Huge_Vitae

Polish farmers are warning of an impending crisis due to a shortage of seasonal agricultural workers, many of whom would normally come from Ukraine but are prevented from doing so by current restrictions. Industry groups have appealed to the government for help. Meanwhile, in Poland’s west, many of those who have business or family connections spanning both sides of the borders with Germany and the Czech Republic have also called for regulations to be relaxed. They were given support today by the far right’s presidential candidate, who called on the government to reopen the borders for workers. Threats to the food supply chain “Without seasonal workers it will be impossible to proceed with picking the crops,” warned Jacek Podgórski, director of the Institute of Agricultural Economics, speaking to Radio Maryja. “It might not be worth picking the fruit at all.” Certain crops require swift picking and processing in order preserve the quality of the produce. Without enough seasonal workers to do this, warn producers, the agricultural sector faces billions of zloty in losses and Poland may struggle to maintain its food supply chain, reports Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. The problems will exacerbate existing challenges facing Poland. The country is this year set for one of its worst droughts in over a century. Its consumers are already experiencing some of the highest levels of inflation in the world, driven mainly by rising food prices.

Germany employs a large percentage of foreign seasonal workers on a short-term basis for seasonal crops like asparagus and strawberries. However, the war in Ukraine and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic could affect the flow of such workers this year, with the harvest season just a couple of months away. “In the case of seasonal workers, there is currently considerable uncertainty about the availability of harvest workers from Eastern Europe this summer,” Germany’s farmers’ association, known as DBV, wrote in a position paper on the effects of the Ukraine war. At the same time, the high number of COVID-19 cases continues to be a problem as workers going into quarantine would likely create further losses for the sector. Farms in Austria are also afraid of bottlenecks. According to media reports, many farms are now recruiting workers from Asian countries such as Vietnam. Given the situation, the DBV calls for employment rules to be temporarily relaxed, as was the case during the pandemic. One of the association’s proposals is to extend the time limit for short-term employment.

Each EU country must provide the European Commission with a list of sectors that are dependent on seasonal conditions, such as summer tourism and harvesting of certain crops. In order to be admitted to work in the EU, seasonal workers must submit permit applications including a work contract or a binding job offer specifying pay, working hours and other conditions. They must provide evidence of adequate lodging. Once on the EU territory, workers are entitled to extend their work contract (more than once) or change employer within the maximum permitted stay, provided they meet the entry conditions and no grounds for refusal apply.

The branch of the Italian Farmers’ Association’ Coldiretti’ located in the southern region of Puglia, Italy, has announced that they are facing a shortage of manpower. Through a statement issued on May 13, Association Coldiretti also stressed that Italian agriculture needs at least 100,000 seasonal workers to guarantee summer harvest fields, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports. “It is necessary to speed up the release of the necessary permits to allow non-EU workers, admitted to entry with the flow decree, to be able to arrive in Italy to work in agricultural enterprises as soon as possible,”the statement reads. In addition, compared to 2021, the quotas of workers outside the EU accepted by decree in Italy have increased to 69,000. Of these, the reserved slice for agriculture is 42,000 countries, against which about 100,000 requests have been received. According to the Idos Dossier, which has collaborated with Coldiretti, the presence of foreign workers has become structural in Italian agriculture as one in four agricultural products is harvested in Italy by foreign hands, which represents more than 29 per cent of the total working days needed for this sector. “It is above all of the temporary employees who arrive from abroad and cross the border every year for seasonal work and then return to their country, often establishing lasting professional relationships and friendships with entrepreneurs,” the statement also added. InfoMigrants has also reported that the Puglia branch of Coldiretti has warned that the greatest shortage of manpower in the region’s fields is most noticeable in the cherry and tomato orchards, citing as a result 30,000 “lost working days.” Meanwhile, according to CREA data, the shortage of Italian and foreign farmworkers in the agricultural sector provides an average of 1.2 million jobs. Coldiretti also highlighted that the contribution of migrant workers to Puglia agriculture is particularly important in the harvesting of tomatoes, asparagus, and artichokes. The arrival of foreign workers in the Italian fields would help a lot in saving the harvest and also ensure the supply of food for the population in a particularly difficult time that has been caused by inflation, lack of some products and blocking exports due to the conflict in Ukraine and the resulting trade wars.

