Yes Ellers, it seems to be you all the time that riles me up so much. I wonder why? Why don't you just go about your everyday life and be happy that you are not a resident of the EU anymore and just be happy with that? Why all the trying to justify Brexit, why all the anti EU hatred? There is not a war going on. They have spent 4.5 years negotiating a divorce settlement and a trade deal. Nobody died. Most of us got most of what we wanted. Why do you want the EU and eurozone to fail? There is no need for you to be the Tory party and Brexit propaganda person that you have been here since 2016. Brexit is over. Can you not forget it and stop slagging the EU and individual member countries off? You need to step back before you post and ask, is it really necessary to say that? Will I upset somebody if I say that? I hope these words help you get away from your agenda but I have my doubts. Apart from that, I know you are a decent, nice lad and I don't wish you any ill feeling.
Isabel Hardman The problem with ‘our NHS’ 10 February 2021, 7:18am please log in to view this image Text settings CommentsShare Labour is demanding that Matt Hancock apologise to NHS workers for a 'disgraceful attack' on the NHS. In a letter to the Health Secretary, the party's deputy leader Angela Rayner says Hancock must distance himself from a claim that 'there is nothing special about the NHS, neither during this pandemic nor at any other time'. She also writes that 'if you are committed to the protection of our NHS you must take action immediately to assure the NHS and the British people' that he doesn't think 'we should not be grateful for the NHS or thank the NHS and its staff for their work during this pandemic'. This sounds serious, like the kind of view any health secretary might want to run a mile from. It's not one he has personally expressed: it comes from the Institute of Economic Affairs, which has published a report called 'Viral Myths: Why we risk learning the wrong lessons from the pandemic'. This document examines a list of conclusions that its author, Kristian Niemietz, says people are starting to reach about the pandemic, such as 'the UK was unprepared to cope with Covid-19 because a decade of "austerity" had hollowed out the public sector, thus eroding the state's capacity to act' and 'the NHS has been the star performer of the pandemic, and that we should be more grateful than ever for having it'. It compares the performance of different countries in the pandemic, and looks at the size of their states, the extent to which they are globalised nations, and so on. Rayner is so horrified by one of the lines in this report that she has demanded Hancock publicly reject it and repay the £32,000 in donations he received from IEA chairman Neil Record. That line reads thus: “One way or another, this is simply not the material that grand narratives are made of. What is safe to say is that there is no rational basis for the adulation the NHS is currently receiving, and no reason to be 'grateful' for the fact that we have it. It should go without saying that if the UK did not have the NHS, it would not have no healthcare system. Maybe it would have a public health insurance system similar to the Taiwanese or the Australian one, or maybe it would have a social health insurance system similar to the Swiss or German one. There is no guarantee that this would have served the UK better during the pandemic, but there is certainly no reason to believe that it would have done any worse. There is nothing special about the NHS, neither during this pandemic, nor at any other time. There are some aspects of British politics that are almost impossible to explain to people from other countries. Chief among them is why a think tank report making this point would be so incendiary that it is being written up as a disgraceful dismissal of the hard work of the people on the front line of the health service, rather than a critique of the structures which have been designed and endlessly fiddled with by politicians. As well as always being clear how in favour of the health system they are, British politicians also tend to refer to it as 'our NHS', a bit like people in some parts of the country refer to 'our Michael' when talking about a family member. our NHS isn't so much an organisation — or collection of organisations — or a policy as it is an expression of our values. To question the way the organisation or policy operates is difficult because it is immediately conflated with criticising the people who work in our NHS and rejecting the values it embodies. Rayner herself repeatedly says 'our NHS' in this letter and even characterises Hancock's role as being similar to the monarch's position as 'defender of the faith': “As Health Secretary it is your job to protect and defend our country's greatest institution — our National Health Service — and stand up for our NHS staff who have sacrificed so much throughout this pandemic to save lives and keep us safe. Rayner is a busy woman, so perhaps she hasn't read the IEA report in full. Anyone who takes the time will struggle to find any criticism of NHS staff. In fact, the document doesn't talk at all about doctors or nurses or physios or any of the other people who work in the NHS. It doesn't talk about the ethos of the health service. It doesn't praise German or Singaporean healthcare workers as somehow being more committed. All it discusses is models of healthcare provision. It has a very blunt conclusion of 'there is nothing special about the NHS' which is rather in keeping with Niemietz's hobby of winding up the left by making statements which he knows will challenge certain shibboleths. But it simply does not suggest that the public shouldn't clap health workers. In fact, it is very clear that the health service has been let down by the government repeatedly as it tries to respond to the pandemic, pointing out that lockdown came later here than in many neighbouring countries, that ministers kept airports open, had 'lax enforcement of quarantining measures', introduced a 'misguided' Eat Out To Help Out scheme and were slow to roll out mass testing. Our NHS is a set of values and people who Brits admire and feel proud of. The Conservatives have learned that there is little point in engaging in the sort of academic musings that think tanks like the IEA can comfortably pursue because voters just aren't interested in a debate about different models of healthcare. They like that the NHS is free at the point of access and they like the story behind its creation. Often, they like their local NHS provision so much that they vociferously oppose plans to close a unit and centralise services in order to save lives. Ask any MP whether they'd want to be on the campaign in favour of downgrading a maternity unit or closing the local A&E, and they'll look at you as though you've suggested they spend an afternoon relaxing in a piranha tank. The same goes for discussing whether the NHS as a system — not the our NHS of doctors, nurses and so on — is working as best as it could. Even saying 'is working as best as it could' is immediately seized upon as a suggestion that doctors are somehow lazy, when it is merely a question of whether services are structured in the right way, whether there is a proper workforce strategy, whether funding is directed at the right areas and whether procurement of new technology is at all up to scratch. One figure who knows the importance of paying homage to our NHS is the politician criticised in the IEA report for saying that 'the NHS is the best gift a nation ever gave itself' and that 'it's been a difficult year for so many, but our collective love of the NHS has brought us all together'. Rayner wasn't the one who said these words, though. Nor was it one of her Labour colleagues. It was Hancock, who knows just as well as any other Conservative around today that there is just no point in raising the sorts of questions that the IEA can, even if he wanted to. please log in to view this image Written byIsabel Hardman Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of The Spectator and author of Why We Get the Wrong Politicians. She also presents Radio 4’s Week in Westminster.
