Category Archives: Brexit

Brexit 'to blame' for lorry driver shortage says Dr Shola

There is currently a shortage of 100,000 lorry drivers in the UK, which has meant that major brands have had to close their sites across the country, due to supply shortages. Among those worst effected are household name Nandos, who have had to shut 50 restaurants, some BP petrol garages have shut, Iceland are cancelling 30-40 deliveries a day, McDonald's have had to stop serving milkshakes and bottled drinks, and Haribo are struggling to deliver to the UK.

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Travel restrictions caused by the pandemic meant many lorry drivers decided to change profession, and haulage companies say very few have returned.

During Christmas 2020 more than 10,000 lorries were stuck at Dover in Kent for over a week, unable to spend the holiday with their families due to mandatory covid testing restrictions.

But even before Covid, there was still a shortage of 60,000 lorry drivers - arguably due to Brexit policy changes.

Since Brexit, and the UK leaving the single market, the bureaucracy of crossing borders and long queues have meant many lorry drivers decided to work in other EU countries.

A large portion of lorry drivers are paid by the mile or kilometre rather than by the hour, so delays caused by Brexit means they are making the same amount of money in a much longer space of time.

Haulage companies want the Government to add drivers to the Shortage Occupations list, allowing them to qualify for a skilled worker visa and making border crossing far easier, but the Home Office is yet to approve the move.

The Home Office said in a statement: The British people repeatedly voted to end free movement and take back control of our immigration system and employers should invest in our domestic workforce instead of relying on labour from abroad.

The Government rejected a call to issue 10,000 temporary visas to EU workers, and ministers instead decided to relax driving test rules and legal driving hours, from nine to 11 per day.

Reports have now emerged that haulage companies have requested to use more day-release prisoners to drive lorries to fill the huge gap in the industry.

On the other side of the argument, political commentators are laying blame with employers for not paying a high enough wage to attract British people to start lorry driving.

Journalist Darren Grimes tweeted: I find it distasteful for big supermarket groups to be calling on the Government to give them visas for lorry drivers from abroad, here's a novel idea, how about you pay lorry drivers in this country a bit more and you'll likely attract people to the long slog?

Labour MP Jon Trickett tweeted: "Truck drivers are paid an average of just 11.80 an hour.

"Increase their pay properly and watch how quickly your 'shortage' disappears."

Can't see the poll below? Click here.

Some major companies, like supermarkets, have started to offer incentives, as meat processors are already six weeks behind in Christmas stock preperation and the situation is becoming more and more desperate by the week.

Tesco is offering drivers a 1,000 joining bonus, so are Waitrose on top of a pay rise of about 2 an hour, and Aldi has increased wages for drivers to earn up to 18.41 per hour.

HGV drivers hired through agencies have gone from earning 350 a day to a huge 800, and some are even offering joining incentives of up to 5000.

Craig Stevens, Managing Director at major logistics company STD Developments Ltd, said: The drivers can command more money - the profitability of the transport industry is very small in normal circumstances and that means we'll have to up prices for our customers.

Haulage companies also want better conditions for drivers in general, and a recognition that they are a vital part of the economy.

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Another problem the industry faces, is that not enough British young people are becoming lorry drivers.

The average age of a HGV driver in the UK is 55, and during the difficulties of Brexit and Covid, a huge percentage of drivers decided to retire, subsequently adding to the shortage.

Leader of Reform UK, Richard Tice, said firms must pay drivers more, as higher wages will tempt UK retired drivers back.

He said the UK must not extend temporary visas to the EU.

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But Remainers say this is a problem that was inevitable after Brexit.

One social media user wrote: Road haulage is the lifeblood of the nation.

Almost everything we consume comes off the back of a lorry. Time for Brexiters to admit that they f**ked up.

Do you think Brexit holds the largest blame for supply chain shortages, or are employers the culprits for not paying lorry drivers high enough wages? Vote now.

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Lorry driver shortage POLL: Whose fault is it? Brexit or the shops? - Daily Express

Despite Downing Street calling a "mutual compromise", it does seem Prime Minister Boris Johnson capitulated on one of the most contentious areas of Brexit trade talks: fishing rights. The UK wanted any fishing agreement to be separate from the trade deal with access negotiated annually in a similar fashion to Norway's agreement with the bloc. Norway is an independent coastal state, with the rights and responsibilities under international law associated with that status. Stocks shared with the EU are managed through annual bilateral negotiations. Each autumn these talks set total allowable catches on the basis of scientific advice.

This contrasts starkly with the position of the UK fishing industry within the EUs Common Fisheries Policy something the EU wanted to maintain at all costs.

In the end, the UK agreed to a further five-and-a-half years of predictability for fishing communities, with the UK leaving the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).

Stock quotas for UK fishers will increase over a five-year timeframe, incrementally between now and 2026.

This means Britain will fish just over 66 percent of UK waters in stark contrast with Iceland, which catches 90 percent of its own fish.

During the transition, EU fishing vessels will still have full access to fish in UK waters and after that, negotiations will be annual just like the ones between Iceland and the bloc.

