Be careful what you ask for, especially those who advocate that they don't need immigrants. Brexit Panic-Buying Gas Freakout Has Europe Saying: We Told You So
is winston still pm? no one is immune to panic. buying brexit? we also have a shortage of drivers, dock workers, health care workers, just about everything but loafers
Gotta love prognosticators, especially after the fact. I can't wait to hear what Nostradamus and the framer almanac predicted would happen.
My parents and my sister have been telling me what life is like for them in their part of North-West England. Of the 15 closest gas stations to them (within about a 10-mile radius), 14 have completely run out of gasoline and diesel. The one that is open has queues that take up to five hours, and which have blocked the roads so badly that buses had to be re-routed to avoid the area. Not that there are many buses: they're running a skeleton timetable as the bus company is also short of diesel. Ambulances are also starting to run out of diesel. There is no shortage of fuel in the country: there are just not enough truck drivers to deliver the fuel to the gas stations, because all the truckers from the EU who used to drive everything around have been sent home. This is what's causing shortages of a lot of FMCGs too: a lot of bulky goods are missing from supermarket shelves. There is still some beef, chicken and lamb in the supermarkets. There is no pork or turkey, because there is no CO2 for humane slaughtering. The CO2 shortage has also led to shortages of soft drinks. Some supermarkets have a decent range of vegetables at around twice the price you'd expect at this time of the year. Others don't have any. This is because the migrant workers from the EU who used to pick the fruit and vegetables have all been sent home. The army is supposedly going to start delivering fuel soon. They might start supplying supermarkets too. Separately, Mum and Dad's energy supplier has gone bankrupt. They're being transferred to a different supplier at a higher rate. My sister's energy supplier is still in business. The government is telling them that energy supplies are failing and energy prices are rocketing in the rest of Europe too; my parents' friends and relatives in Germany, Spain, France, the Netherlands and Italy tell them that this is not true. This would be a valid point if said prognostications had been made after the fact. But voters were being told in 2016 by every decent economist and industrial strategist that this would happen if they voted for Brexit. I said in 2016 that all of this was inevitable if Britain voted for Brexit. None of this is a surprise. People were told this would happen. They just chose not to believe it.
At least in the U.S., where natural gas prices are up 180% from a year ago, we are also being told of higher prices (from recovering economic activity) and low supply ('post-pandemic' production hasn't resumed as fast as consumption) are happening not just here, but in Europe too. https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2021-09-30/surging-natural-gas-prices-threat-to-consumers-this-winter "After years of unusually inexpensive levels, the price of natural gas in the United States has more than doubled since this time last year. In Europe and Asia, wholesale prices are more than five times what they were a year ago. The surging costs have coincided with a robust recovery from the pandemic recession, with more homes and businesses burning all forms of fuel. That intensified demand is poised to contribute to higher heating costs in many areas of the world. ... In Europe and Asia, some companies that rely on natural gas have been forced out of business because of the higher prices. Four small British energy companies failed in recent weeks. Fertilizer producers, which use natural gas as a feedstock, are struggling. So are heavy industries that require significant heat, such as aluminum or cement producers. Power companies in Europe and Asia are engaged in bidding wars over shiploads of liquid natural gas, thereby driving up the cost. Prices are also spiking in the U.S., which converts some of its natural gas into liquid and ships it to Europe and Asia. Those higher costs are showing up in gas bills for consumers around the globe." A separate source last weekend indicated that numerous power plants with flexible fuel options have switched from now-costly natural gas or LNG to oil, thus also bidding up oil prices, in turn driving up gasoline prices. Gulf Coast hurricane shutdowns are also a factor.
speaking as an armchair observer on the other side of the pond, related to Brexit, the amount I read, I was against it. I prime windscreen and home front storm door were bricked almost to the day of Brexit passing. arrrrrrr! Also from what I've gathered the idea of monetary easing was first implemented in the UK. Than expounded on in Japan and now the Fed seems to think it's healthier than mothers milk. Go figure, ya know?
