Matthew Lynn

Don’t blame Brexit for the Dover chaos

(Photo: Getty)

Queues stretching back for several hours. Children going crazy in the back seat. Cars breaking down in the heat, and holidays thrown into chaos by delays at the terminal. Anyone who imagined that they were making their lives easier by avoiding the airports and driving to continental Europe this summer will have had a nasty surprise. The ferries are just as bad, with a major incident declared at Dover as cars were snarled up in long jams. And yet, at the risk of disappointing hard core Remainers, that turns out to have nothing to do with Brexit – and a lot to do with French incompetence.

In fact, the delays have been caused by a shortage of French border guards

It would be easy to blame our departure from the European Union for the chaos at Dover this weekend. After all, were we not warned that leaving would make traveling to Europe a lot harder? We would be right at the back of the queue with the Bolivians and the Aussies.

Written by
Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a financial columnist and author of ‘Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis’ and ‘The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031’

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