Brexit matters

[DarloRich]

Good news everyone: EE and Vodaphone will bring back roaming charges from January. Brexit bonus!

What a quaint concept...

Yes - I am old enough to remember when we had leaders!

 

[SteveM70]

That's the danger of having a government lead by ideologues

Or for most of the current government, someone-else’s-idealogues

Far too few of the cabinet appear capable of independent thought

 

[jon0844]

Also notice today Vodaphone now introducing roaming charges for EU use.

They all will. They'll also be able to increase the cost over time, or restrict things only to the most expensive plans, reduce the overall data allowance usable and the speed (maybe offering full speed and more data, for a price).

 

[Annetts key]

Are the mobile telephone operators “taking back control”?

 

[class ep-09]

Are the mobile telephone operators “taking back control”?

Yes …

Control of bigger slice of our earnings ( or at least, us travelling to the EU for various reasons ).

Similarly as before roaming charges were abandoned , it may be worth having a look at the Pay as You Go charges of EU countries operators, buy cheap SIM card , stick it to our mobile phones and save money that way ( and of course let an EU operator earn not UK’s - another benefit of brexit is it not ?).

Any mobile operator from an EU country can’t charge for roaming in other countries of the block .

i wonder how much cheap SIM card only contracr may be in say Romania or Bulgaria .

 

[jon0844]

Travelling and having to buy a local SIM (more often than not easier to do at an airport, for a price...) was a right PITA and in many countries you can't even do it as you need to be resident even for a PAYG SIM. Plus not all phones sold on contract by UK carriers are dual SIM, and it's also great fun juggling nano SIMs at the best of times!

Plus if you had unlimited data and could just use it throughout your trip (albeit with some form of cap, of maybe 20-25GB in any 30 day period) then why would you think that even €10-20 for a SIM that has maybe 10 or 20GB loaded on is good value?

Another side effect will be that now networks are charging to use phones in EU, there's less need to try and offer similar deals to networks outside of the EU. Whereas it was worthwhile trying to include not only the EU but also places like the USA and Canada, the cartel nature of the industry means that someone will probably soon think that they can charge for those locations too (on some plans, you already do have to pay to add non-EU countries) and then we're on our way back to roaming when it started in the 1990s.

Let's hope Rip off Britain and the other consumer programmes are prepared for the wonderful stories of huge bills from daring to use a phone abroad.

 

[ainsworth74]

Similarly as before roaming charges were abandoned , it may be worth having a look at the Pay as You Go charges of EU countries operators, buy cheap SIM card , stick it to our mobile phones and save money that way ( and of course let an EU operator earn not UK’s - another benefit of brexit is it not ?).

See now that we're free of the shackles of Europe the consumer has more choice! No longer are they forced by Brussels diktat to simply remain with the same operator no matter where they travel within the EU because some unelected bureaucrat decided to constrain the free market in the interest of "consumer protection" and now instead the consumer is free to choose what is the best option for them! Another Brexit Bonus to go with the empty supermarket shelves. After all what the consumer really wants is to know that there will be sufficient food. They don't really need to have consumer choice when it comes to something simple like what to eat.

 

[jon0844]

Two local supermarkets now running out of a lot of fresh dairy products and bread (some of this could be down to panic buying) and I have to say I commend some staff for the way they've spread out items to make the shelves look less empty.

Waitrose had nicely spread out fruit juice to fill a shelf, but there were no bottles behind the ones at the front!!

Thing is, they can't do that for long!

Still, people are still saying that they've not seen a shortage in their supermarket, therefore it must be all lies. Just like the virus is a hoax because some people don't know anyone personally that has died from it.

 

[Busaholic]

Yes - I am old enough to remember when we had leaders!

Liz Truss and Jacob Rees-Mogg waiting for the call, apparently. I'd emigrate to a European country if I could.

 

[alex397]

What will it take for our country to accept it was a mistake? Or, at least accept Brexit has not been handled well at all.

All issues will just be blamed on the EU ‘punishing’ us. I know that’s exactly what my family will say.

 

[Horizon22]

What will it take for our country to accept it was a mistake? Or, at least accept Brexit has not been handled well at all.

All issues will just be blamed on the EU ‘punishing’ us. I know that’s exactly what my family will say.

It won't. Some people are stuck in that mindset and despite any facts to the contrary, they will spin it so that it suits their narrative. Unfortunately a lot of politics has become (more) like this in the last 10 years.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Two local supermarkets now running out of a lot of fresh dairy products and bread (some of this could be down to panic buying) and I have to say I commend some staff for the way they've spread out items to make the shelves look less empty.

