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📢 CURMUDGEONS' CORNER XVI 📢

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Posts

  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I've joined the tomato blight club😐
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    I've just been hearing on Radio that " officially approved" providers listed on Govt website re covid travel testing is actually factually incorrect. 
    Surely these companies have contracts of some sort ( if not why not ) with the Govt. Why are they not being fined for blatant profiteering?
    The joys of Bojo the Clown and his devotion to " private enterprise " .
    Devon.
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58287003

    Good old Brexit. 
    I hope those who voted for it are proud of themselves
    Devon.
  • steveTusteveTu Posts: 3,219
    Gloves and arthritic fingers (actually, at the moment just one finger - that looks like something out of ET).... I can get the gloves on (I use nitrile gloves for gardening), but the bloody things won't come off...
    UK - South Coast Retirement Campus (East)
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    According to a spam email it's 'World plant milk day'. You're probably all out celebrating as we speak. I wonder if the carnival will pass through my street? I'm sure someone will be marking the occasion by cutting down vast swathes of forest to plant more soy.
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    I don't think a shortfall of 60,000 lorry drivers is accountable for by Brexit which lost the UK 14,000.   I suspect decent pay and conditions would attract more people and getting the DVLA sorted out so it organises tests and licences more efficiently.

    Too many stories about lack of facilities on the road - decent loos, showers, meals, beds - to make it an attractive proposition without mentioning poor pay, lousy roads and the long days away from home for the long-haul drivers. 

    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    Our lovely tenant in the flat is having HGV retraining as we speak so he can get back behind the wheel
    Devon.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Long haul lorry drivers in East Anglia are regarded by many here as very well paid.  

    It's not simply the shortage of drivers based in the UK ... a big part of the problem is the shortage of EU hauliers coming to the UK, off-loading EU goods and loading up here with a load of UK good for the return journey.  Of the ones that are coming over here many are returning empty because of the difficulties in sorting the paperwork out for the EU. Self employed truckers, of which there are a lot in the EU as well as here, simply cannot afford to travel empty so they just won't come here.

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    That still doesn't account for the shortage of drivers delivering essential goods within the UK, hence empty shelves in supermarkets etc.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    I always give lorries with foreign plates a wide berth, having seen a mercedes car squidged by one on the motorway island, as the lorry driver didn't seem to know what lanes are for.   I suspect there are many trained lorry drivers out there, currently doing other things because the pay and conditions aren't good enough.  The answer is to improve pay and conditions, not to import more drivers.  Four million unemployed. Some of them must be able to drive.
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