However, the EU will be able to retaliate with tariffs if Britain refuses to grant it access, meaning London will never be fully in control of its waters.

Britain's softening on fishing rights was not exactly a surprise.

In 2017, Minister for the Cabinet Office Michael Gove told the Danish fishing industry that boats from EU countries would have still been able to operate in UK waters after Brexit, as the UK does not have enough capacity to catch and process all its fish alone.

He was quoted as saying: "Danish fishermen will still be able to catch large amounts of fish in British waters, even if Britain leaves the EU.

Britain has not the fishing vessels nor the production facilities to catch all the fish in British waters.

The comments from Mr Gove, recounted by Danish fishing leaders after they met the then-Environment Secretary, sparked complaints from the Lib Dems and Scottish National Party that the Governments stance on the issue was confusing.

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Mr Gove had repeatedly said Britain was taking back control of its fisheries by departing from the EU common fisheries policy, which lets member states fish between 12 and 200 nautical miles off the UKs coastline.

He had also announced the UKs withdrawal from the London fisheries convention, signed before the UK joined the EU, which lets vessels from the UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands fish within between six and 12 nautical miles of each others coasts.

But the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the plan had always been to allow other nations some access to UK territorial waters after Brexit, and that the extent of this could now be decided by the UK.

Mr Gove met representatives from Danish fish processing companies and the countrys fishing industry in Jutland in August 2017, the Jyllands-Posten newspaper reported.

At the meeting the Danes were told by Mr Gove that the UK "does not have the capacity to catch and process all the fish in British waters and thus boats from EU nations would be allowed continued access post-Brexit.

Niels Wichmann, the head of the Danish Fishermens Association, said: Fishermen from Denmark and other EU countries will continue to have access to British waters after Brexit.

It is a logical announcement, but it is still very positive and a little surprising that it comes so early in the negotiation process."

Mr Wichmann added that Mr Gove did not make clear whether Danish boats would be able to keep the same quotas or would have them reduced.

Esben Sverdrup-Jensen, head of Denmarks Fish Industries Association, told Jyllands-Posten that while the quotas remained uncertain, it was positive that the UK was being constructive and has not slammed the door.

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The Lib Dems Brexit spokesman, Tom Brake, said Mr Goves comments showed promises by the Leave campaign about fishing were being broken.

He said: Michael Gove chose to put stopping EU fishing in British waters front and centre of his campaign to leave the EU, yet is now telling Danish fishermen the opposite.

A Defra spokeswoman said the issue was that the UK would be able to control which foreign ships fished within its territory.

She said: "Leaving the EU means we will take back control of our territorial waters.

"As we have always said, other countries will be able to access our waters but for the first time in 50 years it will be on our terms and under our control.

We will allocate quotas on the basis of what is scientifically sustainable, making sure we have a healthy marine environment and profitable fishing industry in the UK.

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Michael Gove's startling Brexit admission: 'EU will continue to have access to UK waters' - Daily Express

Last Thursday, I left England for the first time in two years and headed by car to Glasgow to see our 30 year old son wed last seen at Christmas 2019, during which time he had married with us unable to attend.

It was a wonderful three night stay, and we were reassured that although he and his wife live in South Glasgow where lockdown had been as severe as anywhere in the UK, all was well with them. Of course, travel is always an opportunity for understanding other things from outside of ones normal perspective, which can get a bit East Devon-centric in my case.

So, South Glasgow. Well, their area is a bit like Hackney or Shoreditch or Brixton in London, a place which people used to flee from 30 years ago and now are desperate to move back to. The youngsters are attracted by the amazing restaurant, shopping and cultural community ignited by Kurdish refugees from the first Gulf War back in 1991, and their later arrivals.

Adding to the mix have been Polish, Romanian, Hungarian and other arrivals, all benefitting from freedom of movement within the European Union. The result of all these arrivals: economic growth, the restoration of a dying community, the refurbishment of miles of once notorious tenement flats into something actually desirable.

However, on the long drive south listening to Radio Four all day for seven and a half straight hours, all I could hear were stories of the results of leaving the EU happening right here and right now. I have already written about how your own waste and recycling service has been affected by the grave shortage of HGV drivers nationally, and again I thank you for your patience.

Now the turkeys are coming home to roost or rather, they are not. Put a bid in for your Christmas turkey now, because over in the turkey breeding parts of the country there is nobody left to rear them. Meanwhile, food processors represented by The Association of Independent Meat Suppliers are begging the government to allow more prisoners on day release to process our meats. You may have to learn how to wrap bacon round your own sausages if you want pigs in blankets this year.

This week, McDonalds are telling us that they are unable to provide milkshakes and other products, while last week Nandos, whose whole raison detre is chicken, told us they were running out of chicken. Still off the radar are the inner city schools I have been told about whose rolls have shrunk to an economically non-viable state by the departure of the EU-origin children.

