The United Kingdom's 25-year-old model of importing cheap labor has been up-ended by Brexit and COVID-19, sowing the seeds for a 1970s-style winter of discontent complete with worker shortages, spiraling wage demands and price rises.
Leaving the European Union, followed by the chaos of the biggest public health crisis in a century, has plunged the world's fifth-largest economy into a sudden attempt to kick its addiction to cheap imported labor.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Brexit experiment — unique among major economies — has further strained supply chains already creaking globally for everything from pork and poultry to medicines and milk.