Brexit is pushing the NHS to the brink. Time is running out to save it ǀ View | Euronews

Brexit’s infamous red bus was paraded up and down the UK, informing voters prior to the EU referendum that voting Leave would result in more money for our country’s cash-strapped National Health Service (NHS). Yet, since the fog lifted after 23 June 2016, it is becoming increasingly clear that the NHS may be worse off once we leave the European Union. A decline in the number of EU healthcare professionals coming to work in the country’s health system, uncertainty about medication supplies and a general anxiety about the future health of the NHS have alarm bells ringing up and down the British Isles.

The UK government’s mishandling of the situation has resulted in apprehension regarding the future functioning of the NHS. For a system that was already under pressure before the EU referendum vote, this is unacceptable. In fact, it is somewhat surprising that the government did not foresee this as being a potential consequence of a Leave result. Today, it is plain to see how this oversight and lack of forward planning will now cost the NHS and the people that use it every day.

 

Source: Brexit is pushing the NHS to the brink. Time is running out to save it ǀ View | Euronews

A second referendum remains deeply unpopular among Conservative Party members | Conservative Home

For all the hype in some parts of the press about the concept of a second referendum supposedly gaining ground, even within the Conservative Party, the 1,201 Party members responding to our latest survey are notably unmoved.

Amazingly so, in fact – the passage of a month has produced near-identical results. Today, 9.49 per cent of respondents support a second referendum; a month ago, 9.51 per cent did so. Today, 89.01 per cent oppose a re-run; a month ago, that figure stood at 89.41 per cent.

What does this tell us?

First, it would be wrong to pretend there is no support for such a ballot in the Conservative grassroots. There is some (hence this site has given a platform to it), but judging from our survey it forms a rump of fewer than one in ten. The Conservative Party is a broad church, and should continue to be so.

 

Source: A second referendum remains deeply unpopular among Conservative Party members | Conservative Home

The arguments for and against Brexit are presented with an insulting show of certainty | Conservative Home

A week ago I made some intemperate remarks about the poverty of Theresa May’s language. Today I feel impelled to protest in equally strong terms at the insulting feebleness of the debate about Brexit.

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Part of the trouble is that I have just been reading some of The Federalist Papers, the magisterial series of articles in which in 1787-88 James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay made the case for the new Federal Constitution of the United States, which had just been been drawn up in Philadelphia and now needed ratifying by the 13 states.

Between 1775 and 1783 the states had won, by force of arms, their independence from Great Britain, but they were now in danger of making a complete mess of self-government, with populists running riot in the state legislatures, printing paper money and undermining property rights, while the central government was so weak that men of sense feared a collapse into anarchy.

Hamilton himself said “a torrent of angry and malignant passions” had been let loose in the “great national discussion” about the Constitution. He wanted to rise above “the loudness of their declamations and the bitterness of their invectives”, which he and his fellow authors proceeded to do.

We are by no means in the same situation now as the Americans were in the 1780s. We and our friends in Europe suppose we are in a less acute crisis, nor have we ever been united under the British crown, and then in opposition to George III and a Parliament which insisted on taxing us without representation.

But the referendum campaign and its aftermath have helped to arouse, or release, a torrent of angry and malignant passions, and no Madisons and Hamiltons have managed to rise above these passions by making, in lucid, rational and historically informed terms, the constitutional case for a Federal Europe.

 

Source: The arguments for and against Brexit are presented with an insulting show of certainty | Conservative Home

It’s my people who voted for Brexit. To call them racist is wrong and divisive : The Telegraph

Peter, now Lord, Mandelson and I have three things in common. Obviously, we’re both members of the House of Lords. Both of us were architects of New Labour (albeit in Peter’s case more prominently than in mine). And we are both better at giving other people advice than we are at taking it ourselves.

It is this third point that has made me think about the words used by Peter last week when he suggested that many supporters of Brexit were “nationalists” who “hate other countries” and “hate foreigners”.

We live in a time of what some people have called “edginess” that borders on something worse. The EU referendum is now the backdrop to everything, perceptible in that darkling of the divide between those who wished to stay within the European Union and those who wished to leave.

 

Source: It’s my people who voted for Brexit. To call them racist is wrong and divisive : The Telegraph

Tory MPs must unite behind PM over Bill amendments : The Telegraph

We found ourselves on different sides of the debate during the EU referendum but today we are united in our determination to make Brexit a success for Britain.

Just like the country as a whole, Conservatives have different perspectives on exactly what our future relationship with the EU should look like.

It should surprise no one that on something as complex as Brexit, people of good faith who share common political principles can disagree.

Leaving the EU after over 40 years of membership inevitably poses questions which defy easy answers.

But when it comes to delivering the legislation necessary to make Brexit a smooth and orderly process, we both agree that every Conservative should march in lockstep behind the Prime Minister as she delivers on the vote.

The EU Withdrawal Bill, which MPs will be voting on this week, is not about competing visions of the future, but about ensuring legal certainty at our point of departure.

It is a technical measure which is essential to getting Brexit right.

 

Source: Tory MPs must unite behind PM over Bill amendments : The Telegraph

House of Lords report urges government for clarity on EU healthcare deal | Care Industry News

The House of Lords EU Committee has today published its report Brexit: reciprocal healthcare. The Committee warns that in the absence of an agreement on reciprocal healthcare, the rights of UK citizens to hold an EHIC card for treatment in the EU will cease after Brexit.

Other rights, provided for by the S2 scheme and Patients’ Rights Directive, will likewise come to an end. Without EHIC or an equivalent arrangement it could become much more expensive for UK citizens with chronic conditions – such as dialysis patients and people living with rare diseases – to travel to the EU post-Brexit, for holidays, recuperation or treatment. These people might find it difficult to obtain travel insurance at all.

The Government wishes to maintain reciprocal healthcare arrangements including the EHIC scheme after Brexit, but the current arrangements are designed to support the freedom of movement of EU citizens. The Government intends to stop freedom of movement to the UK, and has not yet set out its objectives for the future UK-EU relationship. The Committee therefore urges the Government to confirm how it will seek to protect reciprocal rights to healthcare of all UK and EU citizens post-Brexit, as part of any agreement on future relations.

The report also argues that it is essential for EU citizens lawfully resident in the UK to have a continuing right to access long-term healthcare, as well as the practical means by which to exercise that right. The Committee therefore calls on the Government to use domestic legislation to clarify the means by which all EU citizens lawfully resident in the UK at the time of Brexit will be able to continue to access essential healthcare.

 

Source: House of Lords report urges government for clarity on EU healthcare deal | Care Industry News

Why the Tories keep winning

Inside the world’s most ruthless – and successful – political party

Source: Why the Tories keep winning

Finland faces calls to stage EU referendum after historic Brexit vote | World | News | Daily Express

EUROSCEPTIC politicians in Finland have vowed to ramp up their campaign to lead the country out of the EU.

Source: Finland faces calls to stage EU referendum after historic Brexit vote | World | News | Daily Express

Q+A: what the High Court ruling means for Brexit

A landmark decision means the government will not be allowed to trigger Article 50 without putting it to a parliamentary vote.

Source: Q+A: what the High Court ruling means for Brexit

Remainers seem to think it’s a scandal that Theresa May listened to the British people over the EU

Theresa May has committed the ultimate political sin:

Source: Remainers seem to think it’s a scandal that Theresa May listened to the British people over the EU