13 ms·
Eight million Britons unable to buy essential food items in last fortnight
- blah_123 5y agoThis is usual news fear-mongering, I’ve been in many shops and they’re fully stocked. Every fuel station has petrol and diesel
- tonyedgecombe 5y ago>I’ve been in many shops and they’re fully stocked. Every fuel station has petrol and diesel Yet I cycled past a closed petrol station yesterday and couldn't buy everything on my shopping list last week. Neither your point nor the article are correct of course and a lot depends on where you live in the country.
- tibbydudeza 5y agoMove along nothing to see.
- BoiledCabbage 5y agoAlong the same lines of "Covid hasn't hit my family, so clearly it doesn't exist."
- gmac 5y agoEvery petrol station I’ve driven past in the last week has had giant queues or (more commonly) been shut for lack of fuel. SE England.
- dTal 5y agoCongratulations, you're not one of the 8 million. Meanwhile my parents had to eat cupboard food for dinner because their local Co-op looked like this: https://imgur.com/a/a2aEaxG https://imgur.com/a/a2aEaxG
- 0898 5y agoThere’s only a few things missing. Just choose different veg?
- nickkell 5y agoI don't think they want recipe tips, they're just highlighting there's a lot of produce missing from the shelves
- Socketier 5y agoHaving less variety of food l and "having to eat cupboard food" don't really go hand in hand. It's not essentials, they're luxurious options.
- dTal 5y agoI'm glad you think meat is an inessential luxury item. I suspect it's a viewpoint we're all going to have to embrace before long.
- goldenkey 5y agoIt is a luxury item in most of the world where large livestock are needed to pull heavy equipment. https://snackfever.com/blogs/magazine/beef-why-in-korea-it-is-such-a-luxury-item https://snackfever.com/blogs/magazine/beef-why-in-korea-it-i...
- jonathanleane 5y agoCan I use these pics in an article?
- dTal 5y agoThey're potato-quality but sure why not?
- cbozeman 5y ago
- zimpenfish 5y agoA few Gladwells of anecdata: our local ASDA (big but not a megastore) has had reasonably frequent empty shelves in various products. I think the medium-large Tesco down the road has also had empty shelves (but that's secondhand from people I know who shop there.) Similarly secondhand, from family up north, the major supermarkets up there have been missing products.
- zyemuzu 5y agoNot true from my experience, but 'North' is a broad geographic area.
- junon 5y agoHonest question: wasn't this whole debacle considered as a possible outcome prior to Brexit? Surely someone in the government must have said "hey this whole thing could end up like this, maybe we should talk about that." What am I missing? Did something unexpected happen with Brexit? Or is this fueled by the pandemic?
- StevenWaterman 5y agoBasically every report said this would happen, the government dismissed it as 'project fear' and still refuses to admin that it has anything to do with brexit. I'm sure it was brought up internally in the government, but they won the election by promising to deliver sunshine and rainbows brexit even though they had no way of doing so. Addressing it before it became a problem would've looked bad, so they didn't, and the pandemic provided a convenient excuse.
- dTal 5y agoIt's a great question. Of course it was widely considered. This should come as a surprise to nobody. And yet, here we are. You might ask the same question about Trump. Surely someone in charge - someone with authority - should have seen the trainwreck a mile off, and done something about it? The shocking truth is that there's no one with both common sense and overriding authority that prevents catastrophic wrong turns. This was absolutely an expected outcome of Brexit, by anyone with a clue. The trouble is that half the general population doesn't have a clue. Why did the government ask them? Because the party in charge at the time had a splinter faction led by some very radical, very loud voices, and it was beginning to cost them votes. They hoped to put the issue to bed by calling a referendum. Having done so, it was political suicide not to follow through even though it wasn't technically "binding". Largely it's a matter of various people acting in their own selfish best interest at the expense of the interests of the country, and convincing a bunch of useful idiots to follow along.
- mmmeff 5y agoYour example citing Trump’s trainwreck makes zero sense in this context. His record on the economy was impressively effective even if his social policies floundered.
- Gortal278 5y agoFrom what I understand people were willing to go through this for Brexit to happen. Supply chain issues were pretty much a given.
- zimpenfish 5y ago> From what I understand people were willing to go through this for Brexit to happen. Well, some people. And even then, this wasn't brought up by the Leave campaign - they were all sun-lit uplands, etc. Nothing negative would come from Brexit! etc.etc.
