You’ve got to laugh though, haven’t you.? They said it was only project fear 
.
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40000 driver shortage in France and 400000 across Europe as a whole.
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We had a French ex-lorry driver staying in the gîte a few weeks back. He has just quit driving after 15 + years and taken a fixed post (I think in a port) as found the job increasingly unpleasant, poorly paid for the work required, and difficult maintain alongside a young family to etc etc. If it is not a job for young’ish people with families then not surprising it’s unpopular.
The crossing to the UK sounds particularly disagreeable, too much waiting, too much stress about being alert to people wanting to smuggle themselves into your lorry, too much paperwork.
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Yep, who remembers, three day week, bins overflowing, burials on hold and industrial unrest.
Now there are some product shortages on shelves, long medical waiting lists, some pumps running dry, rocketing prices for energy and failing suppliers, and hugely cut local authority services, and generally is an unhappy place to be.
Sure France isn’t perfect but seems in general (some big city Banlieues excepted) to be more at peace with itself.
Other than seeing daughters first time for 20 months and first grandchild I’m not all that excited at going at the end of next month! Who would be going back to that?
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I also did that on and off for more than 50 years in many countries and loved it, to the extent that I ignored the comparatively low wages. Yes there is stress and yes I was ‘down the road’ when each of my children were born but wanderlust is a strong motivator.
However, I did give up and retire at 60, it wasn’t just the wages, here in my last job I was working all hours on the minimum wage (the 35 hour week was a joke, it only applied to driving hours, so we were told 
)), I had simply had enough of being treated as the lowest of the low (cheap labour in supermarket warehouses being made to load and unload alone to save them employing someone for instance) and even on here being sneered at and denigrated for my abilities and skills.
I am not surprised that drivers are in such short supply.
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Clearly everyone needs to be paid properly and have good working conditions.
There is a kind of schadenfreude on here about the UK which is a bit … Not quite sure what the appropriate adjective is, but I know I wouldn’t want everyone in the UK enjoying it if things were going badly in France.
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I haven’t seen any empty shelves here Tim. I think the idiot boy Shapps and/or his buddy Calamity Kwarteng have been claiming it’s a Europe wide issue, but they would say that, wouldn’t they?
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It seems there is a Europe-wide shortage, but the reason the UK is suffering such disruption is the result of the economics of Brexit.
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The UK will suffer greatly from HGV driver shortages and gas/electricity price hikes etc in the coming months but people shouldn’t think that France won’t be affected.
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It waa called “The Winter of Discontent” in the 1970’s. Rubbish not cleared piling up in the streets - it was a rat-fest - and bodies not buried.
It got the government (Labour) thrown out as incompetent and the Tories came in.
Trouble is, who’s left now?
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I agree Tim. Just Brexit is amplifying the UK’s challenges and it’s amusing how the Tories are trying to ignore the elephant in the room.
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I wonder if the Green’s will take over as the predominant left wing party.
Starmer has been a disappointing Labour leader - I still think he would make a competent, if slightly dull PM, but I don’t think he is able to fix Labour’s problems well enough, or to generate enough popular appeal to beat the Tories.
If there is a backlash against the Tories though it might well be extensive (lets face it they deserve nothing less).
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Monster Raving Looney Party.
The problem is that both Bonking Boris and Comrade Corbyn appear to already be fully paid up members.
No ones talking yet, about the more than likely rise in Council Tax next April. They’ll be able to raise it by a minimum of 3% but likely it will be at least 5%!
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I remember we ate by candlelight when the electricity was off. The ceiling began to collect the soot.
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Very romantic 
Yes, we’d only just got married so I guess it was!
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I remember the smell of Leicester Square. Not romantic at all!!
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We had a pair of mantle lamps similar to this one
In fact conceivably identical to that one
I remember one had a red shade, the other white. Quite bright but a bit fiddly to set just right so that the mantle did not become sooty.
When you are 10 a power cut is a bit of an adventure - not so much these days.
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Petrol driver shortage: Ministers meeting over lack of supply
Right chaps and chapesses, Shapps has proposed that we blame everyone else but ourselves, like he did earlier on, those in favour,… Passed unanimously 
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