This weekend's peak holiday travel season kicked off with massive traffic gridlock at the port of Dover to travel by ferry to France. Because of COVID, this was the first major test of new travel restrictions now that the UK has left the European Union. As many predicted, it was a major failure.
Source: CNN
Brexit has contributed to travelers being stuck in gridlock at the start of the summer holidays at the port of Dover, French and UK officials have said, as a war of words escalates between the two countries over hours-long delays at the border.
Holidaymakers and heavy goods vehicles were left stationary in traffic jams en route to the port in Kent, southern England on Saturday, with the port admitting that "today is going to be very busy" and travelers being warned of four-hour waits.
The UK and France have been locked in a round of finger-pointing over the cause of the gridlock, with British lawmakers laying blame on staffing on the French side, and French officials nodding to increased post-Brexit customs checks.
"The British are right to complain, because there are traffic jams. But it's not the fault of the French, it's the fault of the Brexit," French MP for Calais Pierre-Henri Dumont told French public radio France Info.
Tory Minister, and possible future Prime Minister Liz Truss, pointed her bony finger squarely at the French, sidestepping the delays at the Dover port in England.
And another Conservative MP blamed the French for not showing up to work.
Truss got her headline though.
And of course everyone saw this coming.
The French looked on with a mix of amusement and disgust, responding about as you'd expect.
And even this morning travel expert Simon Calder was still going on television to counter this foolishness by the pro-Brexit crowd.