I could go on but there are so many positive stories out there either not being reported or reported negatively. The report on the new glass factory on BBC news reports on the planned factory but highlights the fact that lots of lorries will go along the road and it will have a big chimney. Fender brain Clod is not going to stop his demented and false diatribe, the others have all ****ed off elsewhere. Set him to ignore and let this thread die out before more visitors decide to give the forum a miss. Hopefully he can then kill off his remaining brain cell, yes, cell, singular by drinking cheap booze.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has visited Airbus UK Factory today (12th August) along with the Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and Secretary of State for Wales Robert Buckland. The Prime Minister congratulated the Airbus’ wing assembly plant team in Broughton after the good news that four Chinese airlines were ordering 292 aircraft with a list price worth nearly £31 billion. Building on a proud 100-year British aviation heritage, Airbus is part of the very fabric of the UK. Its 12,500-strong UK workforce is part of a global family of 130,000 employees around the world. The company’s factory in Broughton, Flintshire is one of the biggest employers in North Wales with more than 5,000 staff. The factory produces the wings for all Airbus’ aircraft including the A320, A330, A340, A350 and the A380 superjumbo.

In HMRC’s latest release on international trade, they reported that UK goods exports hit their highest-ever level in the second quarter of this year. On Friday (12 Aug 2022) the HMRC, the Office for National Statistics, and the Government, released sets of data about the UK’s trade performance in the first half of 2022. Despite everything, Brexit Britain’s total goods exports in the last quarter (Apr-Jun 2022) reached just under £100bn (£99.8bn). This is the highest level on record. The USA remains by far and away the biggest customer for the UK’s goods, as well as for its services.

The UK is using its post-Brexit powers to launch one of the world’s most generous trading schemes with developing countries today. The International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan has launched the new Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS), which will extend tariff cuts to hundreds of more products exported from developing countries, going further than the EU’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences. This is on top of the thousands of products which developing countries can already export to the UK duty-free [and will mean 99% of goods imported from Africa, for example will enter the UK duty free]. The scheme means that a wide variety of products – from clothes and shoes to foods that aren’t widely produced in the UK including olive oil and tomatoes – will benefit from lower or zero tariffs. The Developing Countries Trading Scheme ensures that British businesses can benefit from more than £750 million per year of reduced import costs, leading to more choice and lower costs for UK consumers to help with the cost of living. Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan said: The DCTS covers 65 countries across Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas including some of the poorest countries in the world. It removes some seasonal tariffs, meaning more options for British supermarkets and shops all year round. For example, cucumbers, which can’t be grown in the UK in the winter, will now be tariff-free during this period for the majority of countries in the scheme. The scheme also simplifies complex trade rules such as rules of origin – the rules dictating what proportion of a product must be made in its country of origin. This makes it easier for businesses like family-owned textile business DBL Group from Bangladesh to export, encouraging developing countries to play a larger role in the global trade community. Mohammed Jabbar Managing Director of DBL Group said: This work is part of a wider push by the UK to drive a free trade, pro-growth agenda across the globe, using trade to drive prosperity and help eradicate poverty. This drive includes a new initiative called Platinum Partnerships, designed to grow trade between the UK and selected lower and middle-income Commonwealth countries and reduce dependency on aid. The partnerships will strengthen two-way green trade and investment, helping countries’ adaptation to climate change. The Prime Minister also recently announced a new Trade Centre of Expertise, which will bring together the best of British expertise to support partner governments, giving them the tools they need to more actively participate in the global trading system.

CiNER Glass factory in Blaenau Gwent is approved. PLANS for a new £390 million glass-making plant in Ebbw Vale which could create more than 1,000 new jobs have beebn given the green light in what has been hailed as “a great day for Blaenau Gwent”. At a meeting of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council’s planning committee today – Thursday, June 16 – councillors approved the proposal by Turkish firm, CiNER Glass Ltd to build a factory making glass containers at the Rassau Industrial Estate on the outskirts of Ebbw Vale, The project is expected to create around 600 highly skilled jobs at the site – with up to 500 more jobs created during the building process. Claims have been made that the factory could support another 1,200 jobs in the supply chain. Rassau and Garnlydan councillor Gareth Alban Davies said that two years ago had been part of a fact-finding mission to one of the company’s factories in Turkey, and spoke in favour of the proposal.

“Data” for you Ken. 17 major new factories are opening here in the UK! These successful companies include Aston Martin, Moog, Britishvolt, Siemens, Johnson Matthey, Ciner, Forterra, Knauf, Envision AESC, Ball, Crown, Swizzels, Pensana, SeAH, Stannah, ITM Power and Rolls-Royce are just some of the manufacturers building new factories in the UK. This is a fantastic start. A further boost to such manufacturing plans and productive activity in post Brexit Britain is set to be initiated by transforming the UK economy through lighter touch regulation: unleashing more enterprise by removing reams for former EU red tape bureaucracy - thereby removing the very impositions which stifles commercial activity and deter and limit business investment.

