It must be awful being part of the gridlock at Dover this weekend as holidaymakers try to flee to France. There have been delays of 14 hours for many people which must be particularly horrendous as the sun, for once, has been shining in Britain. But let’s not be kidding ourselves that this situation is going to be a one-off. Things can only get worse.
With Britain leaving the EU, we know that free movement is going to be off the agenda. We will no longer be in the EU lines at border controls, it is quite likely that we might need to obtain visas for the countries we visit, more than one if we cross European borders. Far from speeding things up, things will only get slower. However, we as a country knew this was coming if we voted to leave the EU so we can have no complaints.
Add to additional travel bureaucracy the extra security provisions that have been brought in following the atrocities in France. I don’t see the terror situation changing perhaps in our entire lifetimes so don’t forget to add an hour or so to your travel time for terrorist considerations.
And then consider the public spending cuts we voted for at the last General Election. We nod our heads enthusiastically when the chancellor says we need to “live within our means” and “cut out waste” but the Daily Mail and the Sun never tell us that what they call waste is what we call frontline public sector workers. Frontline public sector workers like border and immigration staff and police officers. It is true that many of the problems have been attributed to shortages in the French immigration system, but that is far from being the full story. Our government is at fault too, the one we voted for.
So, with increased post EU bureaucracy in terms of travelling, the growing threat of terrorism and public spending cuts (and just remember we are not even halfway through George Osborne’s austerity cuts), we have a cocktail named chaos, two thirds of which is entirely self-inflicted, one third is international terrorism.
The message could be “We told you do” but that would just be rubbing salt into open wounds (even though it’s true). Instead, we can safely say “Get used to it” because increasing difficulties with travel are going to get much, much worse in the years to come. As Bachman Turner Overdrive once said, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet”.
