UK - England, Wales, N.Ireland, Scotland

[RTH10260]

'They will hang me': Afghan interpreters blocked by UK seek appeal
By Jack Hunter BBC News
Published1 hour ago

Sheltering in a hideout on the outskirts of Kabul, Abdul says he is waiting for the day he is found and killed by the Taliban.

He is one of 11 Afghan interpreters the BBC has spoken to who have been stopped from relocating to the UK, despite initially being told they were eligible for a move.

They received letters saying they were "eligible for relocation" to Britain under a government scheme to get former interpreters who had worked for British forces to safety.

But the relocation was subject to passing immigration checks - and in the final stages, the Home Office blocked them on national security grounds.

They were told their presence in the UK would not be "conducive to the public good".

The men, whose names have been changed for their safety as they fear retribution from the Taliban, have not been given any details about why they were deemed a threat. They say they have done nothing wrong.

Their supporters in the UK are calling for them to be given the opportunity to have their cases reviewed and have criticised the lack of transparency around the decisions.



https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58830736

[RTH10260]

Just some thoughts on the UK attempt to hire EU nationals as temporary workers.

Nobody seems to think about the fact that the UK is asking EU workers to leave the protections they have with EU work related regulations when leaving for a third country (not yet a third world country ). Workers need to purchase their own health insurance for the UK, something that they already have at home and is often provided by the employer. If their future UK employer provides it, it will be a-kind income for taxation. Taxation will be at the source, while in the EU such taxation will be recond up over the year if working and residing in different countries, it's unclear how that tax taken in a third country will be finally accounted for in the tax at home, could be a real headache to come. Also those temporary work visas of the UK come with a slave-owner clause - the worker may not change to a different employer in the UK in case of difficulties.

[Azastan]

Just some thoughts on the UK attempt to hire EU nationals as temporary workers.

Nobody seems to think about the fact that the UK is asking EU workers to leave the protections they have with EU work related regulations when leaving for a third country (not yet a third world country ). Workers need to purchase their own health insurance for the UK, something that they already have at home and is often provided by the employer. If their future UK employer provides it, it will be a-kind income for taxation. Taxation will be at the source, while in the EU such taxation will be recond up over the year if working and residing in different countries, it's unclear how that tax taken in a third country will be finally accounted for in the tax at home, could be a real headache to come. Also those temporary work visas of the UK come with a slave-owner clause - the worker may not change to a different employer in the UK in case of difficulties.

Those could be some real issues, eh? Unforeseen consequences at work here!

[RTH10260]

How the supply chain crisis is affecting food banks
Analysis: drop in donations and reduced capacity to deliver mean food banks will have to shrink the size of parcels

Patrick Butler
Mon 4 Oct 2021 06.00 BST

1. Surplus food supplies disrupted
.....

2. Food donations down
.....

3. Difficulties buying food
.....

4. Reduced capacity to deliver
.....

5. Rising demand
.....



details in the article https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... food-banks

[Phoenix520]

Unforeseen consequences at work here!

Azastan, the whole crazy thing is rife with them! How did Farage convince your countrymen to act so against their interests? I’ve never understood.

[Suranis]

He didn't. He was just one voice in a large crowd of people. Farage is just good at claiming credit for stuff, but he is just one loud buffoon.

[Uninformed]

I think it’s fair to say that Farage/UKIP’s appeal to the not insubstantial number of xenophobic bigots and Great Britain nostalgics etc frightened the Conservatives into adopting positions they would not have otherwise taken. The lies and misstatements that followed were down to both true believers and those simply exploiting an emotive issue. (I also think a line can be drawn from Brexit voting to the “collapse” of the Labour vote in their “heartlands”).

Sadly, I agree with the view that a lot of people didn’t bother to vote no to Brexit because they thought it wouldn’t happen. In some ways I think they are more to blame than those who voted yes.

[Azastan]

Unforeseen consequences at work here!

Azastan, the whole crazy thing is rife with them! How did Farage convince your countrymen to act so against their interests? I’ve never understood.

Not one of my relatives voted for it, so I haven't the foggiest.

I do agree with uninformed that many people didn't vote against it because they really didn't think it would happen--just as people didn't vote for Clinton because they really didn't understand that not voting FOR her was a vote for Trump, and that the consequences of that include handing over the Supreme Court to a batch of conservatives.

There are a lot of people out there who can't even play checkers, never mind play multi-dimensional chess.

