Tried to order something from Europe..

But any EU country requiring JIT supply who used to use the UK will now look to other suppliers in the EU, where the quality is likely to be the same, the pricing / quality similar but the delivery more predictable.

It's puts up JIT supply 'costs', if you have to buy / stock more locally to overcomes any delays.

Except there are another 2* EU countries, many of whom can and do supply a similar range of products we can / do and they will pick up that trade. Or the UK based manufacturer / manufacturing / retailing will move into the EU (as per JD Sports). Once lost we will never (and not be able to) get it back.

Whist we were part of the team, we were given allowances, now we aren't many will see no point in bothering with the extra ag of getting stuff on / off this island and so won't bother.

Cheers, T i m

It will become perfectly normal and settle in - it has to as we are only the forerunner and the EU is implementing a similar system (later this year I think), so companies all over the world will be getting to grips with it. Many other countries will probably implement similar systems, so EU companies are themselves going to then have to get used to doing it.

Sensibly, countries could all agree to do it using the same front-end system, but of course they won't. I am sure it won't be long before some service companies are set up to provide a simple front end that interfaces to different countries' systems, so that a company can deal all over the world, without having to worry about learning each and every front end.

Countries and business like to encourage trade, The EU likes to stifle it.

Otherwise why would anyone want to stay a part of it?

Quite, it's called the race / slave card.

We put up a statue of a convicted terrorist in Parliament Square.

Same difference.

You can, you can say the first sound recording was in Paris some decades before Edison.

It sounds as if you don't want to live here. Have you considered emigrating?

Nearly all JIT suppliers keep a modest buffer stock near to the assembly plant. That's not going to change.

Very simple. By the way they've handled this pandemic. Constantly too little too late.

Since you've already mentioned NZ, another island state, look at how they've handled it.

They were hardly too late or too little with vaccines.

Yes, they seem less affected and their first lockdown was March 2020. They effectively contained the virus but there were lots of noises about hardship and the hit on the economy.

One reason cited for the late initial lockdown in the UK was that lockdown would be observed for a finite time, and after people would ignore instructions.

I would have preferred greater enforcement where travel has to be sanctioned in advance and to be the exception rather than the rule but there seems little appetite for such, as indeed demonstrated in these groups.

Facemasks also aren't enforced where some trivial excuse like having mental illness or asthma is all that is needed to avoid wearing them.

Mindlessly silly with trade within the EU.

The EU has always been about more than just trade.

Which is essentially what is happening now. Went food shopping in Morrisons today. No one social distancing, people just walking around any old how. everyone had a mask though, although that is easy to arrange.

Quite, I find it quite sad when some seem to use the blame game at every opportunity whereas in many instances these decisions were based on sound scientific reasoning.

Waitrose wouldn't let me in on Friday, till 15 people had left....social distancing being respected, if not 100% observed everywhere.

Our local Morrisons used to count them out, count them in, and have a strict queuing system for the checkouts. All that abandoned now.

So they actually got one thing right. Good to see you being so defensive.

It was the total lack of taking heed of their experts in the late autumn/winter that is the most damning.

No it's not (what I am thinking)

precisely because "The British Isles" includes the country of Ireland

very probably

but why aren't the doing that at the moment?

If finding an alternative supplier is just Oh so easy?

so why are they not doing so at the moment

many E Europe countries have a (nominal) NMW one fifth of ours

by multinationals in other countries

of course we weren't

They will change supplier at the drop of a hat, if they can get a better deal elsewhere

NZ is not the slightest bit comparable with the UK (from a Covid pov)

It is geographically the same size as the UK with one tenth the population

Its nearest trading partner is 2000 miles away (yes I was surprised it was that far too)

consequently it can close its borders and be 100% self sufficient if it needs to be

If it does need to trade it can make sure that it is all funnelled through one port with strict rules about quarantining the crew

If we closed our borders to 100% of imports, the population would starve

UK is closer to 13 times population.

And NZ doesn't have a major transport hub (Heathrow) with people wanting to transit.

The small population in a similar land area is what is the major advantage.

But clearly isnt the reason that china did vastly better than the UK.

And it has a major transport hub too.

That's the advantage of being a totalitarian country: anyone who disagrees doesn't just get a fine, they are thrown in the slammer. Wuhan had hard lockdown with roadblocks.