UK Politics - We Don’t Want to See Your Papers, Please

[horangi]

7 hours ago, Werthead said:

Deprive Britain of its urgently-needed supplies of Coke Zero, and you'll have a riot.

Isnt it more accurate to say that the drink manufacturers dont want to pay out the premium created by Brexit needed to get priority access to the CO2 rather than Brexit prohibiting the import?  From the article it sounds like the CO2 manufacturers are prioritizing EU companies- but I would assume if the UK soda folks offered an extra 20% over the EU rate, the solidarity would quickly melt away.  I guess its just a question on how much do you want that sweet sweet Coke Zero!  The labor shortage on the other hand sounds like a lot tougher Brexit-induced challenge to solve. 

[Spockydog]

28 minutes ago, Hereward said:

The Labour Party has used electoral colleges every year since it was founded, even under the blessed Jeremy, so this objection seems… odd.

Forgive me, I am not as educated as others around here, so perhaps take up your complaint with the editors of the news outlets printing headlines like these:

Labour plans to reintroduce electoral college for leadership elections revealed

There are also plenty of political journalists talking about Starmer's return to the electoral college over on twitter. Perhaps they might like to know they are... odd, too.

For my own part, I was simply using the term in reference to the reintroduction of a college of undemocratic voting blocs, instead of one member one vote. 

I apologise for any offence my semantic ignorance may have caused. 
 

[Hereward]

Passive aggressiveness for the win. The fact is your source is bemoaning a change from their proposed electoral college to a different electoral college. The rest, I can’t help you with.

[Spockydog]

Meanwhile, someone needs to ask Glorious Leader why he wears a mask when meeting President Biden, when none of his MPs bother with masks when meeting, well, anyone at all.

 

 

[Spockydog]

Here is some absolutely spectacular Brexit-related winning. Prepare yourself. This is the biggest win yet, people.

Britain’s hopes of post-Brexit trade deal with US appear dashed

Quote

 

Britain’s hopes of a post-Brexit trade deal with the US have all but evaporated barring a dramatic change of heart from Joe Biden, it emerged on Tuesday as Boris Johnson held face-to-face talks in the White House.

Johnson once regarded a bilateral free trade agreement with the US as a key Brexit win, highlighting the prospects for British exporters unfettered from the EU. But government insiders privately concede that they see little prospect of progress towards a one-to-one deal, as the Biden administration focuses on other priorities.

When Johnson was asked on Tuesday whether he still hoped to strike a free-trade agreement with the US by the time of the next general election, opening the way to lower tariffs and a closer economic relationship, he said “we’re going as fast as we can”, but declined to confirm whether it could be achieved before 2024.

When the US president was asked about the prospects of a deal as the pair met in the Oval Office, he said: “We’re going to talk about trade a little bit today, and we’re going to have to work that through.”

The UK is now understood to be considering alternative options, including seeking to join the US-Canada-Mexico trade deal instead of striking a bilateral agreement with Washington.

 

When will people begin to admit that Brexit is an unmitigated disaster? This country is fucked.

 

[maarsen]

3 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

Here is some absolutely spectacular Brexit-related winning. Prepare yourself. This is the biggest win yet, people.

Britain’s hopes of post-Brexit trade deal with US appear dashed

When will people begin to admit that Brexit is an unmitigated disaster? This country is fucked.

 

It was always a no go as the new NAFTA  agreement gives Mexico and Canada a veto. Trump wanted this and if bites Boris in the ass. 

[Spockydog]

6 minutes ago, maarsen said:

It was always a no go as the new NAFTA  agreement gives Mexico and Canada a veto. Trump wanted this and if bites Boris in the ass. 

Why would Mexico or Canada veto? 

[maarsen]

5 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

Why would Mexico or Canada veto? 

Canada and Mexico were forced to renegotiate due to Trump being an asshole. Now that they hold some power, they get to use it to get better terms.

[Derfel Cadarn]

20 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

Here is some absolutely spectacular Brexit-related winning. Prepare yourself. This is the biggest win yet, people.

