This crisis is a temporary blip on our way to a higher skills economy, say Brexiter evangelists. Or maybe it just marks trouble to come
Driving across France last Thursday was like driving in Britain used to be – no worries about petrol and no queues. Returning to London was a brutal tipping into another reality. One of the first duties of a government is to ensure that citizens can go about their daily business without hassle and anxiety. With abundant petrol in the refineries there was never need for this pain – we are living through an abject failure of governance.
Brexit is plainly one of the reasons for the shortage of drivers and for the troublesome frictions at our borders spilling over into problems in the food and supermarket supply chains. More crucially, it was ministers’ very fear that early action would be seen as proof positive of Brexit’s frailties that so paralysed them.
