overnment ministers may insist it is \u201cwrong\u201d to blame Brexit for Britain\u2019s fuel, food and labour shortages, but for the rest of Europe \u2013 and beyond \u2013 there is only one reason why the UK\u2019s crisis is so very much worse than anywhere else\u2019s.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cOne is tempted to tell the British: \u2018You have only yourselves to blame,\u2019\u201d said Gabi Kostorz on ARD\u2019s Tagesthemen, a leading German news show. \u201cWe tried to talk you out of it, but you decided otherwise. Now you have to face the consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Der Spiegel agreed, saying the UK had left the EU \u201cto \u2018regain control\u2019\u201d but now, when the promised post-pandemic economic upswing should be beginning, seemed to be experiencing \u201cthe exact opposite: an unprecedented loss of control.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps the sharpest outside view of Britain\u2019s woes came, however, in a New Yorker cartoon. \u201cThe shortages are all British made and British owned,\u201d Boris Johnson is shown as saying. \u201cAnd that\u2019s something we can be incredibly proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Britain was suffering more than most from global supply chain problems mainly because EU workers had left and strict Brexit immigration rules meant no more could now come in, Der Spiegel said, creating labour shortages \u201ceverywhere where the work is hard, dirty and poorly paid\u201d.<\/p>\n
Economically isolated, the country faces \u201can autumn of discontent for which Brexit is not the only reason, but a key one\u201d, it said. \u201cThe government, however, insists none of this has anything to do with leaving the EU, sticking defiantly to its Brexit success story \u2013 even if its statements are getting more and more bizarre.\u201d<\/p>\n
ARD\u2019s Kostorz concurred. Oddly, she said, for the British government Brexit \u201cis just not among the possible causes. It\u2019s \u2018Don\u2019t mention the B word.\u2019\u201d For ministers and for much of the media, \u201cresponsibility lies anywhere but with themselves\u201d.<\/p>\n
The S\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung also agreed the most evident shortage \u2013 of 100,000 HGV drivers \u2013 was not solely a consequence of Brexit. But by introducing a short-term visa scheme for foreign drivers, it said, the government had \u201cbasically admitted that exiting the EU was a decisive factor in the supply crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n
Moreover, it would never work. \u201cWhy would a Romanian or Bulgarian truck driver come to the UK? They are also wanted in Germany, Belgium and elsewhere,\u201d the paper asked, describing the expectation that \u201ccheap labour from eastern Europe will save Christmas at the push of a button, and then disappear again\u201d as \u201cshameful\u201d.<\/p>\n
Boris Johnson\u2019s bet, the paper said, was that Brexit would show Britain was \u201cin control of its borders\u201d and that wages would rise. But if Britons cannot fill up their cars or roast a Christmas turkey, he \u201cwill have to find an answer to the question of why there are no shortages in France or Germany\u201d.<\/p>\n
It would be wrong, the New York Times also insisted, to blame a global crisis solely on Brexit. But, it said, there were \u201cBrexit-specific causes that are indisputable\u201d. This was not, it added, the first trade disruption to hit Britain since it left the single market \u2013 remember the shellfish producers? \u2013 but it was \u201cthe first post-Brexit crisis that has not been masked by the effects of the coronavirus\u201d.<\/p>\n
Significantly, it was also \u201cgeographically selective\u201d, with no reports of panic buying in Northern Ireland, which has an open border with an EU member state. Nonetheless, \u201cthe Brexiteers invariably find other culprits for bad news\u201d, the paper said, and much of the UK media were more concerned by \u201cthe government\u2019s competence in dealing with the crisis\u201d than the \u201cstructural hurdles imposed by Britain\u2019s new status\u201d.<\/p>\n
CNN\u2019s analysis was also that Britain was suffering much more than most countries \u201cbecause of Brexit \u2013 or specifically, the form of Brexit pursued by the UK government, which introduced stringent immigration policies and took Britain out the EU market for goods, making it much harder for British companies to hire EU workers and much more costly for them to do business with the UK\u2019s single biggest trading partner\u201d.<\/p>\n
It did not have to be this way, the US broadcaster said: \u201cWorker shortages, for example, were not an inevitable outcome of Brexit. But the UK\u2019s post-Brexit immigration system was designed to reduce the numbers of unskilled workers coming to Britain.\u201d Unfortunately, \u201cover four decades of EU membership, many sectors had come to rely on a steady inflow of labour\u201d.<\/p>\n
Spain\u2019s El Pa\u00eds highlighted the absurdity of the government\u2019s \u201creluctance to accept that Brexit has anything to do with the fuel crisis\u201d, while simultaneously offering temporary visas to the very workers Brexit prevents from returning; and the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant said that for many, the whole sorry situation showed the \u201cmadness of stepping out of the single market, with its free movement of goods and people\u201d.<\/p>\n
In France, Le Monde blamed a recent sharp deterioration in Anglo-French relations \u2013 over fishing rights, and the Aukus security pact \u2013 squarely on the British government\u2019s fast-growing, self-inflicted and largely Brexit-induced problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo conceal his own difficulties, the British prime minister is multiplying his attacks on Paris \u2026 as part of an attempt to justify the UK\u2019s divorce from the EU and underline its alleged benefits,\u201d the paper said. \u201cAnd he is not short of domestic problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
Due mainly to the \u201cnationalist retreat of Brexit, which denies visas to EU workers, the shortage of truck drivers is hitting the supply of petrol stations and supermarkets\u201d, it said. \u201cThe PM, trapped by the isolation Britain voted for in 2016 but which he has exacerbated by his chaotic short-termism, is looking for scapegoats.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lib\u00e9ration agreed: \u201cHundreds of thousands of drivers, farmhands, waiters, plumbers and even doctors working in Britain on non-EU passports have left, with no intention of returning,\u201d it said in an editorial. \u201cThe shortages are getting worse week by week.\u201d<\/p>\n
So should France accede to Johnson\u2019s request earlier this month to \u201cdonnez-moi un break\u201d? \u201cGo boil an egg, Boris,\u201d Lib\u00e9ration replied, a French expression meaning \u201cleave me alone\u201d. At least, \u201cif you can find any eggs in the local supermarket\u201d.<\/p>\n
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