Britain’s hopes of post-Brexit trade deal with US appear dashed

When will people begin to admit that Brexit is an unmitigated disaster? This country is fucked.

 

To be fair, no trade deal with the US is a win. No compromised food standards

[Spockydog]

Just now, Derfel Cadarn said:

To be fair, no trade deal with the US is a win. No compromised food standards

Well, I am in the process of launching a company whose largest potential export market is the US. So not really a win for my fledgling business.

But yeah, at least we won't be eating chlorinated chicken rectums any time soon. 

[maarsen]

9 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

Well, I am in the process of launching a company whose largest potential export market is the US. So not really a win for my fledgling business.

But yeah, at least we won't be eating chlorinated chicken rectums any time soon. 

Once you have access to the Canadian market market, by NAFTA rules you should also have the same access to the US. of course the US thinks that rules such as this are a one way street and should only work in favour of the US.

Anyway Canada has legal cannabis nationwide so we are not a small market. All the best for your fledgling company.

[Spockydog]

6 minutes ago, maarsen said:

Anyway Canada has legal cannabis nationwide so we are not a small market. All the best for your fledgling company.

Oh, we're gonna be massive in Canada. 

[BigFatCoward]

Do Americans even eat lamb? 

[Fez]

11 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

Do Americans even eat lamb? 

Sometimes. It's not a staple or anything, but lamb kabob shops have gotten pretty widespread as a takeout option in a lot of big cities. Plus there's the upscale restaurants that do something fancy with it.

[Zorral]

Greek Americans, Italian Americans, Spanish Americans, Americans whose grandmothers, etc., hail from all around the Mediterranean, Irish Americans (at least here, particularly around Easter) and from the Middle East, all eat lamb.  It's a staple in the supermarkets.  I happen to have some in my freezer, which I like to use in dishes built around couscous.

Not in the midwest though -- at least not when I was growing up in 'rural America.'

[The Anti-Targ]

8 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Do Americans even eat lamb? 

Not at home so much, but we export about $300M of sheep and goat meat to the USA every year. Between us and Aussie we account for about 50-60% of the US's lamb imports. Mostly for restaurants and hotels.

The US's domestic lamb production is tiny. They have a bit of a complicated relationship with us and Aussie. On the one hand without us it would be hard to really promote increased consumption of lamb and so our exports to the USA raises the profile of lamb and ensures plentiful supply, so that's helpful for the tiny sheep farming sector in the USA. On the other hand, Aus and NZ reap most of the benefits of increased lamb consumption at the high priced end of the market. 

Bringing it back to the UK, we export slightly more than that to the UK every year, and a roughly equal amount to the non-UK EU. And for a bit more context, our exports to China is now greater than EU(incl UK)+USA but in 2017 is was about equal with EU.

[Raja]

Not involved in cancer care, but man, this stuff is a tough read and obviously so much worse for clinicians & patients - Written by an Oncologist in Nottingham, full link here

Quote

“I’m so sorry, but your scan is not yet reported”. Such a simple sentence yet one with so many implications for the person sitting opposite, who has been waiting anxiously for 2, 3, sometimes 4 weeks for the results that would allow them perhaps to sleep easily, to breathe fully, to plan to live again for the next few months. Sometimes they get angry but more often than not, it’s their partner who gets angry. Raw, justifiable anger. They know how anxious their loved one has been since their scan. Sometimes they’re just sad. Sometimes, and perhaps this is the hardest, they bat back our apology and tell us they know we’re all trying our best. But right now, our best, the best of every single person in the creaking rusty cogs of the NHS is not good enough.

