A few months ago, KFC changed its logistics provider that organised its deliveries of chicken. It went horribly wrong and, for week after week after week, the store had no chicken to sell its customers in the vast majority of its UK stores. It was an abject disaster – a chicken restaurant with no chicken – unless you were predominantly a fan of that mini corn on the cob. Even then, you need something to go with it.
That was one company having problems with one other company, and it was chaos. However, come the date of Britain’s ‘divorce’ from the EU next year, every company in this country could have to renegotiate its contracts with every company abroad, especially if the government can’t come to an agreement with the EU and we end up with what has been dubbed a ‘no deal Brexit’. The Brexit we are approaching is to pit every business and every organisation in the country against a lack of preparedness and failure to negotiate with Europe and will potentially leave every contract up for debate.
Do you run a deli and get specialist food from Switzerland and Germany? Good luck with dealing with those contracts when everything has to be renewed.
Do your drivers carry your product across the EU? Just wait until the UK driving licence has no validity in the European Union.
Do you run an English language school? I hope your European students can get into the country without so much palaver that they go to Dublin or New York instead.
The government has already warned that there may be food shortages in the event of a no-deal Brexit (though they chillingly promise that stockpiles of food will ensure that there are ‘adequate’ supplies), and that people in the EU with UK bank accounts could face problems. Similarly, mobile phone roaming charges and credit card charges could soar for people travelling or buying online from abroad, and foreign food that does make it across the border could cost considerably more than we are used to.
But the problems with the approaching European ‘divorce’ goes beyond businesses because we are all affected on a daily basis by the organisations around us, and not just the ones we interact with. Most of us have no idea of the logistics that go into getting a loaf of bread onto our corner shop’s shelves or petrol into the petrol pumps, we just need them to be there when we want them and I suspect we will be taking it all rather less for granted as Brexit dawns.
And a lack of food or energy or clothing is a pretty scary thought, but nothing fills me with dread quite like the prospective shortage of medication that a no-deal Brexit might bring. Even a Brexit with a deal could be faced with obstacles as we adjust to new conditions, but without a deal, it could very well be carnage. The government has advised drug companies to stock up on six weeks’ worth of stock, but even that seems to me to be rather underestimating what we could need.
Earlier this year, three of my regular medications were suddenly impossible to get hold of. As a disabled person who takes a truck load of meds at times, this had never happened to me before, and suddenly I was having to telephone pharmacies across the city to try and source the meds I so needed. One month, I ended up with the best that one pharmacy could offer me: I needed 450mg a day of a particular drug, and they could only source 25mg tablets. Every day, I swallowed handful after handful of 25mg tablets to make up my dose, and I was lucky I was able to get hold of those.
Two of the three drugs came back onto the market, the other has never been seen since, without any kind of confirmation from the drug company that anything is wrong. Thankfully, that was the easiest for me to substitute with an alternative.
It was a frightening time, and the prospect of facing it again with some or all of the medication I rely on to stay well is keeping me up at night. I’m not diabetic, but I do know that no insulin is manufactured in the UK, it all comes in from abroad, so diabetics are panicking that if imports are impaired, they will be in trouble. Life-threatening trouble. I do not know the status of every pharmaceutical drug, but we are a small country who has had great relations with Europe for many years, and so has not had to worry about whether we make it whether it’s made in France or Poland instead.
Disabled people could experience relapses, unbearable pain, worsening symptoms, withdrawal symptoms or even threats to their lives if the issue of medication and Brexit is not solved far in advance. We can’t all stockpile what we need, because that will just bring the problem forward, so the government has to take full responsibility for working with drug companies and coming to a decent Brexit agreement (or, please god, taking control and cancelling the whole thing).
Photo: Ed Everett/Creative Commons