HGV shortage also caused in part by tax changes called IR35 that mean thee HGV takehome pay is drastically reduced -> people leaving profession or retiring.

I think he means "person with a cervix"

Kier Starmer is becoming a caricature of a moderate leftie leader now.

I'm going to self identify as a hot chick, possibly one that is non-white, and apply to be the next 007. I'm a bit old but that may even count in my favour. I'm pretty sure Roger Moore used to wear a corset when he was Bond.

Lol he won't express an opinion about which Bond he likes because own lefties will attack any possible choice, and he spouts a popular and rather stupid line about let's have a female Bond. Daniel Craig said it infinitely better a week or so ago and was there for the copying.

pathetic

I'm identifying as Bond, James Bond

Barbara Broccoli, who actually controls the Bond character rights for the cinema, says Bond has to be a man, so that's that.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-51133194

Remind me again: has Labour ever had a woman leader? Crumbs, it never has somehow, has it? And does the current leader claim it's wrong to say that 'Only women have a cervix' (which is self-evidently true, so he can only be lying), and does he refuse to condemn death threats and rape threats against the woman Labour MP who said that? Oh, yes, he does, doesn't he?

And does his Shadow Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, David 'Black Men Don't Take Lectures From Mouthy Women' Lammy, claim that feminist women are 'dinosaurs' who are 'hoarding rights' that must be taken from them and given away to men? Gosh, yet again, he does, doesn't he?

David is of course channelling Stokely Carmichael, 'Honorary Prime Minister' of the Black Panthers in the US in the 1960s (despite not actually being American but Trinidadian), who, when asked about the position of women in the movement, infamously replied, 'The position of women in the movement is prone.' (Carmichael also said, 'I have never admired a white man, but the greatest of them, to my mind, was Hitler.')

Yes, that was extremely embarrassing. Some cosmetic gender-reassignment surgeons apparently kid their clients that the bit at the end of their 'neo-vagina' (which is in no way a real vagina and does not have the natural bacterial flora to keep it clean like a real one, with obvious and rather odorous consequences), is a 'neo-cervix', and India Willoughby, for one, apparently believes this, but Lammy thinks that a 'trans woman's' cervix is 'something you can have following various procedures and hormone treatments.' He literally thinks a man can grow a cervix.

https://twitter.com/ripx4nutmeg/stat...509317/photo/1

You might be forgiven for thinking that he doesn't talk to his wife much -- or rather, doesn't listen to her.

I think the position is that it's one of those jobs that not enough British workers will now do, but we can't get the necessary foreign workers to fill the gap for obvious reasons. Which, with empty petrol stations and half-empty supermarket shelves, is turning out to be a bit of a bugger.

I can imagine saying "Mine's a pint of Moral crusade" many times down the pub.

What a good name for a worthy beer.

I think the last page or so has demonstrated why Boris Johnson won a landside last time out, and will probably retain power relatively comfortably next time.

The widespread abuse of tax rules relating to dividends was pushed onto drivers as a means of reducing costs. Drivers were given little or no choice about how they were paid and many may still find themselves faced with a substantial tax bill in the future. Meantime, the Agencies that were sticking drivers on Zero Hours Contracts and fudging their employment status were busy finding ways to bring more EU candidates over.


There is a certain irony in the fact that it is a Tory Government that is telling employers to pay their workers at an appropriate rate, not attempt to cut employment costs through schemes that even Jimmy Carr’s accountant would dismiss.

https://nation.cymru/news/breakup-of...ays-labour-mp/

They only 'offer' one thing, independence. Something, despite their long history, they don't actually have any plan for.

Actual independence would compromise their USP of blaming everything they do on Westminster, and they don't want to deal with the fact that London would non-negotiably require RAF Lossiemouth and HMNB Clyde as sovereign bases. It would all get all too real and they don't want playtime to be over.

Plus they've got a problem with the currency issue, and the not unrelated problem of EU membership. (You can't join the EU as a new member without joining the euro, and you can't join the euro without your own currency, which they wouldn't have. Unless they were given special exemption, and you can imagine how the Spanish, with the power of veto, feel about secessionists.)

Is the truck driver shortage the equivalent for the labour shortages Australia always faces for fruit picking? It is just seen as the lowest form of labour and many young people just don't have the right attitude to do it. I would have thought there would be many jobs worse in England to do than being a truck driver (factory worker, wharfie, etc).

In tomorrow's Observer:--

There does seem to be a problem in regard to unsocial hours and the pay and conditions. Retiring British HGV drivers are not being replaced now that visa restrictions bar foreign drivers.

And God knows how we're supposed to find seasonal fruit and veg pickers.

In the short term but as I posted about before, in the medium term we know exactly where we're going to fidn them. Along with all the other jobs. Brexit/covid/etc is just adding fuel to a raging fire.

https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...lligence-covid

What are the welfare benefits for the unemployed youth over there? I'm assuming pretty good?

Ha, ha, indeed.

I was just reading that article on the Guardian site. I like the last line

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...ill-pay-dearly

"The biggest trick the tories ever pulled, was convincing tinkers to give them their money."