//….the Brexiteers on this site and countrywide will never,ever,ever concede that 90% of Britains current problems are all caused by the the self-destructive Brexit vote back in 2016.//
They might if it were true, but simply put it isn’t. So instead of endlessly spouting mindless rhetoric, let’s have a proper look at just one aspect:
//The UK is 100,000 [HGV drivers] short. The 60,000 discrepancy with our EU rivals is due to Brexit.//
Er… no it’s not. Here’s something copied from an earlier post of mine:
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“Figures from the Office of National Statistics, show that of the 46,000 drivers who left the haulage industry between 2016 and 2020, only 9,000 - 19 per cent - were EU nationals.
National statistics also show the percentage of EU drivers in the UK workforce has remained steady since Brexit.”
Since 2016 the number of HGV drivers [in the UK] has dropped from 321,000 to 275,000. EU drivers made up 11.5% of the 321k and now make up 10.2% of the 275k (so scarcely any different). In 2016 the industry was already short of 60,000 drivers. It is now short of 100,000. There is scarcely any difference between the rate of loss among EU drivers and that of UK drivers. Hauliers cannot recruit young people into the job because the pay and conditions are so unattractive and the age profile of HGV drivers is steadily rising. The cause of this problem is mis-management by the haulage industry over a lengthy period. Huw Merriman, MP, chairman of the Commons transport committee (and a Remainer, incidentally) points to a report prepared in 2016 which highlighted the haulage industry’s staffing problems and he now suggests that the industry comes up with a plan to address those problems in the business which they are supposed to be managing, instead of constantly asking what the government will do about it.
As I said a few days ago, the government does not run the haulage industry, its directors and managers do.
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You can see these figures in this Torygraph report:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/28/blame-haulage-industry-not-brexit-fuel-shortage-says-tory-mp/
It’s a Torygraph article so you may need to press “Escape” as it is loading.
So, far from being responsible for the loss of 60,000 drivers, Brexit is responsible for, at the most, 9,000. However, accepting that the rate of loss among EU drivers was scarcely any different to the rate among UK drivers, it is arguable that even these losses were not a result of Brexit but of the general malaise among HGV drivers – whatever their country of origin - with their lot. It is probable that the same number of losses would have occurred wherever the country of origin of the drivers. That’s because the pay and conditions for HGV drivers – across Europe - is so dire.
//Brexit has meant we can't easily address these issues by filling the vacancies with Romanian & Polish drivers.//
The UK (and in particular the management of large companies) needs to be weaned off the idea that it has a ready made pool of cheap labour available to fill its job vacancies. Directors have had five years to realise that this was no longer going to be the case and they have been woefully inadequate in their preparation.