Mailwatch(ed) Forum

Nobody actually cares about these deals. Their only purpose is to make the government look dynamic and forward looking in negotiating them. Might as well drop them altogether after a decent interval.

I voted Remain but didn’t predict Brexit would bring this level of catastrophe to ports. Call me naive.

The Welsh Secretary has claimed that Brexit voters were not “naive” about the “issues” leaving the EU would create at ports in Wales.

Simon Hart acknowledged there have been “challenges” at Welsh ports “as a result of Brexit” but added that he believes “people voted in the certain knowledge that this was going to be quite a significant transition period”.

The Conservative MP for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire was being quizzed by Iain Dale on Cross Question on the LBC radio station about the impact of Brexit on the shortage of HGV drivers.

The crisis led to food shortages in supermarkets, and restaurants, and to people panic buying fuel at petrol stations.

But contrary to some experts, Hart argued that the shortage in HGV drivers didn’t have anything to do with leaving the European Union.

However, he did admit that some of the issues with importing and exporting goods through Welsh ports were as a result of Brexit, saying that these were “predicted”. https://nation.cymru/news/welsh-secreta ... ru1bcjq1Aw

Felixstowe, the UK's main port, was already struggling to not lose business to Rotterdam and other continental ports due to outdated computer systems and understaffing. Now that they can't even get the container off the lot if it does get unpacked on time, I can only conclude that even more just-in-time supply lines are going to get rodgered by continental diversions.

Youngian wrote: ↑Mon Oct 18, 2021 10:59 am I voted Remain but didn’t predict Brexit would bring this level of catastrophe to ports. Call me naive.

...“challenges” ... importing and exporting goods ...

You don't need to be an international logistics wizard to know that, if you're a port, that is basically all you do.

You can airily dismiss these "challenges" as much as you like, but you still no longer have that major infrastructure plant and cornerstone employer.

This is another example or how Brexit has essentially forced lies and falsehoods to be at the heart of the project

Oblomov wrote: ↑Mon Oct 18, 2021 1:29 pm Felixstowe, the UK's main port, was already struggling to not lose business to Rotterdam and other continental ports due to outdated computer systems and understaffing. Now that they can't even get the container off the lot if it does get unpacked on time, I can only conclude that even more just-in-time supply lines are going to get rodgered by continental diversions.

There's actually some sensible investment in rail freight capacity round Felixstowe. Be typical of this lot if they then lost business anyway.

https://www.railengineer.co.uk/felixsto ... goes-live/

My day so far.

That fabulous woman woke particularly early and made us both the ultimate coffee. Robust, light, silken, and beyond delicious. I flipped the wireless on. Farming Today.

I'll summarise for those who missed this morning's episode. Blimey.

Poultry; no one wants a visa. Pigs; ditto ------> domino-effect ----------> storm clouds are gathering over the lamb and beef sectors. Granted, there was no mention of ostriches of crocodiles but the entire livestock sector is now verging towards being shoulder-shruggingly fucked. For the avoidance of doubt, we aren't talking about shortages, we are talking about systemic failure.

No panic, no demanding immediate remedial action, just crestfallen resignation. Dead, done, project here.

Anyway, a quick shower during the shipping forecast and back to the wireless. Not a peep.

Yeah but Disgusted of Hemel Hempstead now doesn't have to see [insert random Polish name here] walking past the bus stop every morning, so it's all worth it.

Luckily, round here the local butcher raises their own pigs and they are slaughtered in their own abattoir, all within a two mile radius. There'll only be a pigs in blankets shortage here if everyone comes from the supermarkets.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Mon Oct 18, 2021 2:41 pm

Oblomov wrote: ↑Mon Oct 18, 2021 1:29 pm Felixstowe, the UK's main port, was already struggling to not lose business to Rotterdam and other continental ports due to outdated computer systems and understaffing. Now that they can't even get the container off the lot if it does get unpacked on time, I can only conclude that even more just-in-time supply lines are going to get rodgered by continental diversions.

There's actually some sensible investment in rail freight capacity round Felixstowe. Be typical of this lot if they then lost business anyway.

https://www.railengineer.co.uk/felixsto ... goes-live/

There is one thing that would help Felixstowe no end, and that's a road and rail tunnel beneath the Orwell estuary from Harwich. In terms of rail, as the map on the above link shows, you have to go on a five mile circuitous route heading around the north side of Ipswich and then through the eastern suburbs. Once you leave the East Suffolk Line at Westerfield, it's single track to Felixstowe, apart from a passing loop at Derby Road. Things are better than they were now that the Bacon Chord (so named as it was built on the site of the former Harris Bacon factory on Hadleigh Road) in Ipswich has opened. Before that, any freight coming from the Cambridge direction would have to into Ipswich station and reverse before they are able to head for Felixstowe.

Anyone who looks at the map of the area might wonder why there was never a line built east from Ipswich Station for Felixstowe, but directly south of the station, the line goes into a tunnel, so any Felixstowe branch would have to have been built after that. By the time the tunnel emerges, any line branching east would have had to cross the Orwell, which is about 500 yards wide at that point, and then somehow get through the dockside industries and the Victorian built Rosehill area before it can head for Felixstowe. Looping the town was really the only option at that point.

