Britain’s supply chain crisis has been met with scathing criticism from European commentators, while France said it exposed the failures of leaving the EU.
Analysts on the continent said the UK was finally feeling the economic impact of Brexit after supply shortages began to bite.
Queues at petrol stations over the past week came amid separate concerns over shortages of lorry drivers and consumer goods in the lead-up to Christmas.
While the UK government has blamed the pandemic and highlighted global supply chain problems, critics in Europe pointed the finger squarely at Brexit.
“Every day, we see the intellectual fraud that was Brexit,” said France’s European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune.
Olaf Scholz, who is in pole position to be Germany's next chancellor after Sunday's election, similarly pointed the finger at Brexit when asked about the subject on Monday.
"We worked very hard to convince the British not to leave the union. Now they decided different and I hope they will manage the problems coming from that," he said.
There was similar criticism in European media. Le Point, a French newspaper, described a “great collapse” of the British economy, which it said would be politically costly for the UK government.
“Boris Johnson has his hands full,” it said of the UK prime minister. “Fuel and food shortages are a direct consequence of Brexit and the pandemic”.
Liberation, another French paper, said the British economy was moving at a slow pace after its withdrawal from the EU.
“The UK is starting to see the concrete economic consequences after the pandemic masked the effects for months,” it said.
“Not a day goes by without a restaurant chef complaining about the lack of staff, without someone posting photos of empty supermarket shelves or someone lamenting the absence of milkshakes at McDonald’s”.
Anne Saenen, a correspondent for Dutch news channel RTL, told her audience that “the British are really starting to feel Brexit now”.
“While many European countries are slowly starting to recover economically after the coronavirus crisis, Britain is lagging behind,” she said.
In Italy, the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano described the labour shortage linked to the fuel crisis as a “Brexit effect”.
“Boris Johnson is dealing with bitter evidence that Britain needs European immigrants, despite Brexit closing its borders,” it said.
The prime minister “seems to have no escape in opting for the most indigestible solution to the Tory Brexitieri.”
The German magazine Der Spiegel described Britain in one article as the “kingdom of empty shelves” due to supply chain problems.
“The country is missing 100,000 lorry drivers, and goods,” it said. “The supply shortages could get even more drastic.”
The fallout from Brexit has continued to cause political tensions since the UK’s full withdrawal from the bloc in January, especially around Northern Ireland.
The UK wants to renegotiate the disputed Northern Ireland Protocol, but the EU rejects this. Britain has suggested it could take unilateral action.
Mairead McGuinness, an Irish member of the European Commission, said on Sunday that “threats are not helpful”.
“I don't think that is the first approach, we should try to find solutions,” she told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
Britain’s fuel crisis has been blamed on a mixture of Brexit, the pandemic and unnecessary stockpiling by motorists.
The UK government has pointed the finger at a shortage of lorry drivers and sought to address the problem by streamlining training.
But it bowed to demands for temporary worker visas on Saturday by announcing 5,000 people would get three-month permits until Christmas.
Industry groups have blamed unnecessary panic buying. The motoring association AA said there was no underlying shortage of fuel.
THE BIO
Bio Box
Role Model: Sheikh Zayed, God bless his soul
Favorite book: Zayed Biography of the leader
Favorite quote: To be or not to be, that is the question, from William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Favorite food: seafood
Favorite place to travel: Lebanon
Favorite movie: Braveheart
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In 2018, the ICRC received 27,756 trace requests in the Middle East alone. The global total was 45,507.
There are 139,018 global trace requests that have not been resolved yet, 55,672 of these are in the Middle East region.
More than 540,000 individuals approached the ICRC in the Middle East asking to be reunited with missing loved ones in 2018.
The total figure for the entire world was 654,000 in 2018.
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
SWEET%20TOOTH
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F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
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So what is Spicy Chickenjoy?
Just as McDonald’s has the Big Mac, Jollibee has Spicy Chickenjoy – a piece of fried chicken that’s crispy and spicy on the outside and comes with a side of spaghetti, all covered in tomato sauce and topped with sausage slices and ground beef. It sounds like a recipe that a child would come up with, but perhaps that’s the point – a flavourbomb combination of cheap comfort foods. Chickenjoy is Jollibee’s best-selling product in every country in which it has a presence.
