Comment: And those supply chains were brought to this 'edge' by our governments' actions. There is no shortage of food in the UK...
Britain's food supply chains are "right on the edge of failing" as absence related to COVID-19 has aggravated a critical shortage of labour, a meat industry body said on Wednesday.
The British Meat Processors' Association (BMPA) said the shortage of skills was so critical, some plants had reported vacancies of 10% to 16% of permanent positions, discounting the impact of the pandemic. BMPA CEO Nick Allen said:
"On top of the underlying worker shortage, we're also hearing from some members that between 5% and 10% of their workforce have been 'pinged' by the (health service) app and asked to self-isolate."The shortage of workers affected the meat products that require more labour to produce, he said, meaning those lines would be the first to be cut.
On Monday, England's car plants, railways, supermarkets and pubs warned the government that the COVID-19 tracing app, which has told hundreds of thousands of workers to isolate, was wrecking the recovery and pushing supply chains to the brink of collapse.
Alerts, or "pings", from the official app telling anyone identified as a contact of someone with the disease to self-isolate for 10 days have also disrupted schools and the healthcare system.
Comment: Shortages are the next control mechanism. It won't matter how healthy we are. So, is this down to sheer incompetence, or is there intention behind this?