[RTH10260]

just a PS. to my comment further up on EU nationals and special 6 month worker visas: those butchers they are looking for *** must be fluent in English *** as i learnt from one source

[Volkonski]

just a PS. to my comment further up on EU nationals and special 6 month worker visas: those butchers they are looking for *** must be fluent in English *** as i learnt from one source

If they will settle for hardworking butchers that speak Spanish the USA might be able to loan them some.

[Azastan]

just a PS. to my comment further up on EU nationals and special 6 month worker visas: those butchers they are looking for *** must be fluent in English *** as i learnt from one source

Humph, then they don't want any from Scotland.

[Volkonski]

[RTH10260]

How does Amazon want to fill their warehouse when stuff is stuck on container ships?

Small firms’ fury as Amazon offers £3,000 sign-up bonus to attract Christmas staff
Warning that online giant’s move will lead to higher prices and empty shelves in shops

Jon Ungoed-Thomas and Michael Savage
Sun 17 Oct 2021 10.30 BST

Amazon is offering signing-up bonuses of up to £3,000 in areas of Britain with labour shortages, to attract workers in time for the Christmas surge in demand.

The Food and Drink Federation says there is a “battle for labour” in the run-up to Christmas, with Amazon trying to recruit 20,000 temporary staff. Many food and hospitality firms cannot compete with the pay now being offered by the online giant and this may affect Christmas deliveries and supplies.

Ian Wright, chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation, said the Amazon bonuses being advertised online for full-time and seasonal staff were a “knock-out blow” for smaller companies. He said: “There isn’t a vast reservoir of British workers just waiting to be fought over. It’s incredibly difficult to get Christmas staff labour in many areas.

“It will mean higher prices and fewer choices on shelves. Suppliers will almost certainly produce shorter runs of product and if they can, they will look at higher prices.”



https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... tmas-staff

[Uninformed]

How many nails does a coffin need?

[Volkonski]

[Volkonski]

[RTH10260]

When workers suddenly ask for more than minimum wages...

When container shipments suddenly cost tenfolds the former price...

When UK local produce suddenly fail to get to market and the EU suppliers ask for a better price for the supplemental deliveries...

[Azastan]

When workers suddenly ask for more than minimum wages...

When container shipments suddenly cost tenfolds the former price...

When UK local produce suddenly fail to get to market and the EU suppliers ask for a better price for the supplemental deliveries...

Good thing they aren't able to shoot themselves in the foot.

Will have to make do with being stabbed in the back.

[RTH10260]

The much hyped (by Boris Johnson) Australia - UK trade deal still not finalized

Australian trade minister leaves UK with no deal
Dan Tehan hoped to strike an agreement with his UK counterpart, but it wasn’t to be.

BY EMILIO CASALICCHIO AND GRAHAM LANKTREE
October 15, 2021 6:12 pm

LONDON — He may have traveled more than 10,000 miles from Canberra to London, but Dan Tehan left Britain without a trade deal.

The Australian trade minister had hoped to clinch an agreement with his U.K. counterpart Anne-Marie Trevelyan at the end of his long, multi-stop trip across the globe, but the two sides ended up kicking the can.

“I know we're all impatient to get that signature on the final inked deal,” Tehan told the U.K.-Australia Chamber of Commerce at a breakfast event on Friday, the morning after his meeting with Trevelyan. “I can tell you no one is more impatient than me to get that done. But we do have to make sure that we get it right.”

The two sides reached an “agreement in principle” in June, but have spent months wrangling over the legal text. Converting a 16-page draft agreement into a fully scrubbed tome both sides can sign up to has turned out to be more of a challenge than was hoped.

There are 32 chapters in the agreement, plus four annexes with multiple sub-sections and nine side letters. By the end of Tehan's visit, 29 of those chapters had their legal text finalized, with three to go.

The Australian version of the deal stands at around 1,600 pages, while the U.K. text is 2,600. “I'm not quite sure whether it's just the type spacing or the different sides of the schedule," Tehan quipped, "but they've got a few more pages than us."

“Obviously we've got to dot i's and cross t's and the final negotiations do take time,” he added, saying he hoped the deal was “not very far away at all.”

The visit was an emotional rollercoaster for U.K. officials hoping to get the agreement over the line. One person said the two sides were “working and progressing” through the day despite the lack of closure.

