“When we had a [Brexit] deal, I thought, we’re saved all the rigmarole and hassle, it’ll work sweet as a nut, but it hasn’t happened,” says Mr Flannigan. Instead, he says, it feels like the clock’s been turned back 30 years.
BBC News
Actually nearer 50 years. A complaint was that the load was incorrectly marked – the VRI code they used on the pallets was “UK”. Okay – the requirement was to mark it with the same mark we all use on our cars. We started using GB in 1910 (although driving licences retained UK till 1922).
As part of my job I have had to look at reasons loads don’t move, and a large number of the problems are because people get the paperwork wrong. I have suggested to industry bodies that they need to provide help for their members – with little response.
So yes I have sympathy for the fish rotting on trucks, but actually I have little sympathy. You see a lot of companies have been using a lot of the new paperwork for a year already. So there has been a lack of preparation by some companies.
But even going back further and looking at who caught which fish where and sold it to which country it was obvious that the ability to make money from exporting fish was going to be much harder with Brexit. But Nigel led his flag waving flotilla on the Thames and they all believed.
In America Trump waved the flag and told them he would do things for them and they believed.
In Scotland Nicola waved the flag and said they would all be better if she was president, and they all believed.
You would think COVID might be a tool to combat the blindness, but it doesn’t seem so. This is a religion, a cult, where faith supersedes facts. But it has been growing for a long time – the hippy greens are an excellent example – “the man” was the enemy.
Watching the film about the Watergate cover up it was quite obvious how blind faith in politicians and an evil corrupt press (sound familiar) was the tool of the criminal (and when I say criminal I guess I include a lot of good meaning people that facilitated evil).
One of the old sayings effectively implied that we bought the newspaper that supported our view of the world. Now we use the social media that supports our view as well.
As I walked around Greenbelt festival last year (2019) I was impressed by the number of speakers that were there to encourage people to keep on with their thinking, and how few were there to challenge us to change our thinking.
We need to make sure we live in a world that includes people that disagree with us.