Finglas it's the politics thread mate. We discuss politics of the day. If I post about Stamer or Corbyn it's wrong. If I post about Trump... it's wrong. Now I post about Brexit that is wrong? Is there anything we can debate? As for the EU hatred...you must be blind in one eye mate because there has been just as much anti-Brexit stuff on here. Watford alone supplies 70% of it! Anyway back to my original post.... If you believe that Ireland wasn't an EU barging chip and the EU supported Ireland 100%... then you believe that. I guess that BBC documentary with the EU bods laughing and saying that they would use the Irish border against us in Negotiations was fake? Furthermore if you also believe that the EU commission worried about Ireland when they used article 16 on that Friday evening... then you believe that. However in time to come you may have a different opinion of the Brussels mafia. Likewise Finglas I genuinely enjoy your company.
I have chatted to Isabel online before. Really lovely girl who sadly suffers from depression. She really had a tough time of it and took a break. Glad to see here back again.
Did I say 20 posts a day? I think we are well over that number now. You continue talking to yourself Ellers. Bye.
please log in to view this image Angela Rayner please log in to view this image @AngelaRayner The government is now just frankly taking the p*** out of the British people. Matt Hancock's family friend, who is a racecourse director, was awarded a £14.4 million PPE contract. The company didn't even have a website and the contract was not fulfilled. please log in to view this image Friend of Matt Hancock Wins £14.4 Million PPE Contract – Byline Times The firm is owned by the wife of a horse breeder who has donated thousands to the Health and Social Care Secretary, reports Sam Bright bylinetimes.com 4
It would be unpatriotic of me to comment. Just blindly get behind the government which Tory gimps conflate with getting behind the country, Kiwi.
The woke community have decreed that the breast feeding shall now become chest feeding. Breast, boob and particularly tit shall no longer be used. Gary Lineker shall now be known as a complete chest.
Is it an entire community or is it one hospital trust which has been latched upon and blown out of all proportion to evoke faux anger in people who could really direct their attention at something far more important? Don’t get me wrong I don’t really see the point and I doubt it’s a big deal even for a trans person, but it all seems very The Sun circa 2004, “PC Gone Maaaad” headlines.
I'm sure someone far more in tune with what's going on in the world will rubbish this, but can't see the "Brexit win" in this..... Brexit: London loses out as Europe's top share trading hub please log in to view this image Amsterdam ousted London as the largest financial trading centre in Europe last month as Brexit-related changes to finance rules came into force. About €9.2bn (£8.1bn) worth of shares were traded on Amsterdam exchanges each day, against €8.6bn in London. Following new Brexit rules, EU-based banks wanting to buy European shares currently cannot trade via London, meaning a loss of fees for City firms. Bank of England chief Andrew Bailey has warned the EU not to cut off London. On Wednesday, Mr Bailey said there were signs that the EU planned to cut the UK off from its financial markets. Following the new Brexit trading rules coming into effect, there are talks to harmonise rules over financial regulations - so-called equivalence Both sides are working towards a March deadline to agree an "equivalence" regime under which the UK and Europe would recognise the other's regulations. Number 10, said it remained "open" to discussions with the EU on the equivalence issue.
Brighton and West Sussex University hospital's instruction to its midwives. Constituency of Caroline Mucus (sorry, couldn't resist it). I am genuinely heartened that you don't see the point, Watford. Still think Lineker's an overpaid tit though.
Hmmmm.......to be fair Steels, you could say it’s again the EU trying to flex a few muscles and discriminating against the U.K. by making rules against us when they don’t make them against others. Who then comes over as the ****s in all this ? I would suggest this will eventually be sorted out and the U.K. and EU will agree on ‘equilvalence’ and the U.K. will yet again overtake Europe......however it makes a great headline right now I guess.