This is terrible, I hope clod doesn’t get hold of it because there are no excuses for this one…

Project Fact: UK Agrees the World's Most Comprehensive Digital Services Trade Deal With Singapore. The UK Will Benefit as the World’s Number #2 Exporter of Services The UK secured an agreement in principle with Singapore on a ground-breaking Digital Economy Agreement known as DEA. It will capitalise on the UK’s strengths as the World’s second largest Services exporter and leading digital hub. This will provide more opportunities for UK firms to target advanced, tech savvy and rapidly expanding markets in Asia. It will cut costs, slash red tape and pave the way for a new era of trade. It is the first digitally-focused trade agreement ever signed by a European nation. This comprehensive digital trade deal was agreed in record time by International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan and Singapore Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations S. Iswaran after just six months of negotiations. The DEA will take the UK’s trading relationship with Singapore – worth £16 billion in 2020 – to the next level by overhauling outdated trade rules that affect both goods and services exporters, making it easier for UK business to target new opportunities in both Singapore and lucrative Asian markets. Services companies will be the big winners, from financial and telecoms giants like Standard Chartered or BT Group to software companies like Wales-based Awen Collective. The deal will boost a sector that adds £151 billion to the economy and lifts wages, with workers in the digital economy earning around 50% more than the UK average. UK-founded tech unicorns are being created at a rate of almost one a week, and more will now be able to follow in the footsteps of British companies like Revolut, Darktrace and Checkout.com, which are already thriving in Singapore. Singapore is a gateway to the wider Indo-Pacific region and the DEA will support our bid to join Singapore and 10 other nations in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Membership would mean access to a £8.4 trillion free trade area with vast opportunities for UK business

It was “one of his mates” that had all the evidence.

That’s funny Ant, pour yourself a pint of ice cold “Heinz beer beans!”

Apples and Pears.

There’s no knocking Clod at the moment, he’s feeling really smug and pleased with himself. He’s heard there's a distinct possibility of a hosepipe ban in Yorkshire and thanks to a “cunning plan” he’s not going to be affected like those idiots down South…

And let’s not forget the sheer brilliance and outstanding thought process behind a **** who thinks the increase in chicken prices in India is due to Brexit! Hilarious.

Contrary to this position I suppose he thinks that someone who thinks “Mountain Oysters” (testicles) is seafood is a rocket scientist!

Bloody hilarious, People who say “Whitby Scampi” are thick. By his own beloved EU rules Whitby Seafoods Scampi point of origin is “Whitby Yorkshire.” No such thing as Whitby Scampi? Perhaps he ought to complain to the EU gods, oh wait, he can’t because we have left the EU. Too hard for you to understand?

There’s literally a shed load of similar deals Ant, I’ve just come back from a few weeks in Cyprus, used my phone a few times for taxis etc, data for directions and all that stuff, didn’t pay a penny because my service provider has a fair usage policy, the same policy that is applicable to the whole of the EU, ‘We’ve’ been through all of this before years ago. If you live in the EU and travel to another EU state you do not pay roaming charges PROVIDED you keep to the fair usage policy dictated by your PROVIDER, NOT the EU. If you do not keep to the terms the EU sets the maximum that can be charged. Currently I think €2 per GB. My charge, being a resident of the U.K. roaming in the EU is different it’s 10p per MB in excess of the fair usage policy. Apples and Pears. My main concern with it all is, thirty odd years ago I started visiting the same hotel in Cyprus, there was a phone in the room but no phones around the pool or in the bar. Now almost everybody around the pool and at the bar is on the bloody phone ffs. Why, most of the stories before the roaming charge block of people paying loads of cash was for idiots downloading Eastenders or whatever, perhaps understandable in the 80’s when a VHS tape only lasted 3 hours but ffs, go on holiday, chill, eat & drink why oh why sit at the pool on your phone? Anyone with a reasonable amount of sense can work out the cheapest or most cost effective way of doing things, the likes of Martin Lewis are there to protect the thick from their own stupidity and to make himself money. If the stories are right the EU is targeting the Dairy Industry in Holland, the Fishing Industry in Ireland and now the beef industry there as well for termination. I would rather be forced to pay £2 or £10 for a months roaming, even though I wouldn’t because there are ways around it than be forced to kowtow to the EU and still get butt ****ed whilst I’m bent over. But there again a bloke who thinks there are forty new ferry routes to Ireland has probably had the common sense shagged out of him already. Perhaps the new routes can be escorted by HMS 7 which is still in service. Anyone for a nice plate of testicles. Might be some environmental bonus from the EU actions, will save those fishing boats being out at sea whilst still tied up to the docks with fifty mile long ropes. Better be careful, no, not the dark alleyways this time, we all have to take care because Lewis might be more clever than us. But then again, some would say that ALL of those problems are insignificant when you consider the price of chicken in India.