We always knew COVID-19 would change oncology immeasurably; I’ve written about this before. But right now, for many of us, the care we are able to offer our patients with cancer is worse than it’s been at any point since COVID-19 first hit the UK. Early in the pandemic, we were asked to prioritize cancer treatments from priority one (curative treatment) to priority six (non-curative treatment with a small chance of palliation or temporary tumour control). This prioritization system has been used intermittently across the country during the pandemic but where I work, though capacity to deliver chemotherapy has been exceptionally tight at times, we’ve never had to use it. Until now. Right now we don’t have the staffing capacity to deliver chemotherapy to all our patients and so, for the first time, the prioritization list has come into force. And that means that, currently, we are unable to offer chemotherapy that aims to prolong life or palliate symptoms for many people with advanced cancer. We hope this is very temporary, but it’s indicative of a system on its last legs; as of June 2021 there were 38,952 registered nurse vacancies across the health service*. And this has happened at the end of the summer, well before the NHS winter pressures stockpile. 

“I’m so sorry, but we can’t continue with your chemotherapy. Not because it’s stopped working, but because we don’t have enough staff to deliver it”. 

“I’m so sorry. There are drugs we could try that might control the cancer for some time but at the moment, we can’t offer these drugs because our hospital doesn’t have the capacity to deliver it”.

The sad reality of advanced cancer is that many of the drugs we use don’t work in a high percentage of patients; we can’t yet predict which patients will benefit and which patients won’t. In practice, the benefit of say 6 courses of chemotherapy over 4 is, for most people, likely to be small. But for those with a life limiting diagnosis, small is everything. And for so many people with cancer, knowing there are options is what allows them to hope.

I can’t imagine what it must be like to sit opposite your oncologist to be told that your treatment is being paused and we don’t know when we can restart it. I can’t imagine what it must be like to sit opposite your oncologist and be told that right now, the NHS can’t provide drugs that might give you a few extra months. I do know how hard it is to have these conversations.

Oncology is not an island. All over the NHS, specialties are battling to be able to provide the care they want to their patients. Since the start of the pandemic, the number of people waiting for NHS treatment in England has grown by a fifth**. Staff shortages in social care mean a disproportionate number of hospital beds are occupied by people who do not need hospital care but are not able to manage at home. Radiologist shortfalls range from 24-38% across the UK***. 

“I’m sorry but I can’t provide you with the care I would want to give you”. I suspect every health-care professional in every specialty is making their own apologies every day.

If the NHS is a machine, it’s a machine made of rusty, worn cogs, each churning independently and inefficiently as we try to do the best for our own patients. It’s a machine reliant on the goodwill of its staff, but all the goodwill in the world can’t keep a machine functioning without extensive repairs. Last week, as I was waiting for my lateral flow test, I realized part of me was hoping for a positive result, so I would have an excuse to step off the treadmill for ten days. As a triathlete I was known for my mental toughness; I count myself as resilient and I love my job. But that thought made me realise how close to burnout I am. I know I’m not alone. I talk to my colleagues and friends across the country and realise so many of us feel the same. And this is September, after a summer holiday. It’s not even winter yet.

I love the NHS, I back the NHS and I believe the NHS can still be fixed. I’ve spent many days debating whether I should write this. But the reality is, right now, we’re not delivering a first world cancer service and we need to talk about it.

 

[polishgenius]

8 minutes ago, Raja said:

Not involved in cancer care, but man, this stuff is a tough read and obviously so much worse for clinicians & patients - Written by an Oncologist in Nottingham, full link here

 

This is a terrifying read when my uncle is right now undergoing chemo to treat a cancer that an operation to remove half his femur failed to properly excise. 

[Zorral]

57 minutes ago, Raja said:

this stuff is a tough read and obviously so much worse for clinicians & patients

Here too, the newspapers and news sites are filled with stories like this.  Most of us have already had this experience ourselves too, or have friends or family members who are in this situation. 

[Raja]

2 hours ago, polishgenius said:

This is a terrifying read when my uncle is right now undergoing chemo to treat a cancer that an operation to remove half his femur failed to properly excise. 

Ah, I'm sorry about your uncle. That sounds tough. Hopefully he'll be able to get the treatment he needs.

Can't wait to be called 'doom & gloom' or whatever for posting what the on the ground situations is in our hospitals.