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UK Retailers Urge Government To Ensure Food Supplies As French Border Shut
UK Retailers Urge Government To Ensure Food Supplies As French Border Shut
British retailers have urged the government to make an urgent effort to prevent prolonged suspension of cross-Channel transport, which they say would disrupt supplies of fresh produce to UK consumers.
To prevent the spread of a new, more transmissible variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus from the UK, the French government suspended all travel from the UK for 48 hours from 11 p.m. on Sunday night (midnight Paris time), including travel linked to goods transport by road, air, sea, or rail.
Sainsbury’s, one of the UK’s biggest supermarkets, urged the UK and French governments to work together to ensure food supplies to the UK market over the Christmas holidays.
It said it had plenty of food items in stock for Christmas, and was also sourcing products in the UK and looking into alternative transport for products sourced from Europe.
However, “if nothing changes, we will start to see gaps over the coming days on lettuce, some salad leaves, cauliflowers, broccoli and citrus fruit—all of which are imported from the Continent at this time of year,” it said in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times.
“We hope the UK and French governments can come to a mutually agreeable solution that prioritises the immediate passage of produce and any other food at the ports.”
UK business groups have also raised concerns to the government.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said the border closure “poses difficulties for UK capacity to import and export key goods during the busy Christmas period.”
“While goods can enter from France, few haulage firms will be willing to send trucks and drivers across to the UK without a guarantee they can return to the EU in a timely manner,” Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the BRC, said in a statement.
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Russia To Close All Borders Monday After Banning International Flights
Russia To Close All Borders Monday After Banning International Flights
Though official numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases out of Russia have remained comparatively low to other large countries, there’s alarming signals coming out of the country of some 150 million people that authorities understand the true numbers to in reality be much higher.
Russia will “temporarily” initiate a complete shutdown of its borders staring Monday in order to curb the pandemic, impacting all automobile, railway, pedestrian and river checkpoints along all Russian border points.
The total border closure looks to be among the most comprehensive measures any country has yet taken to halt the spread of the virus, even as China has belatedly closed its borders to all foreign passport-holders this week.
This after on Friday it was announced all international flights in and out of the country are grounded by a government decree.
“The authorities said they so far had recorded 1,264 confirmed cases, an increase of 228 in 24 hours, and ordered that all vehicle, rail and pedestrian checkpoints, as well as the country’s maritime borders, be closed from Monday,” the independent Moscow Times reports.
The only exemption to the drastic measure applies to diplomats and drivers of freight trucks, according to Russian media.
Meanwhile, according to US state-funded Radio Free Europe, “a consumer watchdog reported on March 28 that more than 166,000 citizens were under medical supervision for signs of coronavirus infection.”
Early in the crisis Russia closed all crossing points along its lengthy border with China, which health officials in the West attributed to the country’s initial low numbers of Covid-19 infections.
This past week Russian President Putin declared next week a paid ‘work holiday’ as the entire country goes on lockdown. Most countries have thus far preferred to put in place quarantines on a city by city, region by region basis.
Should the drastic Russian action to shutter all borders produce good results, other countries with a growing outbreak crisis in their midst could follow suit.
When Trust Evaporates
When Trust Evaporates
I thought I’d compare the current Wuhan zombie apocalypse bat virus to that of SARS and see what is similar this time around…and what is not.
Now, I’m not going to get into which virus wins the “I killed more faster”, (thus far, it was SARS with a fatality rate of 9.6% vs 2.8%). Or which is more infectious (SARS again, though Coronavirus can spread while still incubating). Or join the silly debate of whether we should eat bats (they carry the disease, so ummm…NO). Rather, I’m going to focus on what’s been different in terms of the reaction globally…and why this is important. Because let’s face it, statistically, you’re still far more likely to be killed by some dolt crossing the centerline while watching his Insta feed…and nobody is running around like headless chickens screaming…don’t drive, don’t drive.
The Difference This Time
When SARS arrived on our doorsteps, the world’s response was one of cooperation, collaboration and a concerted effort to help our fellow man.
This time, the geopolitical world is completely different. We’re going into this at a time when trade wars have been ignited, Europe is fragmenting (Brexit, EU disharmony) US political polarisation is really something to behold. That’s bad enough, but there is an accelerating sense of distrust between countries at a political level and of institutions by the public at a private level.
All of these factors combined explain why it is that amongst other things…
Russia, Mongolia and North Korea have closed their land borders with China, and even HK has restricted their border. Flights in and out of mainland China have been cancelled indefinitely, with planes arriving from China landing in many countries only to be told…no way buddy back you go.
Who’s To Blame?
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