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gulliver1 | 11:01 Fri 06th Aug 2021 | News
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Andrew Bridgen MP. ( CON) Blames the shortage of lorry drivers on Tony Blair, for encouraging youngsters to follow higher education and going to University When he was PM.. Thats whats causing todays empty supermarket shelves. Anyones fault but the Tories.
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Gulliver, the fault is the effect of Covid 19 and nothing else.
Do you have a link?
Gulliver, just to add that there are no empty shelves at my local Tesco.
At least hes not blaming Thatcher unlike some for most things.
Yes its a bit of a stretch and not the main problem but hes got a good genral point- we'er encouraging far to many to go who are'nt right for uni and would be better learning a trade. In fact am sure alot of children from age 14-18 would be better off doing trades like bricklaying, joinery rather than GCSEs and sixth form. Delivery firms should of been sending speakers into schools to encourage careers as drivers as theres always been a shortage of home grown ones so they should take some blame too
brexit
i blame brexit - - - end of !
hopefully some of the immigrants washing up in dinghies will have HGV licences
//hopefully some of the immigrants washing up in dinghies will have HGV licences//

Not a chance. Didn't you know - they are all brain surgeons, corporate lawyers and architects.
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11.03, Nothing to do with Covid . Everything to do with the 25,000 E/U truck drivers ,You Brexiteers Kicked out of the U/K, and nothing else.
too many lawyers already. The rest are welcome.
Brigden has talked to HGV but seems to have not listened, instead blaming the previous Labour Government. Drivers say poor pay and conditions are the primary reason that qualified drivers have given up the job.
Despite the Conservatives being in power for 11 years, poor pay and conditions are Tony Blairs fault apparently.
It is hard to make sense of his thinking because it is clearly buck passing nonsense.

// I went on to talk with a lorry driver with 40 years of industry experience who illustrated the problems, not least that the average age of a lorry diver is well into their 50s. He told me that the pay is not good, working conditions are poor, and that he felt undervalued that his job which is not seen as a vocation despite the need for qualifications and the fact that they took responsibility for loads worth many hundreds of thousands of pounds.

When I raised this issue in 2015 the estimated shortage of HGV drivers was 50,000, now it is double that and whilst there are 600,000 HGV licence holders in the UK, only half of those are active in the industry and for many, it is the reasons that have been cited above why they have left the job, the drivers have voted with their feet. //
11.16, Nothing to do with Brexit.Read Gromit's post at 11.19.
If you want to read more of his muddled thinking, here is the Daily Depress link

https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1470465/HGV-driver-shortage-Tony-Blair-university-andrew-bridgen
dannyk, gulliver is semi-correct: apparently 15,000 European truck drivers did leave the UK over the last year.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-57656327
The Road Haulage Association says new VISA rules mean that thousands of drivers who went to be with their families in Europe during the pandemic are prevented from returning. Brigden was a leading Brexiter, so won’t admit that.

// The Road Haulage Association delivered evidence to U.K. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps last week, warning that many drivers returned to their countries of origin during the pandemic due to lockdowns. The vast majority are not expected to return due to stricter visa rules following Britain’s departure from the European Union. //

The Road Haulage Association have written a letter to Boris Johnson

https://www.rha.uk.net/Portals/0/News/Policy%20and%20Campaigning/Policy%20and%20Campaigning%20Documents/RHA%20letter%20to%20Prime%20Minister%20230621.pdf?ver=2021-06-23-163949-737

// We are asking for your direct support as follows:

We need access to EU and EEA labour. We ask for the introduction of a temporary worker visa for HGV drivers and for this occupation to be added to the Home Office Shortage Occupation List. //

15,000 lorry drivers left the country because of brexit ? If the numbers are accurate , shame on the torys for not predicting this situation. Did no one really foresee the impact of brexit ?
gromit earlier you said "Drivers say poor pay and conditions are the primary reason that qualified drivers have given up the job. Seems to me to be a combination of things- pay and conditions (not the goverments fault), Brexit which makes it harder to bring in foreign drivers (goverments issue) , covid which stops them coming back, and covid pinging/isolation ( goverments responsabilty to sort out), plus a longer term problem with encouyraging people to uni rather than training in trades including driving (all goverments plus employers fault).

So many issues we should pull together and sort it out not just point fingers at Blair, Johnson or whoever
Question Author
11,27, 25.000 ++++. Read Gromit 11.50.
bobb, the only part I can play is by not buying things that aren't on the shelves, and not complaining about it (which I haven't, grieved though I am by the absence of puffin meat in Lidl). But sorting things out is what governments are elected to do.

Not Blair, though, he hasn't been in power for 14 years, but people still get cross when he says or does anything.

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