"It's Nothing to do with Brexit"

 There's currently a meme on Twitter featuring a lady at a fish market complaining about inflation and the price of container shipping during a BBC (natch) interview.

Sarcastically she says to the camera "It's  nothing to do with Brexit", as if to infer the opposite.

Sadly for her, she's wrong. The cost of shipping containers has increased massively globally. Pre-Covid we could ship a container from Japan for £1500. The cheapest rate is now £9000 post-Covid. 

Brexit has nothing to do with it. It's supply and demand. After the global shutdown, companies have sold out of stock during the post-Covid restart and are demanding stock to be shipped to them, more than likely from China. 

That's EVERY company globally. Can you imagine the sort of demand that generates? There just isn't enough capacity to deliver EVRY container to EVERY company in the world within pre-Covid timescales.

So there will be delays. You want priority shipping? You pay for it. The lady in the Twitter meme was complaining of container shipping going up to £19000. I can believe it, if you have perishable goods (she sells fish and seafood) and you want the container delivered quick enough so your stock doesn't go off, then you'll have to pay a higher price than everyone else to jump the queue. 

That's just the nature of supply and demand love. Globally. Nothing to do with Brexit. Everything to do with Covid, the global shutdown and the restart. 

It's not just us. One of our suppliers has been told there will be a three  month delay in getting alloy wheels shipped to the UK. From Malaysia because the factory/foundry has taken months to restart and the Malaysian company have months worth of orders already placed with them. 

Nothing. To. Do. With. Brexit.

Absolutely.

Just as the shortage of lorry drivers has nothing to do with Brexit either. There is a shortage globally as well. Just look at the companies complaining in America. Sad to say a portion of drivers (not the fittest in the world) died during the pandemic, plus a number of drivers hit the age at which they could no longer drive trucks, or weren't able to renew medicals (everyone knows how bloody difficult it is you see a doctor face-to-face at the moment) and new drivers weren't able to take tests to replace the attrition of the older, retiring drivers. 

HGV driving is a pretty shit job too. So much regulation (medicals, driving hours, tachos and the like) the VOSA vultures ready to pounce on trucks to see if they are a couple of kilos overweight and most companies treating them like shit (not allowing them to use toilets, etc), it's no wonder that having had a rest during the pandemic, a number of drivers have not returned to the job.

In the UK the situation is compounded by East European drivers moving back home, to be with family during the pandemic and/or taking better-paid jobs in Germany, closer to home and within the EU. That's mainly a reflection of the poor wages paid to HGV drivers in the UK. Most East Europeans are now concentrating on local courier van deliveries. Less red tape and regulation and less time away from home, with comparable wages.

Again, nowt to do wi' Bloody Brexit.

Elon Musk Pees Higher than other Billionaires...

 Elon Musk just peed higher than Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos, by a hundred miles or so. 

I do like Elon. He just gets things done.. Sometimes it starts a bit flaky and his timescales are wildly optimistic, but eventually he gets the bugs ironed out and makes stuff work. 

Only a couple of months after Bezos was crowing that his sub-orbital New Shepard rocket launched a private flight further into space than Richard Branson's space effort, Elon comes along with Inspiration 4: a 3-day, fully orbital flight with four private individuals on board and pisses higher than Bezos and all over his paltry spacefaring efforts.

The inspiration 4 crew can rightly claim to be astronauts. No ambiguity, they are flying higher than the International Space Station and for days, not minutes. Both Bezos and Branson give you minutes at an altitude that it can be argued if it is actually space at all. 

Good on Elon for showing who's really top dog in private space flight, with no crowing, no publicity-grabbing as a passenger. Nicely done sir, nicely done... 

Can't wait to see the Super-Heavy booster and Starship launch. That whole project should be spectacular not just launching, but during recovery. 

Conservative Worker's Party?

 I just want to know, where is the political party that stands up for worker's rights and also has conservative values? Where is the CWP?

For instance, there needs to be a party that does something about issues such as zero hours contracts and other abuses of workers right's by large employers, but that is also against the importation of cheap labour legally or illegally. 

It needs to be tough on big corporations and their ability to avoid tax by offshoring corporation tax, but also on abuses of the welfare system.

It needs to be able to protect our borders, it needs to support the armed services and it needs to support the working class. It needs to be for Britain, for British culture, for British identity and patriotism. It should not promote foreign cultures  whilst ignoring the majority culture in the country. 

I could go on.

But it's quite clear the white, working class majority in this country are not represented by any political party. Labour abhor British values and culture. The conservatives are too in bed with the large corporations (as are Labour to a slightly lesser extent).

I want a party that with curb the influence and money of the big corporate lobbyists. I would make it illegal to walk straight from government into a big-paying corporate job. 

I would abolish zero hours contracts.

I would work to realign wages and welfare, such that the cost to move from welfare to work is more attractive. Welfare is only a safety net, not a lifestyle. If that means taking the lowest paid out of income tax, so be it. That would be offset by bringing in legislation to prevent offshoring corporation tax. You earn it in the UK, then you pay it in the UK. Irrespective of whether you have a head office in Ireland, Luxembourg or the Bahamas, I'd make it law that the money you earn here is subject to tax payable here, not abroad.  

I have more ideas on what I would do if I lead this hypothetical party. I think this could lead into a  series on the lines of the CVovid-19 one. 

I'm certain there will be more to follow.