Hold on tight

Brexit is about to get interesting again.

Which might be good news, but probably will be bad news.

In three weeks, the UK is due to introduce checks on animal-based goods coming into the UK.

The UK is not ready for such checks to be carried out, it doesn't have enough vets. But that pales beside the fact that such checks will make the current shortages seen in shops even worse. There are already warnings about shortgaes for Christmas of turkeys and pigs in blankets, well, the first thing to be hit harder will be fresh produce. And on top of that is the labour shortage back home where even if we could meet the shortfall, there isn't enough people to harvest, pack, tranposrt and stock the supermarket shelves.

And that means lower tax revenue, which I suspect the recent planned rise in NI will be mostly eatn up by.

Because so far, there is no deail, surprise surprise, in what the Government is actually planning to do with the money in respect to NHS waiting lists or the social care crisis. Just collecting money, if for the NHS then to pump it up before selling it to their mates, one suspects.

The UK could be honest in the situation it finds itself, about the root causes, but in order to do that would mean Johnson and Frost et al admitting their words were lies in the referendum and since, even more so when Johnson came to power.

And as is often remarked, the more you give Brexiteers to satisfy them, the more they want. So that any sign of willingness to negotiate is seen as weakness and proves (in their minds) their hard nosed tactics were right and more of it will win further concessions. At some point, the EU will have to say no, otherwise the charade will continue, and the broken NIP as we see now will become the normal, and one of the SM external borders will be broken.

And now to lorry drivers, these are my words from the 23rd December last year:

"My words cannot descrie the scenes I witnessed on the way to Tesco yesterday.

I'm not being dramatic. Honestly.

People were parked up where they could, drivers and passengers milling around looking dazed, standing outside the truck, van or minibus, all waiting for news. News that would not come, or when it did, it was bad news for them, that drivers in the queues on the M20 or at Manston would get tested forst and get to cross to France. Many had been told to go to Manston, only to find when they got there is was already full and the gates locked.

Go back to Dover they were advised.

So, here they were, parked on the pavement of a retail park or on the side of a roundabout, some on the overbridge looking down on the A2 which was now a lorry park.

It was like a scene from a film about war or alien invasion, the last dregs of humanity, puffing on one last roll up, sipping a cup of cold coffee, waiting for the end.

And there was nothing I could do. Really.

I mean I live here, I was on a quest for butter, potatoes, freezer bags and courgettes, which I got in Tesco are waiting in line fo ten minutes, going round, paying and leaving again.

On the way out I pass the same people, with the parking onto the onramp even thicker than on the other side.

All the way down the Sandwich Road there were trucks and vans parked, so were having breakfast, some were trying to sleep, and in a pre-dawn chill that would only bring another day of waiting for news.

All the way to Sandwich there were truck here and there, and again on the bypass, and even a van parked up at Ash, the driving alone trying to get some sleep."

From Dover, the lights of the lorry park at Manston Airport lit up Thanet due to light being reflected by the low cloud, for those parked up, sorry imprisoned, there would be no night, it was torture.

I have been a lorry driver, I drove a ridgid lorry for 6 months delivering hazardous chemicals until I threatened to grass on them for smoking in the workplace. I was let go the next day. I hated the job, dut driving is hard.

There are few places to park that have toilet and showering facilities, if there are, the driver has to pay. There is little healthy food, and going to the toilet s sually behind a hedge, sleeping in the cab, no shower, no proper rest, and even at service stations, parking up for more than four hours means having to pay. Hours are long, traffic can be terrible, with no guarantee in getting back home at night.

Some councils, like Kent, have been closing layby to force driver to their facilities which have to be paid for.

If that wasn't bad enough, over the years, haulage companies brought in east European drivers to work for lower pay and worse conditions. Now those drivers can earn as much back home, or in Germany, be treated better, and there is no Brexit red tape to cope with. And after Christmas jams who would want to return?

I wouldn't. I'd need a new medical if I did, and a retest, but the long hours, nights (probably) away from home, dreadful conditions and little free time out of work, I'll pass. And who would? Unless pay is increased, which will push up costs, and create shortages elsewhere as people leave to become drivers.

No easy solutions, there never were, but the Brexiteers lied and said Brexit was.