I have been in Spain for just over 2 weeks now, and although not spending much time in supermarkets and shops etc, there are no empty shelves here. More importantly, no shortage of beer. I actually read a story, from the UK, this morning about breweries having to send out lorries just to collect empty barrels as the breweries have the beer but nothing to put it in. Not sure how that became an issue as I thought they always collected empties as they dropped of fresh.
I don’t know who did the voiceover, but they must have had his balls in a vice to stop him from laughing.
One issue with beer in pubs is that shortage of drivers plus strike action by a big haulier's drivers has meant that a lot of deliveries have been done by hastily arranged couriers, who will deliver but not collect. After a while, pubs had so many empties that even when the delivery was made by the regular drivers, there wasn't room on the lorry to take the empties back because there were so many. Obviously in an industry that has been hit so hard by covid, there often isn't the money (or indeed empty trucks) to have the ability to send trucks out just to pick up empties. There are still 100s of 000s of empty kegs out there that are gradually getting back to the brewers but it all takes time. My wife has spent the last 9 months chasing deliveries, arranging couriers and even had to put the odd keg in the boot of the car to do emergency deliveries, and I would imagine that has happened in lots of breweries and wholesale depots. Its still nowhere near normal, but at least the strikes and work to rule have ended
In a previous life I ran a wholesale Wine & Beer merchants, delivering kegged beer, wine & spirits to the trade. Two things annoyed me. The driver delivering 20 kegs of beer to a pub and picking up 1 empty and the driver delivering 1 keg of beer and picking up 20. I always said if you deliver 20 you have room for 20 on the truck. I think it is though as SC said that the deliveries have been done by 'emergency' couriers and no pick ups. Now the breweries can't fit the empty kegs on the lorries and there is probably a shortage or lorries anyway.
Anyone who regularly drives up the A34 to work will immediately notice the lack of HGV vehicles. It is not too difficult to understand why the shelves are empty. in most shops and why the commercial sector is encouraging people to buy early for Christmas. As i said earlier, i think that Johnson will only serve one term as PM. I cannot see him getting re-elected by the public and, more importantly, I think the Tories will ditch him as soon as the wheels really come off.
I can't see Labour openly campaigning to.rejoin the EU. If elected, I think they would do it clause by clause to.at least lesson the worst effects of being outside the Single Market and Customs Unión.
Unfortunately I feel you have far more faith in the British public than me. If Boris goes it will be more likely due to a Tory coup rather than an election, he is still well liked amongst his core and unfortunately his core appears to be solidly around 40% of the electorate. He has had a minor dip to around 35% this week, but that is following unveiling an NI increase and a review of the triple lock which is about the most damaging thing he could do to himself, so if all it does is bring him down to 35% then I’d say he is still in a strong position. In polls that 5% has gone straight to the latest Farage vehicle, so when election time rolls up again it will just go straight back to the Conservatives once Farage does a deal to avoid splitting the vote again (something the centre left parties should learn from, but won’t!). Of course in a proportional system he would be out on his arse, but here we are.
The EEA as a compromise would be the best bet (it is what Brexit should have been all along). However I don’t think the EEA members want us and I’m sure it will be framed by the Tories as reentering the EU through the back door or whatever which will go down a storm with the ‘red wall’ vote, so I guess it is unlikely.
Practically minded Tories such as Rory Stewart would approve of this. There must be some of these guys left, ready to regain the ground lost in the Johnson coup. Dictators get their comeuppance eventually.
The Tories have a reputation for stabbing their leaders in the back. I cannot see the situation improving post-Brexit and I remain convinced that their will be a clamour to rejoin albeit I concur that this may be a few years down the line when it is clear thathere have been no beneifts whatsoever about leaving the EU. I am not sure about Nigel Farage being at all relevant to British politics. He was a one trick pony and he has his wish on the single issue he campagined against. The only thing I think he can cause problems with is immigration but with there currently being one million job vacancies this is something where he will automatically be proved wrong. Corbyn's opposition Labour Party was seriously compromised by the Brexit issue and I think that if they had a decent leader who was not obsessed by destroying his party's Socialist creditibility and re-casting it's identitiy, they could be a creidble opposition party. As things stand, it is the SNP who strike me as doing more damage to the Tories than anyone else. I am not a fan of Sturgeon and there is something a bit hypocritical of her criticisng the departure of the UK from one Union and Scotland's departure from another. However, I think she has been excpetional in dealing with other issues beyond Scottish independence . She is the epitome of a modern and progressive political leader. No one has challenged Boris in Parliament more than Ian Blackford and I think it is a shame that Starmer is so ineffectual. There is going to be massive disatisfaction in the UK when the shelves in the shops continue to remain empty and it is a shame that only a nationalist party north fof the border seems to be taking advanatge of this. I do not see Starmer as being charismatic enough to harness this disatisfation and this is why it seems more credible than Boris will be undone by his own as opposed to the political party led by Starmer which no longer knows what it stands for.
The Cabinet reshuffle is worse thatn the summer clear-out at Pompey, as it is simply one load of rubbish being replaced by another load of rubbish with no improvement on the horizon.Time for the manager to be sacked!!!!! If the voice is loud enough, he will go!!!!! Let's start on Saturday at the City of Manchester Stadium with chants of "Johnson out."
One thing for certain is she won't be the most useless prat ever to be Foreign Secretary that honour will rest forever with Spaffer ****ing Johnson.
It could be argued though that he promoted her just so that he's not the worst one ever any more. At least he knows how a phone works.
