Brexit.

[Sid]

The British pay the price for their current government's stupidity.

BTW 7€ is a total bargain compared to the 80€ fees for a EU (Schengen) visa for adults coming from some other countries.

 

[Chin Rey]

We'll find out soon enough, I guess.

Maybe. It seems Phil Moorhouse has found out already:

​

 

[Sid]

Not enough turkeys for Christmas due to Brexit, poultry producers warn

Government urged to relax UK immigration rules after one in six jobs left unfilled since EU departure

www.theguardian.com

 

[Free]

Not enough turkeys for Christmas due to Brexit, poultry producers warn

Government urged to relax UK immigration rules after one in six jobs left unfilled since EU departure

www.theguardian.com

Even if they supplemented supplies with those in the government?

 

[Innula Zenovka]

I really think that the government have decided that they'll leave it up to the supermarkets and major wholesalers to source food, and if British farmers can't produce it without paying wages so low that they can't fill their employment needs locally, they'd rather subsidise them to rewild the land than to farm it uneconomically.

Many are pursuing more specialist premium markets they can supply at a profit, but as for the others, I'm not really sure it matters to most people where their everyday meat, fruit and veg comes from.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

“Covid or Brexit, what’s worse?” English coastal towns struggle with staff shortages

There are plenty of tourists, but UK hospitality firms are plagued by labour shortages this summer

www.theguardian.com

Evernote link

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Again, Brexit and Covid exacerbating each other's effects on the British employment market and supply chains:

McDonald's runs out of milkshakes in England, Scotland and Wales

Supply issues at English, Welsh and Scottish outlets are due to the lorry driver shortage, the firm says.

www.bbc.co.uk

Also,

Verifying Device

Evernote link

(Though I'm pretty sure that long distance lorry driver really isn't the sort of role you can safely assign to serving prisoners, nor even one for which you can safely train them, at least not while they're still in prison and you want them to stay there, to do on their release).

 

[Sid]

NL is in the EU, so doesn't have the Brexit problems in a way the UK has them, but for the first time in 50 years we have more job offerings then unemployed people. As expected the baby boomers are retiring and there are relatively a lot of them. I think that must be a factor in the UK too.
The jobs on offer don't necessarily match with the education level of the unemployed. So there are still a lot of people unemployed. One can't expect a bus driver to become a teacher over night. Or a butcher taking over a dentist office.

The somewhat (compared to other sectors) underpaying semi governmental sectors like healthcare, police and education have huge problems to fill in the vacancies, especially around the four major cities in the west of the country, where living costs are higher than in the rest of the NL.

 

[Arkady Arkright]

I liked this article, says it all really - Ian Botham as trade envoy and prisoners bussed in to execute cows – yes, the UK has officially lost the plot

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

The somewhat (compared to other sectors) underpaying semi governmental sectors like healthcare, police and education have huge problems to fill in the vacancies, especially around the four major cities in the west of the country, where living costs are higher than in the rest of the NL.

Meanwhile in America:

lol

 

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Evernote link

The basic idea -- that companies should be encouraged (in this case, pretty much obliged) to make particular efforts both to recruit suitably qualified British applicants who already have HGV licences and also to train suitable candidates -- seems reasonable, but I'm not sure about the execution.

However, it looks as if the government has taken the decision, as with farming and fishing, to let the logistics industry sort things out for itself with a minimum of government intervention. Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, has always seemed to me a very bright and capable guy, whatever you think of his politics (and he certainly has an impressive CV), so I'm not as despondent as I might otherwise be.

 

[Arkady Arkright]

...so I'm not as despondent as I might otherwise be.

Given that it normally takes a minimum of 8-10 weeks to train and licence an HGV driver ., and that the DVLA strikes and covid have pushed the waiting list for HGV driving tests out to several months - The hgv driver shortage - whats being done, I'm plenty despondent at least in the short term. It will take at least a year to train, test and licence the missing 100,000 drivers - Government announces truck test overhaul to tackle driver shortage, even with the reduction in standards (and therefore safety) quoted therein. I'm probably OK, given the rural area I live in, but I wouldn't like to be poor and living in a city for the next year or two...

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Given that it normally takes a minimum of 8-10 weeks to train and licence an HGV driver ., and that the DVLA strikes and covid have pushed the waiting list for HGV driving tests out to several months - The hgv driver shortage - whats being done, I'm plenty despondent at least in the short term. It will take at least a year to train, test and licence the missing 100,000 drivers - Government announces truck test overhaul to tackle driver shortage, even with the reduction in standards (and therefore safety) quoted therein. I'm probably OK, given the rural area I live in, but I wouldn't like to be poor and living in a city for the next year or two...

