China News Service, October 12, according to Hong Kong's "Wen Wei Po" report, recently there have been manpower shortages in many industries in the UK, and the supply chain has been severely hampered and has not been resolved for a long time.

According to a survey conducted by the Office of National Statistics (ONS), in the two weeks ending October 3, as many as 9 million people in England, Wales and Scotland were unable to buy essential food due to lack of stock in supermarkets.

　　The British government blamed this on the new crown epidemic, but there are opinions that, as the lockdown measures are gradually lifted and economic activities resume one after another, the British government needs to face reality and admit that the UK is facing a crisis caused by Brexit.

On September 29, 2021, local time, in London, England, people continued to line up to refuel, and many gas stations were already running out of gas.

Image source: Visual China

　　[Labor shortage and supply chain are broken, millions of people are affected]

　　From January 1st, if workers from EU countries want to stay and work in the UK, they need to apply for visas with stricter rules, which is actually equivalent to “blocking” a large number of workers from the EU.

　　Affected by this, the current vacancy for truck drivers in the UK has reached 100,000.

Due to lack of manpower to transport goods and fuel, the shelves of major British supermarkets were not able to be restocked in time after the shelves were emptied. Many petrol stations across the country were not supplied with petrol. This caused a large number of people to panic and queues outside petrol stations to buy petrol.

　　According to a survey conducted by the Office of National Statistics (ONS), in the two weeks from September 22 to October 3, as many as 9 million people in England, Wales and Scotland were unable to buy essential food due to lack of stock in supermarkets. One out of every six adults in the UK will be affected.

　　The ONS survey pointed out that 17% of adults were unable to purchase some essential foods within the two weeks. Among them, the Northeast and Central Regions had the most serious situation. About 21% of adults failed to purchase essential foods.

Non-food necessities are also out of stock, and nearly 23% of respondents said they could not buy them.

　　In addition, 61% of consumers believe that the supply of goods is abnormal, including a decrease in the variety of goods and the inability of supermarkets to replenish goods in time after some goods are sold out.

　　In addition to supermarket goods, the supply of drugs is also affected. About 23% of adults said that they need to wait longer than usual to buy the drugs they need.

　　The British government previously announced the appointment of Lewis, the former chief executive of Tesco, a large supermarket chain, as a supply chain consultant, who is responsible for making recommendations to Prime Minister Johnson on the rapid improvement of British goods supply chain issues and how to make long-term responses.

Data map: British Prime Minister Johnson.

　　[Supply Chain Crisis Reveals "Sequences" of Brexit]

　　British Prime Minister Johnson insisted that the shortage of manpower is a global problem and refused to establish relations with Brexit. He called on the public not to buy blindly. "I hope people will shop normally and only buy the goods you need."

　　"Wen Wei Po" reported that the British government and Brexit supporters believe that the problems facing the United Kingdom have nothing to do with Brexit. However, Northern Ireland, which has remained in the European single market after Brexit, has not seen a panic buying wave and no petrol stations. The shortage of oil and carbon dioxide supply just reflects that Brexit is the culprit in the UK’s current predicament.

　　After Brexit, Britain became more isolated in energy supply, triggering an energy crisis.

Britain’s own energy reserves are insufficient, and local natural gas prices have soared four times this year.

Alvira, chief executive of Snam SpA, an Italian energy infrastructure company, said that the UK is not aware of its dependence on the EU’s energy reserves. It takes only weeks to supply gas to the UK.

　　In addition, starting from January 2022, trucks arriving at the UK border will face new customs inspection measures. EU food suppliers who want to export their goods to the UK will have to deal with more complicated declaration procedures from July 2022. It is expected to further crack down on British trade activities.

　　In order to alleviate the manpower problem, the Johnson government agreed to provide 5,000 EU truck drivers with short-term visas for three months. The Conservative Party Member Huo Lilin pointed out that granting overseas labor visas when the country’s economy needs it is the UK’s "retake control" practice.

However, the British Retail Association stated that short-term visas can only meet one-third of the number of drivers required by supermarkets before Christmas, which is only a drop in the price of solving the overall shortage of manpower.