Category: Brexit

Spiral season 7 – another team management masterclass…

It looked like bad timing – Spiral season 7 appears on BBC4 just as le Royaume-Uni (ou peut-être Grand-Bretagne…) is about to leave Europe.

But it seems Brits will have a few more months to make use of any new French swear words, before La Manche becomes an impassable divide. And plenty of time to reflect on another team management masterclass. Once again we have an impressive range of examples covering team dynamics, leadership skills, information sharing between teams to achieve joint goals, ethical behaviour across a range of professions, child care etc.

So far Spiral season 7 (ou Engrenages saison 7, si tu préfères) has very much lived up to expectations. A top quality drama – very sharply plotted, well acted and with the usual selection of entirely avoidable crises in case there was any risk of things getting boring. Plus a certain amount of violent crime and social commentary.

On the BBC  iPlayer until early December, definitely worth catching.

 

BBC Four – Spiral, Launch Trailer: Spiral Series 7
Berthaud and Gilou are brought back together for more criminal investigations in Paris.

Cocktail sausage wranglers

One critical skill shortage we’ve not heard so much about is cocktail sausage wranglers… There’s been a lot of coverage about doctors and nurses, but the impact of fewer European meat processing workers in the UK had been ignored.

According to this article “the meat industry is trying to juggle” so perhaps it’s not surprising that wrapping individual sausages in bacon rashers is proving tricky. And according to YouGov, the absence of pigs in blankets would be “a disaster” for 61% of British people (that’s right, “a disaster”).

The working environment is making it hard to attract workers, apparently – cold, in remote rural areas and full of dead animals. The chap from the Meat Processing Association didn’t actually mention that last bit – presumably some candidates might be put off. The Guardian coverage of this issue refers to glazed hams but I can’t find any details about a shortage of ham glazers.

There have been a string of contradictory food related stories recently – UK storage facilities would be absolutely full of nothing but seasonal food by November, so no-deal would mean Xmas literally coming early; The Caterer was warning about a shortage of turkeys (rather than “one turkey too many” as  I recall we were being told in 2016); and then turkeys being given the vote for Christmas, or something like that. Hopefully everything will become clearer in December.

 

 

Threat of Brexit could mean no pigs in blankets this Christmas
The threat of Brexit is leading to shortage of pigs in blankets at Christmas, despite a poll finding a majority believe it is an integral part of a festive dinner.

The Other Other Ferry Operation

Nearly 50 years on, the story of the Piranha Brothers is still relevant – inspiring, even. After real slots on notional ferries and notional slots on real ferries, The Other Other Ferry Operation could be a turning point… 

Ministers had argued that actual bookings (as opposed to options) were not required because the ferries wouldn’t be very busy in November. And if a significant number of lorries were e.g. stuck in France waiting to get through le douane, then the ferries would be even less busy than usual.

It could also be argued that if every warehouse in the UK is already full of Brussels sprouts, frozen turkeys and biodegradable tinsel in November, there would be nowhere to put any more imported stuff anyway. So actually booking expensive ferry slots might represent poor value for money for the British taxpayer (always uppermost in the mind of everyone involved in this exercise).

But this approach is definitely not a cheap way to create the illusion of actually doing something.  Or anything to do with UK Government embarrassment about being taken to court and ending up £33m in the hole after the last attempt. (Although apparently if Eurotunnel don’t spend the money on improving their facilities it will be clawed back, somehow.)

So it will all work out brilliantly in the end, just like the Berlin Airlift (and not anything like the Luftwaffe attempting to resupply Stalingrad by air).

No-deal Brexit vital freight carriers shortlisted

No deal would literally make Christmas come early

No deal B****t would literally make Christmas come early for British consumers. However, thanks to the whole ‘good news is no news’ mindset, this heartwarming story has been buried or somehow given a negative spin. Is it any wonder that people don’t trust the media these days?

Any salad or yoghurt shortages would be insignificant as the UK tucks in early to much-loved Christmas fare (other seasonal holdays are available).

And the sense of warmth and well-being from an extended festive season would inevitably boost collective health – much better than flu vaccine. Not that there is any risk of medical supplies running short, of course.

After some suitably alarming surprises on Halloween, the prolonged festivites would let everyone slide gently into December, before rising to the exciting challenges of the New Year. And if anyone finds the C-word difficult, spreading Yuletide stress over two months has got to be better than cramming it into one intense week.