In summary, the worst element of the Brexiteers wanted Europeans sent back to where they belong. Well guys, they heard that, and theyve gone, and as many of us warned you we have to live with the consequences of the propagandising of the Daily Express, Mail and Telegraph.

What on earth has this act of self-harm achieved? A supposedly proud, global Britain resorting to prison labour. If Dickens were alive today hed have a novel about this written and published by Christmas.

And being Dickens, who was a bit preachy sometimes to be frank, hed look for a moral to the whole chaotic story. I cant guess what his would be, but if he were here Id suggest one. Brexit is a story of devious men lying to a nation to gain power who promised a bounty for the nations health and wealth and knew they were lying.

Most of all, these are men who said at the time judge us by the consequences, who promised that they would own the result. Well, where are you now Tory fellow travellers? It looks to me you were about as well prepared for this as you were for our shameful departure from Afghanistan. Which of you have themoral courage to admit this now?

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Paul Arnott column: Brexit turkeys are coming home to roost - Sidmouth Herald

In each case, the demand is the same. We need to increase the supply of visas for European workers to cope with critical shortages of staff. Without that, many industries will simply grind to a halt.

But is that really necessary? No one would deny that there is some disruption, and Covid-19 and the pingdemic have hardly helped. But shortages? That seems a little extreme.

Lets take chicken for example. Our domestic poultry industry has become critically dependent on imported workers, mainly from Eastern and Central Europe. In many cases, more than half of the labour force come from somewhere else in Europe, and sometimes even more. The industrys argument is that without them, there will be a dramatic fall in output, and very quickly shortages in the shops.

Really? In fact, poultry is a global industry. True, the world price for chicken is up slightly this year, mainly because of the rising price of grain, the main raw material, but the price is still down compared to 2018 (for anyone who doesnt follow the poultry price on a minute-by-minute basis, it is $2.36 per kilogramme right now compared to a peak above $2.60 four years ago). If there were actually a shortage of chicken, the price would be far higher.

There may well be a fall in British production, but since the UK is only the 13th largest producer in the world, what happens here is hardly that significant. If there is a shortage, then we can just import some of the 14m tonnes made in Brazil, or the 2.5m tonnes made in Poland, or the 2.2m from Turkey. And, hey presto, Nandos will be able to start dishing up grilled meat with peri-peri sauce again.

The same is true of most other meats, and indeed many other industries. The UK may end up producing less, and importing more from other countries where wages are typically lower. There is nothing wrong with that. It makes more sense to take the work to the people than to move the people to the work.

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Now is not the time to chicken out of Brexit and its end to mass immigration - Telegraph.co.uk

LONDON, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Nearly a hundred highly paid bankers left Britain ahead of its departure from the European Union, the bloc's banking watchdog said on Wednesday, the latest confirmation of how Brexit has reshaped Europe's financial sector and its tax base.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) said in its annual survey of bankers earning a million euros ($1.17 million) or more a year that Britain saw a drop of 95 high earners in 2019,

The country still accounted for 71% of the 4,963 bankers in the top pay category across the bloc in 2019 in a sign of how London remained by far Europe's biggest financial centre, with a total of 380,000 people employed in Britain's banking industry according to figures from TheCityUK.

The million euro threshold includes basic pay, bonuses, long-term awards and pension contributions.

Britain fully left the EU's orbit in December 2020 and by that time many banks and other financial firms had relocated over 7,000 staff from London to new or expanded hubs in the bloc to ensure customers retained full access to the EU financial market.

The moves boosted the number of top earners to 492 from from 450 in Germany, to 270 from from 234 in France, and to 241 from 206 in Italy, the EBA said.

"The increase of high earners resulted mostly from the impact of the relocation of staff from the UK to EU27 as part of Brexit preparations," the EBA said in a report.

Most of the EU's top earning bankers were based in its main financial centres Frankfurt, Paris and Milan, with other locations in single digits or low double digits.

The EU capped on banker bonuses in 2014 at than twice the amount of basic pay with shareholder approval, a measure that Britain opposed at the time but has so far left intact since Brexit.

($1 = 0.8532 euros)

Reporting by Huw JonesEditing by Tomasz Janowski

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Top earning bankers moved to EU from Britain ahead of Brexit-report - Reuters UK

It was supposed to be a deal no UK prime minister could ever agree to, an Irish sea border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Half a year on from Boris Johnson doing exactly that, while denying the fact, the economic consequences are becoming clearer.

Figures published by the Irish government last week indicate that a heavy toll for British trade can be added to the political turmoil unleashed by Johnsons signing up to the Northern Ireland protocol. The data shows evidence beginning to emerge of deeper economic unity on the island of Ireland, at a time when shipments between Britain and Northern Ireland have been disrupted by the Brexit border checks the prime minister promised would never happen.

With Northern Ireland effectively remaining a member of the EUs single market, the value of goods sent to the republic soared to 1.8bn (1.5bn) in the first six months of 2021, an increase of 77% over the same period in 2020. Irish goods exports to the region rose by 40% over the same period, reaching almost 1.6bn.