- 1270018080 5y ago49% didn't want it to happen though. At least they would be mad, right?
- Gortal278 5y agoYep quite rightly!
- tailspin2019 5y agoYes. We are! :)
- Factorium 5y agoThere are labour shortages across the UK because people are still being told to self-isolate if they have contact with someone who is COVID+ https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/self-isolation-and-treatment/when-to-self-isolate-and-what-to-do/ https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/self-isol... Poles are returning back home quicker than than expected post-Brexit because Poland doesn't have a vaccine mandate and was quicker to return to post-virus normal. Part of the solution to fixing this is abandoning all COVID measures (including masks) and treating the virus just like any other seasonal illness - just as has been done by Norway, Denmark, Sweden etc. recently. People will be more comfortable moving to the UK, and working.
- pjc50 5y ago> People will be more comfortable moving to the UK, and working. On what visa (be specific)? A big part of Brexit has been making it harder for people to come to the UK and work.
- tonyedgecombe 5y ago>There are labour shortages across the UK because people are still being told to self-isolate if they have contact with someone who is COVID+ Not if they have been vaccinated. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/self-isolation-and-treatment/when-to-self-isolate-and-what-to-do/ https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/self-isol...
- Zpalmtree 5y agoyeah bro only eastern europeans can drive trucks we totally can't increase wages now or before brexit came into effect to get more supply the only option is mass immigration
- bsd44 5y agoPolitics and economy don't always agree. The government promised higher wages for domestic work force, but the companies aren't willing to pay for that promise. That's why we have these "shortages" of things. It's a game between the economy and the politics to see who caves first.
- ajvs 5y agoExcept they are willing, since fruit pickers and truck drivers were being offered £60k+ even a few weeks ago. So it's just a time lag until all the jobs are filled next.
- imtringued 5y agoAlthough I want to see higher wages for the bottom of the economy I personally dislike minimum wages because politicians basically promise something that they have no control over and they don't have any long term solutions to problems in the labor market. Yeah the $7.50 minimum wage is laughably small but the next minimum wage has to be laughably small as well. If it was $50 then it would wreck the economy.
- vondur 5y agoI’m not familiar with the UK, but were the people formerly doing these jobs from somewhere outside of England? Id that’s the case I’m assuming they were being paid sub par wages and no one else would do it for that wage.
- pjc50 5y agoAlmost certainly. Now, if it comes to a choice between sharply increasing wages plus a crash training programme for HGV drivers, or doing nothing and letting the shelves empty, guess which one is going to happen ..
- klelatti 5y agoThe really odd thing about this is how little anger there is about these issues. Isolated outbreaks of fighting over fuel at petrol stations but little directed at those in charge. My only theory is that having been told to expect disaster for five years people have actually come to expect it.
- pjc50 5y ago- protest can be very effectively suppressed - media remain in favour of the government (and will do all the way down) - incredibly weak opposition - no organizing locus outside of media and opposition - no tradition of mainland political violence - not actually that bad - if the UK can shrug off 138k deaths from COVID, and the ongoing crisis of foodbanks, we can shrug this off too
- klelatti 5y agoI think a weariness about Brexit and politics in general too.
- user5994461 5y agoWhen the newspaper says "unable to buy essential food items", they just mean that there was some items out of stock, not that there was no food in the shop. If there's no beef today, you can still buy something else.
- Gortal278 5y agoPeople were willing to accept this for Brexit happening. It has been made clear shortages were going to happen, it's been made clear voters expect it. It's no surprise there is no anger it has been expected.
- klelatti 5y agoYes, most people voted to leave so were convinced by the arguments of the Leave side who vehemently denied anything like this would happen.
- kaminar 5y agoIt's all manipulated...there is no reason for an oil or gas "crisis". Same as the artificially created port crisis in California...or the so-called chip "shortage"...part of the plan to CREATE shortages, in order to CREATE crises, raise prices and CREATE a reason for govt overreach and takeover. Australia decided not to wait, openly punishing its citizens for no reason... Openvaers.com
- bob229 5y agoThis is absolute nonsense. There is only a shortage if you think having 6 types of ketchup rather than 7 is an issue
- a0-prw 5y ago"essential"? So they're dead now, since they couldn't acquire these things. Bollocks