/ world today news/ Fears of possible disruptions in the supply of food and essential goods from the EU to Great Britain in connection with the new rules for trade between them do not seem to have materialized: in Dover, England, giant traffic jams are not forming, reports France 24. In the meantime, as the journalist emphasizes, to imagine what the situation will be like in real conditions, you will have to wait for the weekdays – and many local residents are in a “gloomy” mood.
And now let’s go to the English port city of Dover, where our correspondent Catherine Norris Trent is now. So Catherine, were the fears of long delivery delays and long lines on January 1 finally justified?
CATHERINE NORRIS TRENT, withtarshi correspondent on France 24: Good morning Laura! I dare say that at the moment with freight in Dover everything is very calm and smooth. Another a ferry has just arrived at the port behind me – the busiest ferry port in Europe. We were also informed that trucksthem also leave for Europe, including through the Channel Tunnel.
So, so far so good. But it’s worth noting that the flow of cars today is very light: January 1st here in the UK is an official bank holiday and immediately after that will be Saturday and Sunday, so to get an idea of what this will all look like in real life, you have to wait until next week. To make it clearer how quiet everything is today, I will tell you that in the last hours of 2020 there were only 450 applications for special permits for lorries to travel to Kent, the county where Dover is located. On January 1, only 450 such applications were submitted – meanwhile, at peak times, up to 10,000 lorries a day pass through Dover. So today is not a normal day, but so far everything is going smoothly.
Many businesses have been stockpiling ahead of the end of the Brexit transition in a bid to avoid chaos and make the most of the final days of free trade between the UK and the EU. Other companies, however, have decided to hold off and see how things play out.
So, so far everything is going well, but there is a serious caveat: to see how everything will actually be, you have to wait a few days.
Sure. And the residents of the region are probably expecting a lot – after all, any changes in the future will affect them too. What did people say to you, Catherine?
CATHERINE NORRIS TRENT: I’ve spoken to the people of Dover and they’re all – whether they support Brexit or not – bracing for more lorry queues, although they’re hoping things won’t be as bad as they were in December.
Locals are very divided when it comes to attitudes to Brexit, and when you ask people living on the coast what they think about Brexit and what will happen next, that divide becomes apparent. People who supported leaving the EU – 62% of residents in Dover made that choice in the 2016 referendum – say there are likely to be problems and disruptions, but they will have to be dealt with somehow. Remainers – those who opposed Brexit – admit they expect chaos and are generally gloomy about the whole situation. To find out which of them is right, you have to wait.
But all our interlocutors agreed that Britain has no real chance of rejoining the European Union in the near future.
With reporting from Dover, England – Catherine Norris Trent. Thank you very much!
Translation: M.Zhelyazkova
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