Waitrose had nicely spread out fruit juice to fill a shelf, but there were no bottles behind the ones at the front!!

Thing is, they can't do that for long!

Still, people are still saying that they've not seen a shortage in their supermarket, therefore it must be all lies. Just like the virus is a hoax because some people don't know anyone personally that has died from it.

Some of the better supermarkets also have their own in-house bakery section. Is this problem a regional one as I have been recently to supermarkets in our area of Cheshire East and also to the southern reaches of Greater Manchester and did not observe any of the problems you relate above.

No need, please, for the sarcasm expressed in your final paragraph. At no time have I ever drawn the type of comparison between supermarket shortages and the rather puerile statement that the Covid-19 virus was a hoax.

 

[GusB]

Some of the better supermarkets also have their own in-house bakery section. Is this problem a regional one as I have been recently to supermarkets in our area of Cheshire East and also to the southern reaches of Greater Manchester and did not observe any of the problems you relate above.

No need, please, for the sarcasm expressed in your final paragraph. At no time have I ever drawn the type of comparison between supermarket shortages and the rather puerile statement that the Covid-19 virus was a hoax.

In-house bakeries are often "bake-off" bakeries which use part-baked bread, rolls etc., which are then finished off in the store. They still have to be transported in from somewhere.

Where a supermarket is fortunate enough to retain a scratch-bakery, again the raw ingredients will still have to get there somehow.

There may well be a regional aspect to shortages; stores which are closer to distribution centres may have a better chance of getting stock because it allows drivers to return within a shorter time to load up again.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

In-house bakeries are often "bake-off" bakeries which use part-baked bread, rolls etc., which are then finished off in the store. They still have to be transported in from somewhere.

That applies to all products that are sold in supermarkets, usually from their own distribution centres.

 

[GusB]

That applies to all products that are sold in supermarkets, usually from their own distribution centres.

You're missing the point. Some supermarkets may not be feeling the effects yet, so it's entirely possible that you haven't seen any shortages. You referred to in-store bakeries which may either hold sufficient supplies of raw ingredients (which will have been bought in bulk), or in the case of part-baked goods, enough in their freezers to sustain them for some time.

The goods also have to get from their respective manufacturers to the distribution centres in the first place before they're sent out to supermarkets.

 

[SouthernR]

I see that the EU are actively encouraging the railways, to limit air travel.
We, of course, want nothing to do with that.
Worse than that, our PM sets a fine example by continuing to fly within GB.

Boris Johnson's 'Hard Brexit' cut the UK off from Europe's green rail plans

Rail could become our 'Green Gateway' to the rest of Europe

www.theneweuropean.co.uk

 

[JamesT]

I see that the EU are actively encouraging the railways, to limit air travel.
We, of course, want nothing to do with that.
Worse than that, our PM sets a fine example by continuing to fly within GB.

Boris Johnson's 'Hard Brexit' cut the UK off from Europe's green rail plans

Rail could become our 'Green Gateway' to the rest of Europe

www.theneweuropean.co.uk

I don't see our membership of the EU or not making a great deal of difference to this. Even when we were in, not being part of Schengen made through services impractical. Our different loading gauge and having our only fixed connection at one end of the country don't help either.
Most of the article that letter responds to is around more services running on the existing European high speed network. We need to be getting on with the step before that, building a high speed network within the UK which HS2 is the first part.

 

[najaB]

I don't see our membership of the EU or not making a great deal of difference to this. Even when we were in, not being part of Schengen made through services impractical. Our different loading gauge and having our only fixed connection at one end of the country don't help either.
Most of the article that letter responds to is around more services running on the existing European high speed network. We need to be getting on with the step before that, building a high speed network within the UK which HS2 is the first part.

I agree that on a practical level there were obstacles to running high-speed rail services into Europe, but it's more about the direction that this government is taking, which increasingly seems to be "Anything essentially contrary to the EU".

 

[XAM2175]

‘A perfect storm’: UK beet growers fear Brexit threatens their future

They produce half the country’s sugar needs, but expect new trade deals to make their tough situation worse

www.theguardian.com

In a field in Norfolk, the sight of lush green leaves sprouting from the soil are giving farmer Ed Lankfer cause for optimism. “I think this is one of the best crops we have ever grown,” he says, surveying one of his fields of sugar beet.

The signs are promising so far for this year’s harvest – known in the trade as a campaign – which takes place later than for other crops, during the autumn and winter. It would mark quite the turnaround from 2020’s terrible harvest, when bad weather and pests caused yields of the white sugar-yielding root to plummet by as much as 60%, leaving Lankfer with a £12,000 loss.

