Operation Fear: low wages for Romanians or an unhappy Christmas for us

 Familiar refrains are emerging again, with this:

Business leaders call for relaxation of post-Brexit visa rules

Industry bosses say retailers will struggle to keep shelves stocked at Christmas amid worker shortage

The shortage of HGV drivers has been running for a while. Briefings for Britain has their own account of the shortage -- poor conditions for qualified HGV drivers, and EU standardisation rules have, in effect, encouraged transport firms to domicile in low wage areas in Europe. 

Meanwhile, industry sources said in addition to lorry driver shortages, there was a lack of tens of thousands of seasonal agricultural workers, and 14,000 needed in meat-processing plants.

The latter has led to exotica such as predictions of a shortage of turkeys for Christmas,. Apparently, Nandos and KFC have already experienced a shortage of chicken, and, horrors! McDonalds is allegedly short of milkshakes. These shortages seem to have lasted for a day or two! Our whole way of life is at stake!

The GUardina knows the source of the crisis:

Guardian analysis of labour market figures from the Office for National Statistics confirms the extent of the fall in eastern Europeans in the UK workforce since the start of the pandemic, and after Britain left the EU earlier this year.

The number of Romanian and Bulgarian workers in the UK, who would typically fill lower-paid logistics and food production roles, has plunged by almost 90,000, or 24% since the end of 2019.

I like the 'lower-paid' bit especially. Let's get those low-paid migrants back in so we can eat cheap poultry again!

 

The Graun also notes that 'the meltdown [was] triggered by Covid and Brexit', before warming to its theme.