Now ports face supply disruption – the government has to get on top of these mounting issues

Editorial: Pandemic-related supply issues are not unique to the UK but we’re the only ones to have imposed trade sanctions on ourselves during a time of unprecedented economic dislocation

(Dave Brown)

The latest disruption to hit the UK is container ships – full of toys and other Christmas-related goods – being diverted away from Felixstowe to dock on the continent because there is no storage space left.

The situation is “improving”, according to Conservative Party chair Oliver Dowden, who has suggested that people should shop as they normally would for Christmas – but more delays, and more gaps on the shelves, are not what Britain needs. The problem now is that the labour shortages at the root of many of the problems in the economy are not going to be solved this winter, or potentially for a number of years to come.

It could become a semi-permanent fact of economic life. For example, if the lorry-driver shortage is ameliorated by attracting workers from similar occupations, then that will merely lead to fresh problems elsewhere – local authority refuse-truck drivers, for example, enticed away like Premier League stars with big transfer fees from the hauliers. Training new staff takes time, and in any case, there are simply not enough young Britons joining the labour force, or older ones coming out of retirement, to satisfy the needs of what was once a dynamic economy.