We'll see, I guess. Considering the amount of money the main supermarket chains have, and franchises like McDonalds or Nando's, I suspect they'll be able to guarantee the availability at least a reduced range of goods while the backlog clears.

It's not simply a question of training new HGV drivers, after all -- in the short term, at least, I'm sure it's possible to persuade some people who hold licences but have left the industry to return, at least temporarily, if they know they'll only have to take UK runs and not have to spend extended periods away from home.

I find it difficult to disagree with the proposition that it's a good idea to train suitable local applicants for jobs as HGV drivers rather than rely on always being able to recruit people who've trained somewhere in Europe, and certainly I imagine that at least some people currently doing deliveries for Amazon would like to trade up to driving HGVs.

I've long wondered why governments don't put as much effort into encouraging people to train for particular trades and skilled jobs as they do into encouraging people to run up huge debts obtaining degrees that they don't seem much to want and which won't lead them anywhere (thinking of one of my nephews here, in particular).

ETA

Food, beer, toys, medical kit. Why is Britain running out of everything?

Poor pay and conditions for HGV drivers and the loss of many thousands of EU workers are plunging the UKs supply chain into crisis

www.theguardian.com

However, for unions and some drivers, the pandemic and Brexit have only exposed the limitations of the low-wage, precarious employment model that has come to dominate the logistics sector. “All the headlines are blaming Brexit and Covid. But they are just the straws that have broken the camel’s back,” says Adrian Jones, a national officer for Unite, which represents workers throughout vital supply chains, from warehouse staff to lorry drivers. “This has come after decades of drivers being undervalued. Ten pounds an hour does not reflect the skills and knowledge needed to even start work as a lorry driver, or the responsibility of driving 44-tonne vehicles on congested roads in the UK. They are treated with disdain.”

Evernote link

ETA2: UK truck driver shortage signals a broken labour market

Hours can also be unpredictable. A current job advert from XPO states: “You’ll be working a minimum of 45 hours per week on an ‘any five from seven-day’ shift pattern, so your working days may change each week and could include weekend working. You will also be starting early AM and must be prepared to work through the night.”

In spite of the tough hours and the fact they often pay for their own qualifications (Harris paid £1,500), drivers have been slipping down the wage ladder. In 2010, the median HGV driver in the UK earned 51 per cent more per hour than the median supermarket cashier. By 2020, the premium was only 27 per cent.

They have faced a particular pay squeeze in the past five years: median hourly pay for truck drivers has risen 10 per cent since 2015 to £11.80, compared with 16 per cent for all UK employees. “Why would I want to be a truck driver, with all the responsibility, the long, unpredictable hours, if I can go to Aldi and earn £11.30 an hour stacking shelves?” says Tomasz Oryński, a truck driver and journalist based in Scotland, who is planning to move to Finland

The story of Britain’s empty shelves, like that of its unpicked strawberries and unprocessed chickens, is the story of how migration combined with a weakly regulated labour market and hugely powerful retailers have allowed some goods and services to become unsustainably cheap. The system shaved money off our shopping bills but it wasn’t resilient.

Remain voters are right to say Brexit helped to cause the current crisis, but wrong to say everything was fine without it. Brexit voters are right to say migration helped suppress driver pay, but as the Netherlands shows, Brexit wasn’t the only way to resolve it.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[Sid]

A really brilliant idea but sorry, our chief negotiator mister Barnier is busy at the moment trying to become the next president of France.
So this matter has to wait. Please contact us again somewhere after 2030.

In the main time your government could download and study the required formal aplication forms and the list of requirements and duties to enter the EU as a new member from the EU website.
There are free cans available that they can kick down the road as long as it pleases them before submitting anything officially.

 

[Sid]

Thousands of British students in limbo with post-Brexit visa chaos

Students delay studying abroad and some even switch continents because of visa delays

www.theguardian.com

Why am I not surprised?
Which part of "You are no longer an EU citizen, so you need the right paperwork done in a timely manner" is so hard to understand?

 

[Khamon]

IKR you are not a citizen of the EU; you are not a citizen of China; you are not a citizen of the United States of America; you are not a citizen of Australia; you are not a citizen of Brazil; these things are all the same.

You are a British Subject. Period. That is the sum total of your rights and privileges. You gave the rest of it away. That is nobody's fault but your own.

Can somebody think of a better way to phrase this clarification?

 

[Ashiri]

Thousands of British students in limbo with post-Brexit visa chaos

Students delay studying abroad and some even switch continents because of visa delays

www.theguardian.com

Why am I not surprised?
Which part of "You are no longer an EU citizen, so you need the right paperwork done in a timely manner" is so hard to understand?

I do have sympathy for the students being fucked around by the daft old buggers who voted for Brexit.

 

[Sid]

They had already months to sort things out.
The rules for non EU students are in place for many years already.
One has to adapt to the new situation.