As the moment seemed to slip away, there was still hope of a surprise last-minute concession — but as the afternoon drew on, it became clear the deal wasn't going to happen.



https://www.politico.eu/article/austral ... h-no-deal/

[RTH10260]

FWIW

Boris ‘Bertie Booster’ Johnson serves up climate baloney for breakfast
PM forces Bill Gates and other investors to stomach a net zero speech peppered with recycled gags

John Crace
Tue 19 Oct 2021 18.32 BST

Sit back and enjoy the ride. Here was Boris Johnson in his comfort zone. A conference room at the Science Museum where he could indulge his fantasy as the Bertie Booster of British politics by giving his standard upbeat, cut out and keep after dinner speech – never mind that it was actually shortly after breakfast – to an invited audience of some of the world’s richest men and women at a Global Investment Summit.

This was Boris at his most optimistic. No need to mention the inconvenient truths of food and lorry driver shortages. Covid infection rates increasing at an alarming rate could also be safely ignored. Those were all just present day irritants. The story he wanted to tell was of a future in which Britain would lead the world to the promised land of net zero by 2050. A speech that was light on detail but peppered with recycled gags. Not that Boris got many laughs. Perhaps billionaires don’t have the same sense of humour as the rest of us. Or maybe they’d heard them all before at Davos.


https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... -breakfast

[Volkonski]

[RTH10260]

‘It seems impenetrable’: the trials of HGV training
Three HGV trainees relate the early barriers they’ve found on the road to a potential career change

Jane Clinton and David Batty
Thu 21 Oct 2021 19.26 BST

The shortage of HGV drivers in the UK and reports of salaries of up to £50,000 has prompted some people to change careers and retrain to join the sector.

The Road Haulage Association (RHA) estimates there is now a shortage of more than 100,000 qualified HGV drivers in the UK.

Three people seeking to join the sector speak about their experiences so far.



more at the link https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... v-training

[RTH10260]

‘They’re leaving in droves’: UK faces bus driver shortage as HGV industry offers better pay

24.10.2021 Updated: 10 hours ago

A shortage of bus drivers in the UK is being caused by better pay being offered to drive HGVs, according to a union.

It’s thought there are more than 4,000 vacancies for bus and coach drivers across the UK.

Some companies have been forced to cancel services because not enough drivers are available.

Bobby Morton, Unite’s national officer for passenger transport, told Sky News: “It all goes back to the lorry drivers, the shortage of lorry drivers in the haulage industry.

“And a number of the things that lorry drivers share with bus drivers is very long hours, massive fatigue levels, lack of basic facilities such as toilet facilities and washing facilities.

“And the mindset of the bus drivers at the moment is that, in the haulage industry, the employers threw money at the problem, at the shortage.

“So the mindset is now, if we’ve got to work in these Victorian conditions, then we might as well get £20 an hour driving the lorry, as opposed to £10 an hour driving a bus. So the bus drivers are leaving in droves to go to the other industry.”



https://blogh1.com/2021/10/24/theyre-le ... etter-pay/

[RTH10260]

wash your hands in....

MPs reject amendment to clamp down on sewage-dumping water companies
MPs have voted against an amendment to the Environment Bill that would have legally compelled water companies to reduce their discharge of raw sewage into rivers and seas.

By Politics.co.uk staff
23 October 2021 08:02 AM

The bill, intended to revamp the UK’s environmental regulations post Brexit, currently allows raw sewage to be discharged into the country’s waterways.

Data from the Environment Agency shows that raw sewage was dumped into British waters over than 400,000 times in 2020

Conservative MP, Royston Smith, who voted down the amendment since told The Southern Daily Echo: “No one wants sewage into our rivers but you can’t change a system where most of it is still Victorian overnight. You only have to look at what Southern Water has done in Woolston to see how things are moving.

“Things like illegal sewage dumping, that’s a completely different thing but there does come a time when you have significant rain or flooding that the system won’t cope and it will overflow and outflow into the rivers sadly.”



https://www.politics.co.uk/news-in-brie ... companies/

[RTH10260]

when our customers don't need cardboard for packing produce we sell them Potemkin Village displays

Sainsbury's in Dorset uses cardboard images to hide empty shelves amid food shortage

By Ellie Maslin

A SAINSBURY'S supermarket in Dorset has been criticised for using cardboard images to 'disguise' empty shelves amid the current national food shortage.

Shoppers have taken to social media to share photographs of supermarket giants Tesco and Sainsbury's apparent attempts to improve the appearance of bare shelves as a shortage of lorry drivers continues to affect supply chains.

And Sainsbury's in Sherborne has been spotted using the tactic.

In response to a viral Twitter thread where social media users across the UK have been sharing snaps of cardboard replacements on bare shelves, one woman, Sharon Dale, shared this photograph depicting a cardboard display on the pasta aisle in the Dorset branch with the caption: "Sainsbury’s aren’t even trying to make it look genuine."



https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/19669 ... -shortage/