However, the fact remains that you could probably ease congestion around Ipswich with a Harwich-Felixstowe tunnel. The same applies to the roads. All freight traffic bound for the two ports from the Midlands and the North must use the A14. All freight traffic from Felixstowe, even if it's heading for the London direction, must use the Orwell Bridge. It's only two lanes wide and exposed to high winds. When the bridge is closed, there's no other solution but to divert the traffic through Ipswich. This causes absolute gridlock.

A few weeks ago, idly flicking through YouTube, I came across dashcam footage of someone arriving in Calais on the ferry. I couldn't help noticing that anyone disembarking had an unimpeded free flow route from ferry to motorway (appreciate post-Brexit this might not be the case anymore). If we had a government that was logistically minded, we'd have the A14 as a motorway right up to Felixstowe port, with the A12 and A120 doing the same to Harwich. And like I say, you'd have the tunnel under the estuary.

However, I accept there's more chance of me headlining Wrestlemania next year than that happening.

I'm surprised the motorway bit of that isn't on the agenda.

The All New KevS wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 12:14 pm If we had a government that was logistically minded, we'd have the A14 as a motorway right up to Felixstowe port, with the A12 and A120 doing the same to Harwich. And like I say, you'd have the tunnel under the estuary.

When the 'new' A14 bit was built from Cambridge via the south of Huntingdon to where it connects to the A14 west of Brampton Hut, it was built to motorway standards - just as the new interchange with the M1 and M6 was at Catthorpe. I could certainly see it becoming the A14(M) at some point but roads aren't sexy or vote winners any more.

There's a morbid fear of putting new blue lines on the map for fear of outraging voters in the shires, but they're getting round this by building "expressways" such as the new bit of the A14 which are basically motorways in everything but name.

There's a few of these now, the A55 in North Wales and the A1 approaching Edinburgh for example. The thing is there are actual motorways that are below that standard - mostly older ones that have never been updated such as the M50 and the older parts of the M4 in South Wales, that road classification means nowt in the greater scheme of things.

For a start off you would need good links to the ports. And like I said, right up to quayside - not just Harwich and Felixstowe, but Dover, Southampton, Pembroke, Fishguard, Holyhead and Hull. You need to alleviate pinch points by cutting corners on the network - an M4-M3-M25 link is often mooted to take the pressure off the roads around Heathrow.

Apart from the A14, east-west links aren't up to much - the A50 between Stoke and Derby was originally mooted to be the M64 motorway but got downgraded - a route say from Liverpool to Great Yarmouth would help. The cross pennine routes north of the M62 are pretty hopeless as well - the A66 and A69. And then of course, you get the ridiculousness of the sixth and seventh largest cities in the country - Manchester and Sheffield, lying barely 40 miles apart, but giving the motorist a choice of:

1. Going via the M62 and M1 adding about another twenty miles to the journey
2. Going over the twisty turny A57 Snake Pass
3. Using the A628/A616 combo, which, although faster, is still only single carriageway

Again, there is evidence of what was originally planned - the stump of the M67 in east Manchester was supposed to tunnel through the Pennines in an alpine fashion to reach Sheffield and the M1, but successive governments dropped the ball. Wales, of course is even worse, with the M4 being their ONLY motorway, and no decent north-south links, although obviously terrain is a big factor there.

There are slight signs of joined up thinking - an expressway is being built between Cambridge and Oxford which will eventually result in a dual carriageway outer London ring beyond the M25 on the Felixstowe-Cambridge-Milton Keynes-Oxford-Southampton route, so there is hope.

Of course, knowing this lot, they'll probably put a motorway where it's not needed at and behold you have the eight-lane wide A39(M) Truro Inner Relief Road.

Having not so fond memories of the sudden change from motorway to single carriageway at Indian Queens, I'd personally love to extend the M5 a few miles into Cornwall.

Bodmin's had a lot of work to add lanes to the A30 there and it's still hell at busy times, and the diffusion of cars from there onto the lanes is also hell. Frankly Cornwall can't cope with the M5, and the better long-term solution is... I have no idea.

My dad's was "drive down at night".

I believe it’s a dual carriageway in parts now.

Well they were doing something the last time I went via road.

Conversely. Last time I drove to Cornwall was July 2019 to attend a funeral at Truro cathedral. Anticipating congestion, I set off very early but, despite travelling during rush hour, made very good time and ended up wandering the streets of Truro for two hours. It was the hottest day of the year and I was wearing a black suit, I was extremely sweaty by the time the service started.

Next week, the EU ban on Crowded House is to be lifted, announced Liz Truss

If you remember, Cameron used to say that his favourite history book was the rather old fashioned kid's book "Our Island Story". I think Truss has outdone him, basing her knowledge of agriculture on Ladybird's "Down on the Farm" and the collected works of Beatrix Potter.

I'm surprised she can read.