Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Josquius]

So when are you going to take your seat in the commons given the super well connected family? If :p


On the supermarket shortages thing.... Was in lidl yesterday... No carrots. Of all things that's one you don't expect to ever be out of stock.

[Richard Hakluyt]

No halloumi apart from the ones flavoured with basil or chili in my local Lidl 

Can the collapse of brexit Britain be staved off for much longer?

[The Brain]

The EU-boats are really making a dent in UK food supply. Will you bring back convoys?

[garbon]

Is it lidl specific issue?

[Josquius]

Is it lidl specific issue?

Given they're a very European leaning chain with a lot of imported produce I guess it is expected.
The question is whether it is an issue that will only hurt them or if they're just a particularly exposed bellwether for whats to come.

I haven't been to any other supermarkets lately to really notice.

[Richard Hakluyt]

You would be proud of me garbon, I bought the "mild and salty grilling cheese" (made in Bulgaria) for 35% less and my wife said it was just as good 

[garbon]

You would be proud of me garbon, I bought the "mild and salty grilling cheese" (made in Bulgaria) for 35% less and my wife said it was just as good 

Glad you all liked it but to be clear, I'm not against buying PDOs. I am against naming conventions that lead to opaque terms like "mild and salty grilling cheese".

[Gups]

A major hurdle is resistance to venison, which has never been a popular menu item in the country.

Oh come on. You don't eat your own fish, and now you don't even eat your own game meat? Not everything can be deep fried. What a limited palate the UK has. I hope at least the Scots would be up for it, they invented haggis after all.

Also, if you have lots of venison you don't know what to do with, just make school lunches out of them.

It's a bit of a myth that Brits don't each fish. Admittedly nowhere near as much as the Iberians, France and Italy but much more than Germany and about the same as Greece. We actually import far more fish than we export.

Venison consumption has been increasing for years in the UK. We don't have lots of venison we don't know what to do with. Two thirds of UK venison is consumed in the UK and we have to import from New Zealand and elsewhere because domestic supply is not sufficient.

[Richard Hakluyt]

You would be proud of me garbon, I bought the "mild and salty grilling cheese" (made in Bulgaria) for 35% less and my wife said it was just as good 

Glad you all liked it but to be clear, I'm not against buying PDOs. I am against naming conventions that lead to opaque terms like "mild and salty grilling cheese".

Yeah, I would be happy with "Bulgarian Halloumi" which is clear enough imo.

[Sheilbh]

So when are you going to take your seat in the commons given the super well connected family? If :p

That's the first and last photo of anyone in my family with anyone remotely influential.

On the supermarket shortages thing.... Was in lidl yesterday... No carrots. Of all things that's one you don't expect to ever be out of stock.

Yeah I popped into Lidl yesterday. The only thing I noticed they didn't have was rye bread

But I have only been to the same Lidl twice so...

I read an interesting comment piece on food factories in the UK though. Compared to the rest of Western Europe the UK has very cheap food.

She reviewed some of the adverts - which are for "jobs Brits don't want" and it may be easy to see why. The most common shift pattern is twelve hours (four on, four off). One advert for a 12 hour night shift (£9.12 per hour) warned that "you will be working on your feet for the duration of the shift" and most of them say "you will be required to be flexible to meet the demands of the business".

But she intereviewed the head of the British Meat Processors Association and it was really interesting because he said the industry was basically shaped by free movement. So he said the working patterns "have evolved around having non-UK labour, their prime reason is to stay for three years, earn a lot of money and go home again". Similarly apparently there used to be smaller abattoirs spread around the country (the nearest town to where I lived in the Highlands had an abattoir - next to the high school which was a chilling design choice by 50s town planners ). They've largely consolidated into a few large slaughter-houses which are built in areas with lots of shared accommodation for people with no dependants. He basically "the whole structure of the industry has altered [...] it's ended up in a particular pattern and it's probably got to change." They basically said the rhythym, security and location of the work - and the prices we pay which are low - have all been shaped by free movement.

There's no idea where that industry will end up because it's unlikely to be the type of sector where you can get visas for people. It might be that pay and conditions - and costs for the consumer approve. They might move to more automation. We might stop producing food and importing more but no-one knows.

But it was just really interesting because while I knew there were industries that were very reliant on free movement, I hadn't really thought about how they may have internally re-structured as a sector to best take advantage of that.

[Josquius]

She reviewed some of the adverts - which are for "jobs Brits don't want" and it may be easy to see why. The most common shift pattern is twelve hours (four on, four off). One advert for a 12 hour night shift (£9.12 per hour)

and most of them say "you will be required to be flexible to meet the demands of the business".

I've done that kind of thing before. Its hell. I was burned out after 2 months.
Bizzare they're doing it in that industry, it doesn't seem necessary there.

He basically "the whole structure of the industry has altered [...] it's ended up in a particular pattern and it's probably got to change." They basically said the rhythym, security and location of the work - and the prices we pay which are low - have all been shaped by free movement.

Yeah, with my experience from Switzerland this was one where it was clear to me even with a best case brexit it was likely meat was going to become far more expensive. It is much too cheap.
In Switzerland loads of people are semi-vegetarian due to the price of meat.
And really... I'm not that upset about this particular price rise. Could really do people and the planet good.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah, with my experience from Switzerland this was one where it was clear to me even with a best case brexit it was likely meat was going to become far more expensive. It is much too cheap.
In Switzerland loads of people are semi-vegetarian due to the price of meat.
And really... I'm not that upset about this particular price rise. Could really do people and the planet good.

Yeah she linked to this table - and I feel like the UK should probably be higher:

[mongers]

Is it lidl specific issue?

Could well be, I walked into my local one Monday and the situation was worse, just one box of pastas and maybe only a dozen individual cereals packets spread across that whole section.   

[Richard Hakluyt]

No shortages here 

Perhaps there is too much competition for staff in your area mongers?

I have noticed that if you go to Lidl or Aldi in the evenings they are often running out of things; but it has been like that for years; their popularity is increasing and the number of stores is insufficient to meet demand.

[Tonitrus]

My local Tesco had quite an abundance of Great British Carrots.