Pouring petrol on a crisis

The Government has been missing in action for the last six days of the fuel crisis. Really. On Monday and Tuesday, not one Minister was made available to media to explain the action, or lack thereof, being taken to fix the issue.

Thing is, there is a documented record in newpapers and on the net of repeated warnings going back years about Brexit causing a shortage of drivers. Warnings that Johnson and his Ministers have downplayed or ignored.

Train more UK workers to become HGV drivers they say. But there is a finite pool of labour, and you move thousands, if not tens of thousands from one area of the economy to become drivers, it creates a shortage elsewhere.

For fruit and vegetable picking, the Government has issued two and a half thousand six month work visas for people from as far afield as Nepal to come and work here, rather than EU citizens, this has meant that they have come as part of organized labour, the cost of travel and visas leaving them open to exploitation. And rather than have EU labour, we have labour from other places in the globe, but labour with less rights, protection. So much for global Britain.

Which in itself shows how poor the thinking of Johnson is. Before Brexit, I didn’t know the difference between Britain and United Kingdom, it soon became clear that UK is England, Scotlan, Wales and Northern Ireland, while Britain is just England, Scotland and Wales. So the use by Ministers of Britain this or that, means without NI. Now that could just be a slip of the tongue, the use of a poorly thought phrase, but if I lived in NI, I would be noting this.

The Express headline screamed on Monday that the shortages were not down to Brexit. Ministers claim the same. But although its true there are driver shortages across the EU, shops are well stocked and there is fuel. Even in Northern Ireland, there is food and fuel. Just in Britain. NI is, of course, part of the EU SM and CU for goods, so paperwork on goods from the Republic or rest of the EU isn’t an issue.

Although that should be true of Britain too, as the Government has delayed implementation, truckers have a thing called cabotage, where after delivering one load, they pick another up locally, deliver than, and so on and on, so fill up their week/trip with profitable jobs. But, they would have to leave Britain empty otherwise be subjected to checks on goods crossing into the EU, same into NI.

And then there is what happened in December, when thousands of drivers were locked in a secure compound at Manston for days on end, with little sanitary facilities, one cooked meal a day, and unable to receive consular support. Many drivers won’t forget that, and so with the thought that the offer of a three month visa here, ending on Christmas Eve, the anniversary of that event, most drivers won’t come back.

And who can blame them?

The military is being called in this week to deliver fuel. But they have to be trained first. That is to start today. That it has taken six days for this to start shows how reactive the Government is. And anyway, it is unclear how many servicepeople are HGV trained, have ADR licences, before you even think about training in driving tankers. I saw an article about MOD examiners, well, when in the RAF, I did an HGV course and the test was conducted by the usual civilian examiner.

I’m sure the Government could make a workround, but that doesn’t seem too safe to me.

The fuel shortage might be easing, as most people have filled their car, but video of fights breaking out have been shared online, and so tempers fray, and essential services are starting to crumble further.