Operation Stack: day 1

The odd thing about this Operation Stack is they have gone straight to phase 2, which means no freight allowed into Dover at all, and queues are Kept on the A20 for a short while, but mostly on the M20 between Maidstone and Ashford.

Jools went to work and found it very quiet on the roads. She even went to Sainsbury's to pick up a few things and found it not too mad, at least at half six in the morning.

Through the day, more and more of the motorway has closed to become a lorry park, this is the sum total of the Government's preparations for Brexit, there aren't even any portable toilets for the truck drivers yet.

A few lorries get to the port down the A2, arriving at the roundabout at the bottom of Jubilee Way to find the port fenced off. Many have parket on the side of Jubilee Way, so much so that the outside lane going away from the port had to be closed to allow traffic going down to use it to avoid the parked trucks. Drivers know the drill, they are waiting for the moment the Operation is ended and then they will all get to the port as quickly as possible, avoiding the queues on the motorway.

This is why there are four lorries parked at Westcliffe, and two at the bottom of Station Road, just waiting to head to port to get ahead of those caught waiting. We have plenty of food in the house, including vegetables for Christmas. Only possible problem is getting to the butchers on Wednesday for the turkey, but we shall see how that goes. We will be OK, and have a decent Christmas between us, even Jen can come and stay.

Other will not be so lucky, many of the truck drivers will here over Christmas, as there just isnt the capacity on ferries to get them all home.

All of this is a dry run for Brexit of course, and although this wasn't expected, but again, the secret of good leadership is to have all ententualities covered, we can cut Johnson a little slack. Until we remember it was him saying how infectious the new strain was, and spooking our neighbours by not informing them first.

Either way, its a problem mostly of our own making, or of Johnson's making. And here in Dover, we will be fine, until the end of Stack, and then it will be every truck driver for themselves, and any road will be seen as fair game. With luck the queues will be gone just into time for New Year and Brexit.