I've always thought that the government, even under Theresa May, underestimated the impact that Brexit is going to have on British industry. I am pretty sure most companies, of those who knew the problems and that was by no means all of them, would have preferred to stay in the EU but kept quiet during the referendum campaign for fear of upsetting one side or the other. They just hoped for the best. Now Brexit is happening some of them are finding their voice at last.
Peter Foster tweeted yesterday about a joint letter sent by various bodies in the freight industry to Michael Gove begging for a round table meeting and warning of border chaos. He has also written an article HERE.
🚨🇪🇺🇬🇧🚛🚚🚄🚢☄️☄️🚨Logistics & customs industries firing distress flares now over pace of #brexit border preps.Demanding urgent high-level meeting with @michaelgove @RishiSunak @grantshapps via @FT 1/thread— Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) September 3, 2020
The letter says their concerns are "so strong" they want an "urgent roundtable meeting" with Gove, Sunak and Grant Shapps, the Transport minister. The organisations involved are set out in the graphic below and includes everybody who is anybody in UK logistics.
The group says that Brexit border preparations are inadequate and risk causing “severe” disruption to supply chains next year. In the tweet, Foster says their concerns centre around three areas:
1) IT not being ready
2) Biz having no time to adjust
3) Govt not listening
The IT systems the government is developing aren't ready and may not be finished for some time. These include the Smart Freight App and the GVMS (Goods Vehicle Movement System) but even if they are ready, tested and working flawlessly by Ocober/November - a big ask itself - the industry fears they won't have enough time to prepare.
And this - to take point 2, adjustment - is where biz is starting to lose it's temper with the government that simply seems to fail to grasp the scale of what is being asked of it.As Robert Windsor of @BIFA tells me there is a "complete lack of appreciation" of this. /7 pic.twitter.com/PHhlNMRBeh— Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) September 3, 2020
This all feeds in to the last point, that they simply feel the government isn't listening.
Shane Brennan of the Cold Chain Federation is not known for reticence but he says all the industry can do is to plan on the basis that NONE of the promised IT systems will be working by the end of the year and prepare for the "inevitable disruption and delays that will result."
As Shane Brennan @ColdChainShane from the Cold Chain Federation says, industry is pretty much resigned “Engaging in transition discussions with Government requires of us a certain suspension of disbelief about the scale and complexity of what is promised..." /13 pic.twitter.com/7ZC2QCsynG— Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) September 3, 2020
I think some of this is covering themselves so that when or if disaster strikes (it won't) they will be able to point the finger at Gove.
The letter and the logistics bosses have all fallen for the government's spin - that they were and still are prepared to walkaway without a deal. This is a charade that has been played out ever since Mrs May warned that no deal was better than a bad deal. It is no more true now than it was then, notwithstanding all the repetition and doubling down that has gone on under Johnson and Cummings.
The EU will have noted this as well as all the other problems facing British companies across every sector and will be looking forward to meeting David Frost next week, The government's room for manoeuvre is even more limited than it was before.
Gove knows full well the consequences of leaving without a deal and, as a former DEFRA Secretary, has said as much about agriculture and more recently about a crash out being a gift to the SNP which will lead to the break up of the UK.
Time is running out with no sign of Barnier or the EU shifting on any of the important issues. Watch out for rapid progress next week and the erasing of a lot of red lines.