Sugar beet has been grown on Lankfer’s 225-hectare (556-acre) family farm in the village of Wereham since his grandfather first introduced it in 1928, alongside other crops. However, recent years of falling prices, coupled with risks from weather and disease, have many farmers questioning whether there is a future in growing it. This is before growers feel the impact of post-Brexit trade deals with large sugar producers such as Australia. It’s a concern for Lankfer, whose land is in international trade secretary Liz Truss’s constituency. He has twice hosted her at the farm to answer questions from growers.
...
Many consumers who drink fizzy drinks or eat sweet treats may not realise that beet farms located all over eastern England, across swathes of East Anglia up into Lincolnshire, produce enough to cover half of the UK’s annual sugar consumption of close to 2m tonnes. The remainder comes from overseas beet or cane, meaning any reduction in British output would increase reliance on imports.

Tate & Lyle, the food company which was a prominent supporter of Brexit, only processes imported raw sugar cane, mostly from the tropics, which arrives by ship at its huge refinery beside the Thames in east London. Like the villain Voldemort in the Harry Potter books, some beet farmers refuse to mention the company by name, grumbling about how Tate & Lyle products are branded with a union jack by virtue of being processed and packaged, but not grown, in the UK. Imported raw sugar cane is often cheaper than British or European-produced beet, yet domestic sugar producers were protected by quotas and subsidies during the UK’s EU membership while tariffs restricted the amount of cane imported, which goes some way to explaining Tate & Lyle’s pro-Brexit stance.
...
One-year contract prices for sugar beet agreed between British Sugar and the NFU have been in steady decline for most of the last decade. Having peaked at just under £32 a tonne in 2014, the price has slumped by more than a third to hover at about £20 a tonne for the past few years. Farmers are still nursing losses from last year’s harvest, and feel there is an imbalance in power in their relationship with British Sugar, which reported a 17% rise in revenue and a pre-tax profit of almost £55m in the year to 29 August 2020, according to its most recent accounts.

Amid mounting pressures, some beet farmers are calling time on the crop. “Many growers are now talking about what they call beyond beet, and unfortunately we think with the new market dynamics, the industry will get smaller in future,” says Sly. James Peck, who runs Cambridgeshire-based PX Farms, was until recently the UK’s third-largest sugar beet grower. “We were heavily invested in it and we were committed, but the price went down, down, down,” he says.
...
British Sugar says it recognises that 2020 was challenging and it is offering NFU Sugar a minimum contract price of £25 a tonne in the current negotiations, representing a 23% increase on last year.
...
Even if beet prices improve, growers are fearful of the prospect of Australian sugar flooding the market as a result of the trade deal. Beet farmers feel they have been overlooked, but expect to be affected just as much as sheep and cattle farmers, located predominantly in Wales and Scotland. “All the signs are that for sugar actually it’s a tighter transition [than for lamb and beef],” says Sly. He calculates that, under the deal as it stands, by the end of the transition period in 2030 “there will be an additional 240,000 tonnes of tariff-free sugar into the marketplace”, equivalent to a quarter of the UK’s domestic sugar production. After the transition period, there will be no limit to how much Australian sugar can be imported. Domestic growers feel unable to compete with the scale of Australian farms, where 30m tonnes of sugarcane were harvested in 2019-20, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Sly points out that large sugar cane-producing nations also use certain pesticides that are no longer allowed in Europe.

Back in Norfolk, Lankfer doesn’t plan to stop growing sugar beet, though his recent meeting with Truss only went some way to allaying his concerns. “She explains herself well, but after the meeting there were lots of ‘what ifs’. What if Australia falls out with China, and then Australia floods our market, which could happen with sugar?” Lankfer says. “My future is in her hands.”

The synopsis: the new trade deal with Australia doesn't replicate the protections on imported sugar beet and sugar cane that British farmers enjoyed within the EU. The Australia deal allows an extra 240,000 tonnes of tariff-free sugar to enter the UK by 2030, equivalent to a quarter of the UK's domestic production. After 2030, there'll be no quota on Australian sugar imports at all.

 

[class ep-09]

‘A perfect storm’: UK beet growers fear Brexit threatens their future

They produce half the country’s sugar needs, but expect new trade deals to make their tough situation worse

www.theguardian.com

The synopsis: the new trade deal with Australia doesn't replicate the protections on imported sugar beet and sugar cane that British farmers enjoyed within the EU. The Australia deal allows an extra 240,000 tonnes of tariff-free sugar to enter the UK by 2030, equivalent to a quarter of the UK's domestic production. After 2030, there'll be no quota on Australian sugar imports at all.

