What Exactly is Operation Yellowhammer?..
Many people are basically saying that Yellowhammer report confirms that the UK will have severe problems after Brexit.
But is that full truth?
The document, which says it outlines ‘reasonable worst case planning assumptions’ for a no deal Brexit, highlights the risk of border delays, given an estimate that up to 85% of lorries crossing the Channel might not be ready for a new French customs regime.
Operation Yellowhammer was developed by the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, and by March 2019 had 56 people working internally on the programme.
In March 2019, COBRA, the government’s emergency committee, took control of no-deal planning and begin implementing contingency measures from Operation Yellowhammer, stating that “The command and control structures of Operation Yellowhammer, the civil service’s worst-case Brexit planning unit, will be enacted fully“.
On 3 September 2019, Michael Gove, whose responsibilities include preparations for a no-deal Brexit, stated: “Operation Yellowhammer assumptions are not a prediction of what is likely to happen, they are not a best-case scenario or a list of probable outcomes, they are projections of what may happen in a worst-case scenario“.
Operation Yellowhammer appears to have been something to work out the worst case scenario so that those problems can be addressed and fixed before a no deal brexit eventuates.
Assuming those things have been worked on, and resolved, then the worst case Operation Yellowhammer situations should not exist any more.
However, that does not stop Politics…
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the paper confirmed the PM “is prepared to punish those who can least afford it”.
BBC: A rise in public disorder, higher food prices and reduced medical supplies are real risks of leaving the EU with no deal.
Original headlines included the risk of rioting in the streets, but as that was never actually mentioned, news headline had to be changed. An examp0le from one report: “An earlier version of this story suggested the Yellowhammer document had referred to the potential risk of rioting; it has been amended to more closely reflect the paper’s exact wording, which referred to protests and “a rise in public disorder and community tensions”.
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