Meanwhile, Britain was subject to the full gamut of EU border checks for the first time in four decades, and trade fell accordingly. Exports to Ireland slid by 32% in the first six months after Brexit, while sales of Irish goods in the other direction rose 20%, in a sign that the republic isnt suffering as much as had been feared from disruption with its largest trading partner.

At this stage, it is difficult to say conclusively that leaving the EU and the Northern Ireland protocol will have a lasting impact on trade flows around the British Isles. The coronavirus pandemic is having a substantial impact, and isolating the Brexit effect is difficult as firms gradually adapt to the new rules amid a period of flux.

Official UK-wide trade figures show that after a cataclysmic fall in trade in January, exports and imports with EU nations have been steadily climbing closer to normal levels, as both Brexit and Covid disruptions abate.

However, the early evidence remains uncomfortable for the government. If it is sustained, Northern Irelands deepening economic ties with the republic and weaker ones with mainland Britain will raise questions over the regions relationship with the rest of the UK. It is an issue unionist politicians are sure to keep raising.

What is more, serious questions should be asked about how well informed the British political debate can be. There are no official UK government figures at least not in public form for trade between Britain and Northern Ireland. For the regions trade with the republic, the most up-to-date UK government data is for 2019.

Embarrassingly, the figures published by Dublin offer the best insight. Without official data to inform the debate, Britain must proceed in the dark.

While much of the damage of Brexit is self-inflicted, the snapshot from Ireland does suggest another imbalance is at play, as a result of actions by Brussels.

British exporters have been hit harder by Brexit because they faced border checks from 1 January on shipments to the EU, while Irish and EU exporters to Britain have benefited from a phased approach to checks the UK government opted for over a 12-month transition period.

Brexit supporters will latch on to this lack of reciprocation, with the evidence of its impact telling in the Irish trade figures. Yet our leaving the EU was instigated from London, and executed on terms agreed by Johnsons government in his haste to tell a tired electorate he would get Brexit done.

In October, the UK will introduce new checks on products of animal origin being imported from the EU, before 100% checks are introduced from January.

British retailers fear additional costs to the system will make matters worse as the country emerges from the pandemic, compounding issues with global supply chains and shortages of lorry drivers. Ministers must take more proactive steps to address these problems.

Theres a new energy rivalry in town, and it looks oddly familiar. It has been a decade since the energy industry was fractured by the seemingly binary choice between fossil gas and renewables. The government appeared to reignite that old feud last week with its long-awaited hydrogen strategy.

In the early 2010s, those who called for the government to back fracking to fuel a new energy self-reliance were fiercely opposed by those who believed onshore wind turbines held the key to a cleaner, brighter future. Neither wanted the other in their respective backyards.

Today the focus is on hydrogen a clean-burning gas that will be crucial to replacing fossil gas in heavy transport, factories and refineries. But how to produce it? Once again theres a choice between fossil gas and renewables blue hydrogen derived from the former or more sustainable green hydrogen.

Whitehall is eager to downplay the rivalry and has appeared to avoid making a choice either way, to the anger of climate campaigners who say blue hydrogen extracted from fossil gas, with capture technology trapping most, but not all, emissions could lock the UK into a fossil fuel future for longer than the climate can afford.

Blue hydrogen reduces the emissions of fossil gas by 85% to 95% but cannot eliminate them entirely. Green hydrogen is made from water and renewable energy, leaving only oxygen behind. On the path to net zero the winner should be clear, but green hydrogen has so far failed to capture the hearts, minds or spreadsheets of Treasury officials.

The burgeoning green hydrogen industry of disparate small companies has a mountain to climb than the major oil giants behind proposed blue hydrogen projects if it is to prove it can reach the scale required.

But the government should think about the outcome of the last feud. Fracking never got off the ground, but the wind sector has become a major industrial success story despite David Camerons crackdown on onshore wind subsidies. The renewables industry has consistently surpassed expectations, and green hydrogen could do the same.

Every little helps. Well, that was the mantra when Sir Terry Leahy ran Tesco, anyway. These days it would appear that he prefers to shop at Morrisons, because he is fronting a 7bn bid by the American private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice for the Bradford-based supermarket chain.

Last week, CD&R gazumped its rival suitor, Fortress, by putting an extra 300m on the table. At 285p a share, it is offering an eyecatching 60% premium to the grocers share price before the bidding started.

At this kind of level, shareholders could perhaps be forgiven for having their heads turned. Indeed, in a recent note, the Shore Capital analyst Clive Black said that if the City didnt wake up to the real value of Britains unloved supermarket stocks, it was not fanciful to suggest there could end up being none left on the stock exchange. Quite a claim, given that Tesco and Sainsburys are still there.

If CD&R wins control and, as some commentators are suggesting, installs Leahy as chair, he will be reunited with his former colleague at Tesco, David Potts, who has been running Morrisons for six years. That is when the task of delivering the goods for a new set of shareholder taskmasters will start, with Potts expected based on the sum being paid to start delivering a much better financial performance.

