Tory Lorry Queue Deflection FAILS

As has been pointed out before on Zelo Street more than once, the power wielded by our free and fearless press rests not only on what they choose to publish, but what they choose not to publish. Recently, the latter category has mainly consisted of failing to investigate all those lockdown-busting parties held in Downing Street and at other Government offices, and then failing to report what the press undoubtedly knew.

Ah, c'est Douvres, n'est-ce pas?

Something else that reflects poorly on alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and his coterie of ineptitude, is not being widely reported especially in the right-leaning part of the press, yet is very visible indeed, so visible in fact that it has showed up on Google Maps, is the latest by-product of that brilliant Brexit deal: queues of lorries, several miles long (kilometres if you prefer), on the approach to the port of Dover.

One of the few media outlets to cover the story is the Independent, which has told “Huge lorry queues building up at the Port of Dover have been blamed ‘entirely’ on extra controls which have come into force from Brexit … It comes as port chiefs urged the UK government to hold talks with the EU on ways to ease further checks set to come in later in 2022 which could cause ‘disastrous’ disruption to trade”. There was more.

“One courier told The Independent he had been caught up in queues of up to 15km (9 miles) since full customs controls came into force at the beginning of January … The British haulier said it was taking 15 to 20 minutes for each driver to clear checks needed for the UK government’s new Goods Vehicle Movement Service (GVMS) system and other export paperwork at Dover … ‘It’s entirely Brexit – you can’t blame it on anything else but Brexit,’ said the driver, who has had to push back some deliveries”. And yet more.

“Recent disruption has been even more significant around the French port of Calais since new customs controls were introduced on goods imported into the UK at the start of January … Lorry drivers have reported queueing for up to eight hours to get through controls, partly because UK firms have struggled with complex new customs declarations and rules-of-origin forms”. And guess what? It’s likely to get even worse.

That looks like a long line of lorries ...

As ITV News has reported, “At the end of September, the European Union’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) comes into effect … Passengers from non-EU countries will have to carry out biometric checks at the border … ‘I’m worried about EES,’ says Doug Bannister, the chief executive of the Port of Dover”. He has good reason to be worried.

“Port of Dover and GetLink, the group which operates the Channel Tunnel, believe that passengers will have to leave their vehicles to do facial recognition and fingerprint scans at the border and the resulting delays will cause mayhem … Between them, the Channel Tunnel and Port of Dover carry more than 30 million passengers a year … They also account for more than £260 billion of trade”. 59% of all UK-EU trade in goods, in fact.

... because that's what it is

No more of that just driving on to Le Shuttle or a ferry. So it is no surprise that “With nine months to go, MPs on the Transport Select Committee are worried there’s no solution in sight”. And how many papers are putting this on the front page? That would be none.

Brexit is not done, but an ever-worsening horror show. What you won’t read in the papers.

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