I am sure they knew , what they were voting for …

sarcasm .

Our dear citizens soon will need to learn how to pluck chickens …

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

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Our dear citizens soon will need to learn how to pluck chickens …

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

Before Brexit, what percentage of chicken meat consumed in Britain was produced in this country?

 

[najaB]

Before Brexit, what percentage of chicken meat consumed in Britain was produced in this country?

The majority. It had dropped to around 75% in 2016 according to this article: https://www.poultryworld.net/Meat/Articles/2016/6/UK-less-self-sufficient-for-poultry-2821542W/

 

[GusB]

We're being warned of a shortage of turkeys too.

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

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

UK poultry producers have warned that serious staff shortages caused by Brexit could mean there are not enough turkeys to go round this Christmas.

This week’s partial closure of the restaurant chain Nando’s, as well as fewer dishes on the menu at KFC, has thrown the consumer spotlight on a labour crisis exacerbated by Covid.

The British Poultry Council (BPC) said its members, which include 2 Sisters Food Group – the country’s largest supplier of supermarket chicken and KellyBronze Turkeys, had told them that one in six jobs were unfilled as a result of EU workers leaving the UK after Brexit.

The council’s chief executive, Richard Griffiths, said the group had written to the home secretary, Priti Patel, this month asking for the government to relax immigration rules but had not yet received a response.

The poultry industry employs more than 40,000 people but there are nearly 7,000 vacancies, the BPC said. The shortage means some chicken producers have reduced the size of their product ranges and cut weekly output by up to 10%, the letter said. The supply of turkey is down by a similar amount but could decline by as much as 20% at Christmas as firms fear they will not be able to draft in the usual number of seasonal workers.

Paul Kelly, the managing director of KellyBronze, which produces hand-plucked, free range turkeys, said big producers would opt to rear fewer birds if they were not confident of securing the 1,500 to 2,000 extra staff needed to pluck, pack and deliver the birds in December.

“There will be a massive shortage because companies cannot risk hatching turkeys and pushing them on the farm if they can’t get the workers to do the job,” Kelly said. “It would be financial suicide. Turkey after Christmas Day is worth nothing.”

Meanwhile, a 10th of Nando’s 450 UK restaurants are closed due to a shortage of key ingredients. The company has seconded 70 staff to its suppliers and is hopeful that all branches will reopen on Saturday.

Last week KFC said supply chain issues were disrupting its food and packaging stocks nationwide. Supermarkets have also been struggling to fill shelves amid a serious shortage of HGV drivers that is affecting areas such as milk deliveries.

“We’ve seen a loss of staff across the supply chain, particularly in our member companies,” Griffiths said in an interview with the BBC. “Our members are reporting up to 16% vacancies at the moment as a direct result of the limiting of immigration policies”

Ranjit Singh Boparan, the billionaire founder of 2 Sisters, said recently that the “pingdemic” – which forced large numbers of healthy workers to self-isolate after being “pinged” by NHS test and trace – had masked an industry already at crisis point owing to Brexit-related labour shortages.

Within its 16,000-member workforce, the majority of whom work in its chicken and ready-meal production facilities, 15% of jobs were unfilled. Brexit had “acutely reduced available workers across the food sector” with entry level jobs hardest to fill, 2 Sisters said. The company was also grappling with the soaring cost of ingredients, wage inflation and Covid-related absences, he said.

“The critical labour issue alone means we walk a tightrope every week at the moment,” said Boparan, who warned that without government help food waste would rocket “simply because it cannot be processed or delivered”.

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However, the Unite union said that the crux of the problem was neither Brexit nor Covid but the “terrible pay and working conditions that make the meat processing industry one of the worst places to work in the UK”. “The conditions are awful, and the pay is worse,” said Bev Clarkson, its national officer for food, drink and agriculture.

The BPC countered that increasing wages to attract domestic workers was not the answer. “We generally operate in areas of high local employment so there is a limit to availability of local workers coupled with negligible appetite from UK workers to move from other parts of the country,” said Griffiths.

 

[317 forever]

We're being warned of a shortage of turkeys too.

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

If we are short of turkeys this Christmas as a result of Brexit, then Leave voters will have proved to be like turkeys voting for Christmas.

 

[alex397]

I walked past the Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh today, and noticed they still have an EU flag flying. Personally I was quite pleased to see that, but I was surprised to see it considering we are no longer a part of it.