CD&R has closed the door to some of the usual get-rich-quick schemes deployed by private equity when it takes over a company. Its long list of pledges includes the promise not to engage in any material store sale-and-leaseback transactions. However, City watchers know that promises made during bid battles can be empty ones.

The higher the price goes Fortress is now considering its options and wants shareholders to sit tight the more leverage is likely to be involved in the final deal. But at the end of it all, Morrisons will still be the UKs fourth-largest supermarket, with a mountain to climb.

The rest is here:

One upshot of Brexit Johnson didnt foresee: bringing the Irish closer - The Guardian

Juhani Ojala knew he would have to wait. Travel restrictions were still in place in Scotland when, in the middle of July, the Finnish defender agreed to join Motherwell, a club of modest means and sober ambitions in the countrys top division. Upon landing, Ojala knew, he would have to spend 10 days isolating in a hotel before joining his new teammates.

What he did not know was quite how long his wait would be after that. Even after he completed his compulsory isolation, Ojala was still not allowed to start preseason training. Legally, for another two weeks, he was not even permitted to kick a ball. The quarantine was one thing. The bureaucracy, it turned out, was quite another.

A year ago indeed, at any point in the last two decades or so Ojalas move to the Scottish Premiership would have generated as little fuss as it did attention. Once Motherwell had agreed to a fee with his former club and to a contract with the player, it would have been a simple matter of jumping on a plane and doing a medical, Motherwells chief executive, Alan Burrows, said. He would have been ready to play within 24 hours.

All of that changed in January, when four and a half years after the Brexit referendum Britain formally, and finally, left the European Union. As of that moment, clubs in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland no longer had the untrammeled access to players from its 26 member states (a different set of rules apply to Ireland) they had enjoyed since the 1990s.

Instead, potential recruits to Britain from Europe as well as the rest of the world are now judged according to a points-based system that takes into account everything from their international career and the success of their club team to how much they are going to be paid. Access to Britains leagues is granted only to those players who can accrue 15 points or more.

For the cash-soaked teams of the Premier League, that change has meant little. There are occasional administrative delays Manchester United had to wait several days for Raphal Varane to be granted his work visa even after it had been approved but the vast majority of potential recruits clear the new, higher bar with ease.

The effect, though, has been starkly different in Scotland. Unlike the Premier League, the Scottish Premiership is not one of Europes financial powerhouses. Its clubs do not habitually recruit decorated internationals, or pluck stars from one of the continents most glamorous leagues.

Instead, their budgets dictate that they must search for lesser-known names in smaller markets. That approach, many say, has been made immeasurably more complex by the Brexit rules. With the cost of hiring players from England spiraling, too, clubs and their executives are increasingly worried about what the future of Scottish soccer may look like.

What we have seen, really, is that the markets are chalk and cheese, but we have a one-size-fits-all solution, Motherwells Burrows said. There is a premium on current international players that is outside the financial capabilities of most Scottish clubs.

Britains biggest teams face no such hurdles. The current system grants an immediate work permit to any player who has featured in at least 70 percent of competitive games over the last two seasons for any one of soccers top 50 national teams. That means any player who has also been a regular for a successful club team in one of Europes better leagues is almost certain to be given a pass or, to use the technical term, a Governing Body Endorsement. It is in these rich waters that clubs in the Premier League tend to do much of their fishing.

In Scotland, though, only the countrys two dominant clubs, Rangers and Celtic, can even dream of pursuing players of that quality. The rest of Scotlands teams tend to shop for bargains, or at least for value, every time the transfer window opens. Its clear to me, Motherwells Burrows said, that we would struggle to get anyone we could afford to sign to 15 points.

That was certainly the case with Ojala. To Burrows and his team, the defender represented something of a coup: not just a Finnish international, but a player who had on occasion captained his country; a veteran not only of the Danish league but with experience in Switzerland and Russia, too.

But when Motherwell tallied up how many points he was worth, he did not come close to the requirements.

The Danish league is ranked in the fifth band of six by the Home Office, Burrows said. He got a couple of points there. We got a couple more for what his salary would be in relation to the league average. But his team had finished fourth from bottom in Denmark. It had not played in Europe. He had not played enough international games. Ojalas application, in the end, only mustered eight points.

This is where the bureaucracy came in. Clubs in Scotland, at the moment, have access to an appeal system. They can apply to the Scottish Football Association for an exemption, making an appointment to press their case as to why a player who has fallen short would still be a worthwhile signing.

That, though, is only the first step. If the authorities grant a Governing Body Endorsement on appeal, the player assisted by the club must then apply for a work visa: filling in an online form, followed by booking a biometrics appointment at a visa application center, run by a number of outside companies to whom the job has been outsourced by the British government. Only once that is complete is the player granted a visa, and the transfer signed off by the government.

Though the largely faceless process can be smooth, according to Stuart Baird, a partner at Centrefield Law, a firm that specializes in international sports law, clubs navigating it for the first time increasingly the case post-Brexit have not always found it straightforward.

