The BBC reporter who wrote an article about the 20 mile HGV queues back from Dover on the M20 has replied to a tweet from Alastair Campbell criticising the piece for its lack of any mention of Brexit. Katie Prescott, a BBC business correspondent, tweeted, “The extraordinary queues recently at Dover are mainly down to capacity being down by a third as P&O ferries routes are out of action. This is why fresh meat companies want a priority lane.” You can see the response to her reply is an avalanche of people all making the same points that I did on Saturday.
Here it is:
Hi Alastair, I wrote this piece. The extraordinary queues recently at Dover are mainly down to capacity being down by a third as P&O ferries routes are out of action. This is why fresh meat companies want a priority lane.
— Katie Prescott (@kprescott) April 10, 2022
Ms Prescott, in a subsequent tweet and in defence of her piece said it was edited “once at 0830 to clarify the point about the customs IT system and to throw forward to the new checks coming in in July. My focus was on the fresh goods issue.”
I assume the edit she talks of is a paragraph added (6th down) which simply pointed to the GVMS computer system being down. This is it:
“As well as the other factors causing congestion, which have led to the traffic management system Operation Brock being put in place, there have also been problems with a key IT system for custom checks at the UK's busiest port after Brexit.”
She seems to be claiming Brexit was a minor issue, but a lot of people are asking her why, if P&O Ferries are to blame, the queues didn’t start until nearly two weeks after their vessels stopped running? And why there are no queues in Calais? In theory the queues should have sprung up within hours, but didn't. Other ferry companies took up the slack.
Prescott has no answers.
I do not believe there is an edict inside the BBC that prevents reporters naming Brexit but I bet there was some sort of memo about ‘balance’ or 'moving on' and I assume individual reporters might worry their careers will be damaged by pointing to Brexit as being the key problem. This morning I noted a report in The National in Scotland complaining that a clip on the BBC deliberately edited out NFU Scotland president's reference to Brexit, so who knows how widespread it is.
However, I don't think it's a conspiracy because ITVs report on Dover delays also failed to mention Brexit explicitly.
Reporters will have spoken to authorities in Dover and certainly Ms Prescott quotes the British Meat Processors Association who also seem to avoid any mention of Brexit. They may have their own reasons for not being honest, who knows.
Another BBC reporter tweets:
On reports ferries have been leaving Dover half-empty, DFDS says there were periods yesterday where freight traffic could not get through the port fast enough: 'The Port of Dover are aware of this and all parties continue to work hard on improving traffic flow through the port.'
— Simon Jones (@SimonJonesNews) April 10, 2022
DFDS is (Det Forenede Dampskibs-Selskab) a Danish Ferry company who also seem to be reluctant to mention Brexit but do say "traffic could not get through the port fast enough" at times on Saturday. Mr Jones doesn't seem to ask why that was or even join the dots. DFDS may be looking to provide other ferry services and perhaps worry about rocking the boat, so to speak.
Until we get a new government there will never be an honest discussion about Brexit. In the meantime we need to guard against those who are trying to minimise the problems created by leaving the single market.
At the other end of the scale, Daniel Hannan, Brexiteer extraordinaire, has been his usual idiotic self and claiming as a benefit of Brexit the UK government's elimination of tariff barriers between the UK and Ukraine. It was quickly pointed out to him that the EU eliminated the vast majority of tariffs five years ago and it was Brexit that saw those tariffs reimposed.
The EU removed nearly all tariff barriers in relation to Ukraine 5 years ago. Of course Hannan know this because when talking about the future UKTCA people looked at the UkraineEU “deep & comprehensive free trade agreement” as a potential model. pic.twitter.com/7x3ihDlu9N
— Jessica Simor QC (@JMPSimor) April 10, 2022
As Ms Simor QC says, “Lord Hannan is also the founder of the Institute for Trade, is an Adviser to the Board of Trade and claims to be an expert on trade and Brexit. We can assume therefore that he knows the truth and actively chooses to mislead.”
Worse, Jim Grace, another prolific anti-Brexit oracle, draws our attention to a tweet from Hannan himself in 2013 which he seems to have conveniently forgotten:
So, he probably did know but a true ideologue like Hannan never lets facts ruin a good Brexit myth.
Finally, Macron (27.6%) seems to have won the first round of voting in the French presidential election with Marine Le Pen (23.4%) not far behind. They will contest the run off in two weeks time. Macron's 4 point lead is actually greater than in 2017.
Two of the losing candidates Melenchon (22%) and Pecresse (5%) who represent the left and the republican party respectively, gave speeches after the first exit polls urging their supporters not to vote for Le Pen in the second round.. Let’s hope Macron wins a second term. If he doesn’t Europe could be in big trouble.
