Mr. Johnson has warned that the supply disruptions could last until Christmas, though on Tuesday the most acute problems at gas stations began to ease. The government is hoping that normal purchasing patterns will resume now that nervous buyers have filled up their tanks.
This is not the first trade disruption to hit Britain since it left the single market in 2020. British shellfish producers have lost entire markets in the European Union because of new health regulations. British consumers have been jolted by hefty customs duties on shipments of gourmet coffee from Italy.
But it is the first disruption to occur since life returned to a semblance of normalcy after 18 months of pandemic-forced restrictions. Schools are open; workers are commuting to offices; sports stadium are packed on weekends. In that sense, it is the first post-Brexit crisis that has not been masked by the effects of the coronavirus.
It is also geographically selective. Gas stations in Northern Ireland, which has an open border with the Irish Republic (a European Union member), are not reporting panic buying. Similarly, Northern Ireland was unaffected by the recent shortage in supplies of carbon dioxide because its soda bottling plants had access to shipments from continental Europe.
And yet, Brexit has figured remarkably little in the public discussion. Partly that reflects a pandemic hangover. Partly it is because other countries, from Germany to the United States, are also dealing with supply-chain disruptions, labor shortages and rising oil and gas prices.
But it also reflects the calcified nature of the debate over Britain’s departure from the European Union. After four and a half years of feuding, even Brexit’s most ardent opponents show little appetite to relitigate the 2016 referendum. And the Brexiteers invariably find other culprits for bad news.