One of the problems is that a lot of clubs had not needed to use the Home Office sponsorship system, because previously it was only required for non-E.U. players, he said. Sometimes it can depend on the right people being available to help you to get the timely responses that clubs need.

The concern for many clubs in Scotland is that the current system does not appear to take into account the type of player they can afford to sign. Many of the markets Scotlands teams have access to in Scandinavia and the Balkans, say are ranked in the lower bands of the Home Offices criteria, and few of their teams compete in the later stages of European competitions.

One head of recruitment at a Scottish Premiership team has, in his rare idle moments over the summer, developed a thought exercise to work out if a theoretical target might be able to accrue 15 points.

So far, even in his most fanciful scenario signing an occasional international (no points) from the Czech league (Band 4, four points), who had featured regularly (four points) in his clubs unexpected run to the later stages of the Europa League (Band 2, four points) he has not made the math work.

The lesson, to some, is straightforward: Clubs must learn to adapt to the new rules, to find recruits in places they have not always looked for them.

If we operate like we have done previously, then that will take us nowhere, said Ross Wilson, the technical director at Rangers. Clubs will have to build strategies around the points system.

Rangers, for example, has started to take greater interest in players in South America, realizing that while it might no longer find it easy to sign a player from a traditional market like Scandinavia, a regular Paraguayan or Venezuelan international might sail through the application process.

The world is much smaller now, Wilson said. There is more data available, more advanced scouting systems, more intelligence. We can access far more markets than we could previously.

Wilson said he did not believe cost should be a barrier to having a solid infrastructure, pointing out that clubs of all means can use third-party platforms like Wyscout and Scout7 to look for players, but the far greater resources that Rangers and Celtic can dedicate to scouting dwarf those of most of their competitors in the Scottish Premiership.

For those clubs, the future is troubling. Burrows has noticed Scottish teams being squeezed at both ends. Not only is it harder to identify players from abroad who meet the visa criteria, but clubs in Englands lower leagues are increasingly shying away from importing talent, too.

That has led to a significant inflation in domestic salaries, he said, pricing Scottish teams out of markets in the second, third or even fourth tier of English soccer. It is simple supply and demand, Burrows said. Players are a kind of commodity, and those players have become infinitely more valuable.

Worse still, this may just be the start. As things stand, the exemption system that eventually allowed Motherwell to sign Ojala this summer is set to be abolished at the end of the current transfer window. If the appeal mechanism is not retained, or the planned system is not changed, then many of Scotlands clubs may find it all but impossible to import players.

Im hoping that in the next four or five months, between windows, we can find a solution that is not a 15 point-style system, Burrows said. If that remains the bar, the market will shrink beyond all recognition, and it is going to make life very difficult not just for Scottish clubs, but for teams in England, outside the Premier League.

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Scottish Soccers Brexit Problem: No Way In, and No Way Out - The New York Times

Exports from Ireland to Great Britain soared in the first six months after Brexit as imports sent in the opposite direction declined, according to Irish government figures.

In a sign of post-Brexit imbalances in trade, the Irish Central Statistics Office (CSO) said goods exports to Great Britain (excluding Northern Ireland) rose by 20% to 6.7bn (5.7bn) in the first six months of 2021, an increase of more than 1.1bn compared with the same period in 2020.

However, imports from Great Britain fell by more than 2.5bn, or 32%, to stand at 5.3bn in the same period.

According to the CSO, exports from Great Britain to Ireland decreased by 16% in June compared with the same month in 2020, with food, live animals and manufactured goods hit hardest.

British exporters have been hit harder by Brexit because they faced border checks from 1 January on shipments to the EU, while Irish and EU exporters to Britain have benefited from a phased in approach the UK government opted for over a 12-month transition period.

It means while all food and plant exports to the EU have been subject to sanitary and phytosanitary checks since January, countries including Ireland selling into the UK are not being subject to the complete panoply of red tape until January 2022.

This may go some way to explain why exports of food and live animals from Ireland to Great Britain rose from 315m in June 2020 to 322m in June 2021, while imports to Ireland almost halved from 243m to 119m.

Exports in June to Great Britain overall increased by 575m to 1.42bn compared with the same month in 2020, with the largest increases recorded in the chemical and related products sector, and in the machinery and transport equipment sector.

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Previous studies indicate trade between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland has benefited from Brexit, with Northern Ireland businesses now sourcing some raw ingredients south of the border because of the absence of trade barriers.

The latest snapshot from the CSO showed the value of goods imported from Northern Ireland to the Irish Republic rose by 77% to almost 1.8bn in the first six months of 2021, compared with the same period in 2020.

Exports from the Irish Republic to Northern Ireland rose by 40% to almost 1.6bn over the same period, reflecting increased cross-border trade since Brexit as the region effectively remained in the EUs single market for goods.

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Exports from Ireland to Great Britain soar in post-Brexit trade imbalance - The Guardian

Controversial plans for an enormous Brexit customs clearance park in Dover with a capacity for 1,200 trucks have been dramatically downsized in a major victory for local opponents.

