[Andy McDandy]

Was up in Barrow last week, and needed to pop into Wilko's.

Half the shelving had been taken down, and what was left was only partly filled. Entire aisles disappeared.

Oddly enough, the town's B&M and Tesco were fine, as has the Asda local to us (Liverpool Sefton Park).

[kreuzberger]

Word is swirling on Twitter that the EU is considering offering 5-year visas to UK HGV drivers

[Youngian]

Word is swirling on Twitter that the EU is considering offering 5-year visas to UK HGV drivers

Uncontrolled emigration

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Word is swirling on Twitter that the EU is considering offering 5-year visas to UK HGV drivers

Chatted to my French Ocado man about this. We decided that M. Macron has a sense of humour after all.

[Oboogie]

Word is swirling on Twitter that the EU is considering offering 5-year visas to UK HGV drivers

I so hope that's true!

[Tubby Isaacs]

Haven't read the article but I venture the EU has fewer empty lorries.

[Nigredo]

C4 News did a piece on a British HGV driver tonight, the working conditions seemed pretty miserable even before Brexit.

Now they live in a constant state of anxiety of whether their load will even be accepted by EU inspectors once they got across La Manche or if they have to turn around and head home after wasting a day and a lorry load of cream doughnuts.

[Nigredo]

C4 News did a piece on a British HGV driver tonight, the working conditions seemed pretty miserable even before Brexit.

Now they live in a constant state of anxiety of whether their load will even be accepted by EU inspectors once they got across La Manche or if they have to turn around and head home after wasting a day and a lorry load of cream doughnuts.

Apologies for double post, nicked from elsewhere:

I think the plan is to make British youth do these jobs.

In the envisioned design of the society is to prevent free market from organising itself, instead force locals to do things for the old people when keeping the foreigners out.

In a free market, the case was that people from poorer countries perceive the UK payments as "life changing", so they come over and do the jobs that the British wouldn't fancy. With that money they can go back and dramatically improve their lives home or use the money to stay in UK and pursue the opportunities in the UK that are not available in their home country.

Now that the UK people appointed the government as the first step in human resources management, people are no longer able to participate in a free market economy and need to go through the UK government and the UK government is intervening in such a way that make the British youth abandon higher ideals and do the work that is no longer done through natural market forces.

As a result, you can expect to have harsher divide between the UK classes. Essentially, people who can live off on the stuff they have(property and pension is the starting point and goes up to the elites) will try to make people who don't have economical freedom to work for them. That's the price of getting rid of the foreigners and it's all to be payed by those who don't have the economic freedom. When someone says "immigration is not the solution", what they actually say is "If you don't have the money, simply abandon your your dream of becoming a screenplay writer and drive a lorry".

[Andy McDandy]

Good thread on the problems with Johnson's truck stop plan:

Summary: You know all the planning hassle they had building Farage's Garage in Kent? Or any time they try to build a new petrol station? Imagine that up to 11, all over the country. Talking of which, where are you going to put them and where is the land coming from? Who pays for it? Well, they do have them on the continent, but they're part of the national infrastructure and paid for out of the public works pot, but we can't have that, can we?

And yes, there's already talk of prisoners picking crops. I can see indentured servitude coming back.

[Watchman]

I'm not a civil engineer or urban planner, but I would have thought the first place to provide proper truck stops is to improve and expand motorway service stations

[Andy McDandy]

Many years ago my dad pointed out that if you're looking for a steady supply of non-perishable goods, we've a rather good canal network.

[kreuzberger]

Climate, corona, Brexit, crises hot on the heels of each other from the Capitol to Kabul - the news seems to consume all other discourse. But, in the background, work continues including that on automation and self-driving everythings.

I read a piece a couple of years ago which suggested that 3% of the U.S. economy involves transport and that excludes manufacture and maintenance. Drivers, fuel and service station workers, truck-stop employees, the list goes on. In Australia, there are already automated freight trains which do the B to Y of the journey with human intervention only being required at stages A and Z.

The logical conclusion must be that the transport industry as a career option is in managed but accelerating decline. Any 20-something considering running head-long in to the sharp end of logistics should have their bumps felt.

In the meantime, maybe we can convert the pig farms in to truck-stops.

[Bones McCoy]

The term your authors were seeking, Obs, is Feudalism.

(I'm sure Susie Dent will be along in a moment).

[Bones McCoy]

Many years ago my dad pointed out that if you're looking for a steady supply of non-perishable goods, we've a rather good canal network.

There are a few drawbacks.
* A bit slow for "Just in time".
* Maintained bits aren't as continuous as we'd really like.
* Pumps and locks probably not maintained for the rates of use that Industry will require.
* A bit like trains, they don't go everywhere - the canal basins round here are less now about warehouses than architect's studios and "I saw you coming" style bespoke furniture outlets.
* Can you squeeze a 40 foot container through your local canal tunnel.

I can certainly see a case for restoring sections to create point-to-point links.

[Bones McCoy]

Now THIS is the sort of canal you're looking for.

[Andy McDandy]

Yes, points taken on maintenance, although they'd be addressed if this was adopted. His point was more that if you have a constant flow of something that won't go off, and will always be in demand, then as long as stuff is constantly arriving, it doesn't really matter how long it takes to get there.

[Cyclist]

Which is why so many colliery owners in the 18th and 19th centuries invested in canals. The Duke of Bridgewater canal probably being one of the most famous.

Note to Tories: it *is* possible to learn from history.

[Cyclist]

Dozens of potential drivers come forward after haulage firm offers free HGV training

https://www.business-live.co.uk/ports-l ... 781124.amp

It's a start, I suppose. Might take a while to get the 100,000 the industry says it needs though.

[Youngian]

Brexit will bring you closer to God, according to Garth on Wayne’s World

[Cyclist]

Siva on a skateboard! I actually find myself agreeing with a tweet fro GBeebies!

There's more to Christmas than eating, drinking and spending to excess.