 

[brad465]

Just when we thought things couldn't get more bizarre in trying to tackle the lorry driver shortage, some firms are resorting to hire prisoners on day release:

Food suppliers resort to hiring prisoners on day release, as HGV driver shortage could disrupt Christmas

Some food supply companies are turning to prisoners on day release to fill the gaps in their workforce

inews.co.uk

The Government is facing mounting pressure to allow thousands of EU workers back into the UK to help alleviate the nationwide HGV driver shortage in time for Christmas.

The desperation for workers in the food supply sector is so great, some companies are trying to hire prisoners via a programme that allows inmates on day release to do paid work

The Association of Independent Meat Suppliers will reportedly meet with HM Prison Service this week to ask it to prioritise food suppliers with its Release on Temporary Licence (ROTL) scheme.

 

[ainsworth74]

Well hopefully we're at least paying them minimum wage so they're not being used in a way which is very close to actual slave labour as they do in the United States...

 

[GusB]

No chicken in Nando's? McDonald's are now having problems with milkshake supplies.

McDonald’s runs out of milkshakes and bottled drinks due to supply chain disruption

Exclusive: Fast-food chain is working to return drinks to the menu ‘as soon as possible’

www.independent.co.uk

McDonald’s runs out of milkshakes and bottled drinks due to supply chain disruption

McDonald’s has become the latest restaurant chain to be hit by supply chain shortages, with no milkshakes or bottled drinks currently available in any of its British outlets.

The fast-food chain, which operates around 1,250 restaurants in England, Scotland and Wales, has had to stop supplying the drinks this week but said it was “working hard to return these items to the menu as soon as possible”.

A spokesperson for McDonald’s told The Independent: “Like most retailers, we are currently experiencing some supply chain issues, impacting the availability of a small number of products. Bottled drinks and milkshakes are temporarily unavailable in restaurants across England, Scotland and Wales.

“We apologise for any inconvenience, and thank our customers for their continued patience. We are working hard to return these items to the menu as soon as possible.”

One devoted customer said on social media on Monday: “I just went on McDonalds – they’ve got no milkshakes and the fizzy drinks ‘might be flat’. What is going onnn?!”

Another wrote: “McDonald’s you don’t do bagels any more or breakfast wraps, you now have no milkshakes, Tropicana or bottled water...”

According to Kate Nicholls, UKHospitality chief executive, virtually all hospitality businesses are currently experiencing problems in their supply chains.

“Suppliers and hospitality businesses alike are facing enormous challenges to their supply chains and are working together minimise the impact to consumers,” she told The Independent.

“Our figures show that 94 per cent of hospitality businesses are experiencing problems, with about two-thirds of those saying some goods simply don’t arrive, thereby reducing the menu they can offer customers and severely undermining sales.”

This week, lobby groups for the retail and transport industries wrote to the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, warning that the UK’s lorry driver shortage could cause serious problems for their supply chains.

The groups want a review of plans not to grant temporary work visas to drivers from the EU. Logistics UK, which represents freight firms, and the British Retail Consortium, said that a shortfall of about 90,000 HGV drivers “is placing increasingly unsustainable pressure on retailers and their supply chains.”

They added: “While there was a shortage of HGV drivers prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit, these two events have exacerbated the situation. The pandemic halted driving training and testing for over 12 months, while an estimated 25,000 EU drivers returned home during the pandemic and following the end of the transition period.”

Speaking about the shortage, Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said: “We are calling on the government to rapidly increase the number of HGV driving tests taking place, provide temporary visas for EU drivers, and to make changes on how HGV driver training can be funded.”

Last week, Nando’s was forced to temporarily close around 50 restaurants after suffering chicken shortages.

Nick Allen, chief executive of the British Meat Processors Association, told The Independent last week that the problems at the peri-peri chicken maker were just “the tip of the iceberg”. He said: “I think we’re going to see more and more [closures],” adding: “It’s certainly Brexit-related, but it’s also the immigration decisions our politicians are making since Brexit.”

A government spokesperson said on Friday that, “We recently announced a package of measures to help tackle the HGV driver shortage, including plans to streamline the process for new drivers to gain their HGV licence and to increase the number of tests able to be conducted,” according to the BBC.

“We have also temporarily relaxed drivers’ hours rules to allow HGV drivers to make slightly longer journeys, but these must only be used where necessary and must not compromise driver safety.”

 

[birchesgreen]

We are one big mac shortage away from insurrection.

 

[GusB]

We are one big mac shortage away from insurrection.

It was bad enough when they ran out of fries, and I was the wrong side of the counter at the time!