Definitely, perhaps the reason for the ‘huge surge’ in illegal immigration over the last few weeks. Also far less damage to roads from vehicles that contribute nothing to our economy other than the odd yorkie bar and a good few plastic bottles filled with **** on verges. However, the bit I saw is false, you expected that from Clod info anyway didn’t you.

I don’t care about big data as long as it serves a beneficial purpose (to me) BUT I do worry where it stops. Currently sick to death of the “data protection act” being quoted as an excuse not to do anything when the lack of assistance causes the “protected person” to suffer. Most people now don’t give a **** it seems. I remember back in the 90’s when BT decided to replace the old red telephone boxes with new three sided booths similar to airports. Public outcry, ‘people will be able to listen in on conversations’ etc, etc. Thirty years later it’s become ‘acceptable’ and you get to hear conversations, people walking down the street and in pubs, shops etc, jibbering away everywhere even if you don’t want to. I signed up to allow any medical professionals to access my entire medical records simply because there is a risk to me if I’m put in an MRI scanner (unconscious?) Imagine my surprise when I change GP and two years later my GP has no idea about this danger because some admin assistant doesn’t realise the importance of a piece of information so doesn’t add it to the details. To go on from both of these points the intention becomes for us all to have a crypto currency debit card to assist with global citizenship, I don’t want to say I live on Earth, I don’t want to be European, ffs I don’t even want to be associated with ‘the north island’ I certainly don’t want any government global, national or local even to know what money I have and what I spend it on, and definitely not tell me when and where I can spend it! That post was, again, tongue-in-cheek but it’s an indication of where it’s going.

A man calls Pizza hut to order a pizza... CALLER: Is this Pizza Hut? GOOGLE: No sir, it's Google Pizza. CALLER: I must have dialed a wrong number, sorry. GOOGLE: No sir, Google bought Pizza Hut last month. CALLER: OK. I would like to order a pizza. GOOGLE: Do you want your usual, sir? CALLER: My usual? You know me? GOOGLE: According to our caller ID data sheet, the last 12 times you called you ordered an extra-large pizza with three cheeses, sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms and meatballs on a thick crust. CALLER: Super! That’s what I’ll have. GOOGLE: May I suggest that this time you order a pizza with ricotta, arugula, sun-dried tomatoes and olives on a whole wheat gluten-free thin crust? CALLER: What? I don’t want a vegetarian pizza! GOOGLE: Your cholesterol is not good, sir. CALLER: How do you know that? GOOGLE: Well, we cross-referenced your home phone number with your medical records. We have the result of your blood tests for the last 7 years. CALLER: Okay, but I do not want your rotten vegetarian pizza! I already take medication for my cholesterol. GOOGLE: Excuse me sir, but you have not taken your medication regularly. According to our database, you purchased only a box of 30 cholesterol tablets once at Lloyds Pharmacy, 4 months ago. CALLER: I bought more from another Pharmacy. GOOGLE: That doesn’t show on your credit card statement. CALLER: I paid in cash. GOOGLE: But you did not withdraw enough cash according to your bank statement. CALLER: I have other sources of cash. GOOGLE: That doesn’t show on your latest tax returns unless you bought them using an undeclared income source, which is against the law! CALLER: WHAT THE !!! GOOGLE: I'm sorry sir, we use such information only with the sole intention of helping you. CALLER: Enough already! I'm sick to death of Google, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and all the others. I'm going to an island without the internet, TV, where there is no phone service and no one to watch me or spy on me. GOOGLE: I understand sir, but you need to renew your passport first. It expired 6 weeks ago...

An apposite letter in the Daily Telegraph Today SIR – Following the lead of David Frost (Comment, August 5) and Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (Business, August 5), we must ask how we can continue in an environment where activists insist that we can escape the current energy crisis simply by using less electricity. We must ask how money to help those in poverty can be provided by an economy that has collapsed because there is no electricity available. The answer, of course, is that it can’t; more lives are likely to be lost due to starvation than are likely to be lost as a result of global warming. The electricity industry will continue to justify its actions by blaming us for using too much power, rather than putting its own house in order. This cynical approach is illustrated by the almost indecent pressure that is being put on us to have smart meters. When energy rationing begins, as it shortly will, suppliers will be able to control your smart meter to provide electricity at peak times, and at a vastly inflated premium. This can be done on an individual basis, so saving the need for whole areas to be cut off at peak demand times, as well as providing an extra source of revenue. Those of us with old, conventional meters cannot be controlled in this way. Professor R G Faulkner Loughborough, Leicestershire

I don’t talk or post for that ****’s benefit. I post for the benefit of others who read but don’t comment other than contacting me direct which becomes tedious at times. I would sooner spend time on the doorstep discussing religion with Jehovah Witnesses and that’s something that will never happen all the time my favourite game remains playable, race the German Shepherd to the garden gate, my favourite sport of all time.