrections reflect this, all part of the libertarians’ plan. Hoping a few more wage rises might piss those guys off.

 

[MrSki]

Neighbour said that scaffolding boards have gone from £4 to £20+ each. He didn't speculate on cause.

Surely scaffolding boards are down to Covid.

ETA sorry Badgers has already done that one.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Not true at all. If that was the case why did Bulgaria and Romania not join the EU until 2007, a long time after it was formed?

Not sure the USSR would have been too happy for them to have been signed up in the 70’s...

 

[Pickman's model]

Not sure the USSR would have been too happy for them to have been signed up in the 70’s...

The EU only sprang into existence in the 1990s

 

[bimble]

LORD FROST wrote a thing yesterday about the protocol. This is the key bit.
"To simply say “the protocol must be implemented in full” is to take a theological approach that is frozen in time and does not deal with the reality that now exists."

Eh? You know that contract which i signed that i wrote together with you, please stop trying to make me stick to that contract you bastards who could possibly have forseen that it was not going to work out very well for me. Thanks for being nice about the sausages last week but that's nothing we need you to just bin the whole contract thing now thanks.

David Frost and Brandon Lewis: We must find a new balance in how NI protocol is operated

To simply say it must be implemented in full does not deal with the reality that now exists

www.irishtimes.com

 

[Loose meat]

Gov can now take back into public ownership water and Royal Mail - both seem to be urgent cases.

 

[bimble]

Gov can now take back into public ownership water and Royal Mail - both seem to be urgent cases.

yeah they'll definitely do that cos they can. The Eu was not the real problem the real problem is brits love voting for people like Johnson.

 

[brogdale]

yeah they'll definitely do that cos they can. The Eu was not the real problem the real problem is brits love voting for people like Johnson.

Agreed, but the 'real problem' is surely that when Brits vote they are offered an effective 'choice' between differently badged versions of neoliberal, consolidator state parties, none of whom would even contemplate re-nationalising the industries that they've privatised.