Devastated homeowners have spent seven months fighting the plans, under which former farmland would have been concreted over, an ancient Roman way destroyed and night-time light and noise pollution caused for families living just 25 metres away.

But at a meeting last Friday, representatives from HM Revenue and Customs confirmed to the local parish council their U-turn.

Instead of 1,200 lorries, the site will now accommodate just 96, with 20 extra spaces for reversing trucks, and take up just a quarter of the original space.

HMRC officials told local people they had learned the lessons from the vast Brexit lorry park 22 miles away in Sevington, near Ashford.

In a letter to residents, Guston parish council said: HMRC have confirmed that lighting will be a moonlight level.

It has also moved the site 450 metres away from homes and plans to build two-metre bunds or artificial hills to mitigate the noise and disruption of views over the fields for residents.

We think this is a real result for us, said one of the members of Guston parish council who had been one of those leading the opposition.

Clearly we still have concerns about what will happen to the remaining three-quarters of the site and the design of the site, but overall we are pleasantly surprised and pleased they are engaging with us, the councillor, who did not want to be named, said.

Dover and Deal Green party member Sarah Gleave said she was concerned the road infrastructure and single carriageway would still be a nightmare for the local people and environment.

Building work is not due to start until February or March, which means it is unlikely to be ready before the summer six months after Brexit checks will be completely implemented.

This could mean lorries being diverted to the Ashford site closer to the Eurotunnel exit at Folkestone.

Gleave believes there is still time to relocate the site to a safer site further inland where the A2 has a dual carriageway.

Earlier this year local people said they felt betrayed and trapped by the lies of the government over the plans. One mother told how she moved to the quiet village because her autistic son found light and noise challenging.

Her neighbour Mick Palmer said he would not trust the government because of the way it had foisted the plans on residents without warning on New Years Eve. But his wife, Jill, said: Its such a relief that they are not going through with this. Its still going to be there but not going to affect us as much.

The site is needed to cater for the extra procedures caused by Brexit including customs paperwork and physical health checks on food and animal imports.

But under the new plans only HMRC checks will be conducted at the site, with two separate sites for other controls, according to well-informed sources.

The most disruptive element of the lorry park, involving physical health checks on chilled and frozen food, will be moved to an undisclosed site in nearby Whitfield currently being negotiated by government procurement officials.

Local sources say one option mooted is an empty warehouse which could be converted to a refrigerated loading bay where trucks with suspicious cargo could be unloaded for inspection.

A third site, described as akin to a farm at the side of the road will be used to conduct checks on live animals, such as cattle being imported for breeding purposes and racehorses returning from meetings in France.

Tim Reardon, company secretary and head of EU exit at the Port of Dover raised concerns that the government might not be ready for October and January, the deadlines for the remaining Brexit checks to come into force.

Building infrastructure takes time and the government needs to factor that into its timescales for new border controls, he said. It also needs to tell the logistics industry what inland border sites will be available and when, so that the army of businesses that make up the UKs supply chain know what they are dealing with.

HMRC has also confirmed to local people that the site will now be long-term, but the emergency planning approval covered by the special development order will only last until December 2025 and full planning consultation will take place if the site is required from 2026.

A government spokesperson confirmed the downsizing of the White Cliffs site and that the plans for food and animal sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) checks at the site had been scrapped.

We have reviewed plans for the border facilities in Kent needed to undertake customs, sanitary and phytosanitary inspections on EU goods as it is important we have suitable facilities delivering value for money for taxpayers, they said.

HMRC is working closely with the planning authority on the submission of a special development order for the White Cliffs site for customs checks, and as part of this there will be an estimated two-week public engagement period.

For SPS checks, our modelling demonstrates that we can meet the requirements through the facilities at Sevington and a new smaller site in Dover. We are working closely with Dover Port Health Authority to finalise these plans.

They said HRMC had now taken ownership of the site from the Department for Transport and would continue to engage with local people over all border control sites.

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Dover residents toast government U-turn over giant Brexit lorry park - The Guardian

In a field in Norfolk, the sight of lush green leaves sprouting from the soil are giving farmer Ed Lankfer cause for optimism. I think this is one of the best crops we have ever grown, he says, surveying one of his fields of sugar beet.

The signs are promising so far for this years harvest known in the trade as a campaign which takes place later than for other crops, during the autumn and winter. It would mark quite the turnaround from 2020s terrible harvest, when bad weather and pests caused yields of the white sugar-yielding root to plummet by as much as 60%, leaving Lankfer with a 12,000 loss.

Sugar beet has been grown on Lankfers 225-hectare (556-acre) family farm in the village of Wereham since his grandfather first introduced it in 1928, alongside other crops. However, recent years of falling prices, coupled with risks from weather and disease, have many farmers questioning whether there is a future in growing it.

This is before growers feel the impact of post-Brexit trade deals with large sugar producers such as Australia. Its a concern for Lankfer, whose land is in international trade secretary Liz Trusss constituency. He has twice hosted her at the farm to answer questions from growers.

