After Woody Johnson, the US Ambassador to the UK, told Andrew Marr last Sunday that “healthcare” would be “on the table” for discussion as part of a post-Brexit trade deal, Government spinners went into action. As Adam Bienkov at Business Insider observed, “UK ministers were forced to repeat that the National Health Service would not be any part of a trade deal, after the US ambassador Woody Johnson said on Sunday that ‘the entire economy’ including healthcare should be ‘on the table’ in future talks”.
Moreover, he reported that “Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who is among the 13 candidates running to succeed May as prime minister, insisted the NHS was ‘not for sale.’” Someone was not listening to Hancock, and that someone was Combover Crybaby Donald Trump. He has just endorsed every word Johnson uttered.
Donald, where's yer hairspray?
Sky News has announced “When asked if the NHS should be on the table for a post-Brexit trade deal, Donald Trump says ‘everything will be on table’”. More specifically, he asserted “I think we’re going to have a great trade deal … We’re going to have a great and very comprehensive trade deal”. Cue mention of the NHS. “I think everything with a trade deal is on the table. When you’re dealing with trade, everything’s on the table”.
Squeaky 21st Century Guilty Men finger up the bum time
Do go on. “So NHS or anything else … a lot more than that, but everything will be on the table”. It was no mere mis-step from Woody Johnson. The NHS, our NHS, is expected to be up for grabs as part of a post-Brexit trade deal with the USA, the country whose President is urging the UK to tear itself from the EU … so that its economy and institutions can then be torn apart by rapacious Stateside business interests.
Thus the final Brexit end game is now in sight. It is what Nigel “Thirsty” Farage and his fellow spivs have been advocating all along. It is what has been supported by all those Astroturf lobby groups - the TPA, ASI, CPS, IEA and all the rest, along with their retinue of talking heads who turn up with monotonous regularity on the BBC and Sky News.
As Louis Barfe put it, “I wonder how many people would have voted Leave if that bus had said ‘Let's give the NHS to America’?” Maybe not enough to sway the vote. So a little lying was called for. The kind that was being practiced by Woody Johnson on the Marr Show.
Johnson claimed “the EU has taken a position on things like chlorinated chicken and said the American food supply is as safe as anything in Europe”. It was? “Completely safe”. Well, let’s take Salmonella as an example. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates “Salmonella causes about 1.2 million illnesses, 23,000 hospitalizations, and 450 deaths in the United States every year. Food is the source for about 1 million of these illnesses”. And for the EU?
In 2016, the number of hospitalisations was 1,766, and there were 10 deaths. None of those deaths was in the UK. The population of the USA is 327 million; that of the EU (including the UK) is more than 512 million. Do the math, as they say.
Not only is the food going to be more dangerous, it’ll cost you to get treated once you get bitten by the bug. For some reason, Farage and Bozza forgot to mention this bit.
Still want to go through with it, Brexit backing proud patriotic Brits? No pressure, now.
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I feel sick in my stomach...
ReplyDeleteGood thread unroll on the legal position of NHS in a trade deal
ReplyDeletehttps://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1135926328568549376.html
Talk about fake news, none of this has anything to do with Brexit! All the USA wants to do is sell us lots of drugs we need cheaply, and you are banging on about chicken and selling the NHS!
ReplyDeleteAnyhow the NHS isn't working these days, you can't have an opened ended availability of treatment with mass immigration. At the moment too many people are not getting the treatment they have paid and worked for because too many more recent arrivals to are wanting treatment and the NHS will not prioritise those that have already paid in. Elderly patients (that's means over 55) are being deliberately neglected when it comes to some treatments. The population is getting older and living longer, we keep getting told, as though it is a problem instead of rejoicing at the news! Don't forget most of these people have already paid for their care! I have lost too many friends to curable ailments because of neglect by the NHS. I know no one who has a good word for the way they have been treated by the NHS.
Time for a rethink and some hard decisions about who gets treated!
Fake news eh ? I spy somebody talking out of their bottom and then some...
DeleteIn case anyone was in any doubt why insurance man Arron Banks has been so keen to bankroll Brexit...
ReplyDeleteOh, Brexiteers will look at the glossy adverts featuring an elderly, healthy patient lying on a comfy bed in a spotless, modern private room with a good-looking doctor and two good-looking nurses in attendance and say, "That's what I want."
ReplyDeleteThey are vultures.
Delete@3
ReplyDeleteI am over 55 and NHS neglect resulted in my appointment this morning going ahead as normal, along with the necessary treatment.
Run along and troll elsewhere.
@ no 3
ReplyDeleteAlong with Tim comments above I am similarly over 55 and have had operations recently with good treatment provided by NHS.
If a US/UK trade deal does result then it is likely we would have to go over to their insurance based system. Then the over 55s will have to worry more as insurance rates for the elderly will be sky high. And Trump is still trying to do away with help for those with pre existing conditions. So your prognosis for the elderly would actually be worse if his way of doing things were followed.
@3
ReplyDeleteI phoned my GP surgery yesterday at 9:05am and booked a 10:35am appointment.
Seen by GP. Booked appointment for next week.
Then, I went to local hospital for a blood test. 10 minute wait.
A suggestion: Print your odious rant. Wrap the printout around the stem of a wire brush. Shove the wire brush up your arse.
@3 - Yes, our broken, beleaguered NHS just operated on a mate with Stage IV bowel cancer, hopefully effecting a complete cure: all within five weeks from initial examination. Jog on, twunt.
ReplyDelete'I know no one who has a good word for the way they have been treated by the NHS.'
ReplyDeleteWas going to comment but Anonymous at 19.37 can't be bettered (except maybe marinate the printout in a little Encona Carolina Reaper chilli sauce for 15 minutes first).
The NHS is ours. It is not perfect but it belongs to us. All of us. Hence why it is criminal if the Tories allow carpetbaggers like Trump to get piece of the NHS.
ReplyDeleteI'm 64. One Saturday last November I had a stomach ache. Although it wasn't severe, by Sunday night it had become localised in the lower right-hand side of my abdomen. So I phone 111 and told them my symptoms. The advice was to get to A&E as soon as possible. It's true that no emergency ambulance was available immediately, but I live near the hospital and could get into a taxi. I was triaged immediately on arrival (at 1am), had an MRI at 4am to confirm the diagnosis of acute appendicitis, and was admitted. I had to wait until Monday night for the op as the day shift were busy with real emergency cases - when I grumbled to the nurses, a surgeon came to explain why I'd had to wait and why it was a bad idea to go home and come back later. I had an appendectomy shortly after that, came round early in the morning and was given a huge mug of really strong tea. i was discharged mid-morning on the Tuesday. I walked, I didn't need the pain-killers the hospital gave me. I have been fit ever since. If I had been lesft to the tender mercies of the American healthcare system, I would have been several thousands of dollars out of pocket. Nor would the surgeons, the anaesthetist and the nurses have been so kind to a grumpy old git. I know this for sure because I have interpreted (on the spot and remotely) for NHS and US surgeons doing operations. So Anonymous at 3, take a running jump.
ReplyDelete