Flights

[Suff]

Oh it was certainly a B thing. It was a closed Border thing. If they don't want to come over the border, then we'll just have to buy from someone who does.

Anyway they are working through it now. They'll get testing in etc. If you recall they refused to shut down transport no matter how bad it got. "People" may have been calling for it to shut down, but the governments were not listening.

[Workingman]

The likes of Russia, Canada, Israel, Jamaica, Hong Kong, Kuwait and many others, show that it is not a B thing nor a trade thing. You just want to dress it up as such so you can get in your daily rant about the big, bad, EU. These places wanted a breathing space to assess the situation and work out how to deal with it. Some will relax, others will stretch things out a bit longer. If we had done it the other way, closed everything to everyone, (some) people would have been dancing on the rooftops.

The Dover / Folkestone to Calais routes just happen to be pinch points for lorries and travellers between the UK and Europe like no others, and it is difficult to stop one without the other when they use the same boats and trains.

Maybe the UK could have stopped day trippers, booze cruisers and woke holidaymakers from boarding ferries and Eurostar and made those services, limited though they would be, freight only to keep things moving. It might have eased things and it would only be for an initial 48 hours not till the end of time. A bit of pragmatism and all that.

At 2 pm yesterday we were told the routes would open in two hours. We now have less than five hours to go before the (initial) ban runs out and we're still waiting. Put St Winifred's Community Primary School, yr 4, in charge and let's get things moving.

[Workingman]

Zeebrugge, Ostend, Antwerp, Rotterdam and Amsterdam are all still taking freight, so it is not an EU trade embargo. The EU has also said that countries should relax thair bans. The problem is that these countries are sovereign within the EU and can act in their own best interests in this matter if they wish.

This is a global pandemic and countries are looking out for themselves. There are six strains: L, S, V, G, GH and GR, L has virtually died out and the G strains are the most dominant worldwide. The latest variant is of the S strain and was discovered in the UK but may not be of it. It is becoming dominant here, and very quickly, that is why other places are concerned. Not enough is yet known about it so to be cautious is wise.

The UK has, eventually, taken some action to control it (Tier 4) so it is no surprise that other countries want to make plans for if or when it arrives. It's sensible for them to do so.

[Suff]

I didn't say it was an EU embargo as such. This is an intra EU thing, if France wants to block the flow of EU exports and imports, that is between them and the Commission. France has emergency rights to do this, but they are blocking cross EU trade. Something the Commission is charged with controlling. Which is why the Commission is calling for France to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

Whether there is a motive for doing this, right now, I don't care either. I noticed, last night, that the seafood counter, normally bursting with product at this time, was less than half full. It is probably sitting amongst the thousands of tons of seafood blocked in Dover.

However that doesn't change the fact that goods bought from the EU by the UK and UK goods sold to the EU are being blocked at the Channel. There is a simple answer to this. Don't sell into the EU and don't buy from the EU if the ability to send and receive the goods is compromised.

This is neither a B related thing, nor a trade embargo. It is a relationship thing between the UK and an external trade partner. If it were the US, or China or any other country in the world, we would source elsewhere until the country blocking our trade decided to change their mind.

The fact that it is just over a 22m stretch of water is irrelevant. A foreign trade partner has blocked our trade. My default answer to that is "don't trade with them then". This can take months or years to switch the trade, but it would be my preferred action no matter who they are.

Just as an aside, I note that when 42,000 people a day and nearly 1,000 people a day, were being infected and dying in France, respectively, less than two months ago, the borders were not shut. Pots and kettles.