British farmers hail sugar beet for its role in crop rotation and the timing of its harvest. Its a good break crop, and it spreads the workload over the winter, says Lankfer.

The destination of his beet is visible from the field itself: the factory at nearby Wissington where it is processed, eventually ending up in products such as Coca-Cola and Cadbury chocolate, or bagged and sold to consumers under the Silver Spoon brand.

The processing site is owned by British Sugar, a subsidiary of the Primark owner Associated British Foods. The company is in a powerful position: it is the sole customer of the UK beet farmers crop.

Many consumers who drink fizzy drinks or eat sweet treats may not realise that beet farms located all over eastern England, across swathes of East Anglia up into Lincolnshire, produce enough to cover half of the UKs annual sugar consumption of close to 2m tonnes. The remainder comes from overseas beet or cane, meaning any reduction in British output would increase reliance on imports.

Tate & Lyle, the food company which was a prominent supporter of Brexit, only processes imported raw sugar cane, mostly from the tropics, which arrives by ship at its huge refinery beside the Thames in east London.

Like the villain Voldemort in the Harry Potter books, some beet farmers refuse to mention the company by name, grumbling about how Tate & Lyle products are branded with a union jack by virtue of being processed and packaged, but not grown, in the UK.

Imported raw sugar cane is often cheaper than British or European-produced beet, yet domestic sugar producers were protected by quotas and subsidies during the UKs EU membership while tariffs restricted the amount of cane imported, which goes some way to explaining Tate & Lyles pro-Brexit stance.

Its a perfect storm, whichever way you want to look at it, says Michael Sly, an arable farmer in the fens of north Cambridgeshire, and chair of the National Farmers Unions (NFU) sugar board, which represents growers in their annual contract negotiations.

Farmers relationship with British Sugar and ongoing price discussions are at the forefront of Slys mind, and thats before he considers the longer-term challenges of a potential surge of imports following the UK-Australia free trade arrangement and future trade deals.

One-year contract prices for sugar beet agreed between British Sugar and the NFU have been in steady decline for most of the last decade. Having peaked at just under 32 a tonne in 2014, the price has slumped by more than a third to hover at about 20 a tonne for the past few years.

Farmers are still nursing losses from last years harvest, and feel there is an imbalance in power in their relationship with British Sugar, which reported a 17% rise in revenue and a pre-tax profit of almost 55m in the year to 29 August 2020, according to its most recent accounts.

Amid mounting pressures, some beet farmers are calling time on the crop. Many growers are now talking about what they call beyond beet, and unfortunately we think with the new market dynamics, the industry will get smaller in future, says Sly.

James Peck, who runs Cambridgeshire-based PX Farms, was until recently the UKs third-largest sugar beet grower. We were heavily invested in it and we were committed, but the price went down, down, down, he says.

After the last harvest, Peck decided hed had enough. I went to one of our farms, 600 acres of beet, and at the end of it we lost 12,000. I stood there and thought Ive been here, working really hard, Ive had the men working 15-hour days in the cold and wet, and we lost all that money.

Peck sold his sugar beet machinery and is now concentrating on other, more profitable, crops such as oats, which are used for increasingly popular non-dairy milk.

British Sugar says it recognises that 2020 was challenging and it is offering NFU Sugar a minimum contract price of 25 a tonne in the current negotiations, representing a 23% increase on last year.

Weve proposed an improved offer with economics that work for both us and growers, says Paul Kenward, managing director at British Sugar, adding that the company has launched an assurance scheme for farmers affected by yellowing viruses that can spoil the crop.

I am very confident about our future as an industry. We have great people, growers and customers that want to buy homegrown British sugar, Kenward adds.

Even if beet prices improve, growers are fearful of the prospect of Australian sugar flooding the market as a result of the trade deal. Beet farmers feel they have been overlooked, but expect to be affected just as much as sheep and cattle farmers, located predominantly in Wales and Scotland.

All the signs are that for sugar actually its a tighter transition [than for lamb and beef], says Sly. He calculates that, under the deal as it stands, by the end of the transition period in 2030 there will be an additional 240,000 tonnes of tariff-free sugar into the marketplace, equivalent to a quarter of the UKs domestic sugar production. After the transition period, there will be no limit to how much Australian sugar can be imported.

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Domestic growers feel unable to compete with the scale of Australian farms, where 30m tonnes of sugarcane were harvested in 2019-20, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Sly points out that large sugar cane-producing nations also use certain pesticides that are no longer allowed in Europe.

Back in Norfolk, Lankfer doesnt plan to stop growing sugar beet, though his recent meeting with Truss only went some way to allaying his concerns. She explains herself well, but after the meeting there were lots of what ifs. What if Australia falls out with China, and then Australia floods our market, which could happen with sugar? Lankfer says. My future is in her hands.

A Department for International Trade spokesperson said on Thursday: The UKs highly competitive sugar sector is one of the best in the world. We have always been clear that we have red lines in our trade negotiations which ensure UK goods are defended from unfair competition.

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A perfect storm: UK beet growers fear Brexit threatens their future - The Guardian