"God Help Us" - British Army Readied In Case Of Hard Brexit
29
July, 2018
Just
as was extremely evident prior to the actual vote in
2016, scaremongering around
Brexit (deal or no deal) is escalating among the cognoscenti or
desperate Remain 'told you so'-ers.
Britain's
Sunday Times reports that UK
ministers have drawn up plans to send in the army to deliver food,
medicines and fuel in the event of shortages if Britain crashes out
of the EU without a deal.
Blueprints
for the armed forces to assist the civilian authorities, usually used
only in civil emergencies, have been dusted down as part of the "no
deal" planning, with helicopters
and army trucks used to ferry supplies to vulnerable people outside
the southeast who were struggling to obtain the medicines they
needed.
However,
as ominous as this sounds, The
Sunday Times admits -
a number of paragraphs into their "Army
on standby for no-deal Brexit emergency" story
- that a
source inside the Ministry of Defense said they have not yet received
"a formal request" to assist the civilian authorities.
And
while desperate
not to have this positioned as the work of "Project
Fear', pro-EU
opposition MP David Lammy took aim at the news on Twitter
saying: "God,
help us. This is not coming from Remainers. This is not project fear.
Pro-Brexit Ministers are drawing up blueprints for the army to
deliver food, fuel and medicine if we leave the EU with no
deal," adding
his own touch of hysteria... "We have a duty to prevent this
self-immolation."
God, help us. This is not coming from Remainers. This is not project fear. Pro-Brexit Ministers are drawing up blueprints for the army to deliver food, fuel and medicine if we leave the EU with no deal. We have a duty to prevent this self-immolation.thetimes.co.uk/article/army-o…
However, as
RT notes, the former
Brexit secretary David Davis,
who resigned from the position earlier this month over his
dissatisfaction with a possible soft Brexit deal, dismissed
the story as an attempt to scare people in order to secure a Free
Trade Agreement “which
will tank the economy.”
The plan of scaring the crap out of people with no deal horror stories in order to make an FTA which will tank the economy look like a good deal is beginning to work.thetimes.co.uk/article/army-o…
Talk
of shortages of food and medicines in the wake of a possible no-deal
has come to the fore recently, with NHS bosses planning to stockpile
key drugs and blood supplies in the event the service has to go on a
permanent winter-crisis footing.
Supermarkets,
meanwhile have told suppliers to make plans for a no-deal which could
see them stockpile
goods such a tea and coffee for periods much longer than normal.
Britain
is relying on a bit of wartime spirit in the event of it crashing out
of the European Union. It could get messy.
Brexit
campaigners have long urged Prime Minister Theresa May’s
government to do more to prepare for a no-deal departure from the
European Union. They said it would bolster her negotiating position
by making threats to walk out more credible.
Brexit
campaigners have long urged Prime Minister Theresa May’s government
to do more to prepare for a no-deal departure from the European
Union. They said it would bolster her negotiating position by making
threats to walk out more credible
Now
the government is stepping up its efforts, but the details are a
reminder of just how precarious a position Britain is in rather than
any show of strength.
The
plan is to get the message across to companies and citizens through
the summer. It might also help focus the minds of lawmakers in the
fall when May asks them to approve the divorce deal she strikes with
Brussels—or risk the prospect of legal limbo and a hit to the
economy.
Stockpiling
Drugs and Blood
Health
Secretary Matt Hancock said on Tuesday the government is working to
make sure medical supplies won’t run out. “We are working right
across government to ensure that the health sector and the industry
are prepared,” he said. “This includes the chain of medical
supplies, vaccines, medical devices, clinical consumables, blood
products.”
U.S.
pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. is also planning for the
possibility of a temporary supply blackout, and may stockpile as much
as six months worth of goods, Bloomberg reported in June. The
contingency plans include factoring in as much as two extra days of
travel on routes between U.K. and EU destinations to allow for delays
caused by border checks.
Food
No-deal
is a problem for food supplies because checks at ports—both for
customs and regulations—could slow down deliveries and cause
bottlenecks. Restrictions on free movement of labor could also have
an impact on farmers’ ability to grow and harvest food.
Brexit
Secretary Dominic Raab indicated on Tuesday that plans are being made
to stockpile food, but it’s not the government itself that’s
doing it. He also tried to offer some reassurance that Britain gets
its food from lots of places beside the EU.
The
government’s own documents say 70 percent of agri-food imports come
from the bloc. J Sainsbury Plc warned in March that closing the
borders just for a few days would result in “a food crisis the
likes of which we haven’t seen.”
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