[TobyD]

Re Suella Braverman; I did say that she wasn't as qualified a lawyer as she makes out, so I think we completely agree. I'm absolutely sure she's done a degree and the exams etc. I've also wondered that, given that she is a Buddhist, how she squares that with her approach to immigration... I'd be genuinely interested to know if she justifies that, and how.

[jwi]

The Rohingyas may disagree with your sunny view of Buddhism. As would the Japanese catholics of the 18th century...

[seankenny]

Re Suella Braverman; I did say that she wasn't as qualified a lawyer as she makes out, so I think we completely agree. I'm absolutely sure she's done a degree and the exams etc. I've also wondered that, given that she is a Buddhist, how she squares that with her approach to immigration... I'd be genuinely interested to know if she justifies that, and how.

If you think Buddhism vaccinates people against violence, hatred and extreme nationalism, then take a look at the modern histories of Sri Lanka and Myanmar (for a start).

[mrjonathanr]

Re Suella Braverman; I did say that she wasn't as qualified a lawyer as she makes out, so I think we completely agree.

No, I agree, the word 'qualified' does not automatically imply paper documents and that was how I read your comment.

All religions preach peace. All have adherents given to violence of one sort or another.

[TobyD]

The Rohingyas may disagree with your sunny view of Buddhism. As would the Japanese catholics of the 18th century...

I didn't say I have a sunny view of Buddhism,  I'd agree that an awful lot of terrible things have been done by people who purport to adhere to its faiths.  I'd say that there are many awful things and many outstanding,  admirable things that have been done in the name of practically every belief system going; but it intrigues me how anyone of faith manages to justify an act of violence.
To be fair,  the home secretary is nothing like that bad, she's mostly just a bit shit at her job.

[TobyD]

https://news.sky.com/story/albanians-should-be-barred-from-claiming-uk-asylum-immigration-minister-says-12761299

Desperate government panicked by the polls and the number of their own MPs are leaving finds a weak,  vulnerable part of society to lash out at. Charming.

[abarro81]

Despite being a guardian reading leftie, it's not super obvious to me that asylum necessarily 'should' be designed to cover people from 'safe' countries... Maybe it should, but it doesn't seem as obvious to me as you imply

[petejh]

"Here doesn't have no jobs, no nothing... and you're going to work like 10 hours for £10, basically so it's no life here."

His isn't an isolated case - most Albanian migrants come from this region.

In one village, the head of the community told us the former population of 2,000 people has dwindled to around 400 since the fall of communism.

You're looking at one of the prime locations for the reshoring of manufacturing from SE Asia. 10 years from now... very different scenes. Toby's iPhone 26 could have 'made in Albania' on the back instead of 'made in China'.

[mrjonathanr]

Despite being a guardian reading leftie, it's not super obvious to me that asylum necessarily 'should' be designed to cover people from 'safe' countries... Maybe it should, but it doesn't seem as obvious to me as you imply

Should it not be situation specific rather than a blanket designation? Take Serbia next door- there are instances of Jewish people seriously threatened by neoNazis. Would it be rational to refuse them asylum because the country were designated as safe, or to accept them, but refuse asylum to Albanians?

I think a pragmatic case by case approach is needed.

I also agree with Toby about Jenrick’s intentions here. It’s a tired strategy, but has served the Tories well- cf UK being swamped by Turks if we didn’t vote to leave the EU.

[mrjonathanr]

Similarly, the multi-millionaire Chairman of the Conservative Party is against nurses striking over their real terms pay cut because it ‘is playing into Putin’s hands’.

Urging unions not to proceed with strike action, he said: “This is a time to come together and to send a very clear message to Mr Putin that we’re not going to be divided in this way … Our message to the unions is to say ‘this is not a time to strike, this is a time to try and negotiate’.”

‘To negotiate’ - but only over working conditions, pay is off the table according to Steve Barclay: Steve Barclay on Saturday continued his refusal to discuss pay 

Midwives, neonatal nurses, ITU nurses as fifth columnists, credible?

[Wellsy]

They can all do one. They've plunged the country into a shitstate with Brexit, their "fiscal event" and through just generally being useless wankers for years, and now when people strike they're all forlorn about the harm it'll cause? Fuck off

[mrjonathanr]

You almost have to admire Zahawi’s nerve in trying to divide and conquer by accusing the RCN of being divisive. Truly, we are through the looking glass now.

[danm]

The truly nauseating thing about Zahawi's statement is that this situation is partly resultant from his ilk failing to take clear action against Putin for fear of upsetting the gravy train that was oligarchic investment and money laundering via the City.

Litvinenko poisoned in London with polonium? Steady on Vlad, there's pots of money to be made here, don't mess it up! Invasion of Georgia? Too far away, do carry on. Salisbury murder using a WMD? We're very, very cross Vladimir and will have to expel a few obvious spies! Ukraine invasion part 1? A bit more of doing fuck all and let's get rid of our main gas storage as well, what could possibly go wrong?

These corrupt, entitled pricks have no right to say another word on the matter. If they think nurses etc should freeze and starve to fix the problems they created then they will soon have problems to worry about much closer to home than those originating in Beijing or Moscow, as civil unrest cannot be far away.

[edshakey]

One thing that always comes up with these anti-strike/anti-union statements is how...

It is unfair for unions to "disrupt people's lives"

And framing it as an attack on working people.

But it's working people who are striking, because they don't get paid what they deserve, and need. This isn't unions shutting things down for the hell of it, it's working people shutting things down so they can earn enough to live a reasonable decent life.

Hopefully more people will continue to see this for the Tory statements for the lies that they are.

[Wellsy]

I feel like the government's efforts to cast the strikers in a bad light are backfiring mind you, I think the public are increasingly on the side of striking workers

[TobyD]

Despite being a guardian reading leftie, it's not super obvious to me that asylum necessarily 'should' be designed to cover people from 'safe' countries... Maybe it should, but it doesn't seem as obvious to me as you imply

I'm absolutely sure many people arrive in the hope of finding better paid work than they can in their own country,  but something like 70 or 80% get granted asylum according to the home office. 

But this excuse for actual policy is obviously another dog whistle,  they're suggesting moving all arrivals into hotels until they can get flown to Rwanda.  It wouldn't work,  it wont happen,  its absolutely a way to try to signal how tough they are. In cutting the aid budget and leaving the EU,  they've made the issue harder to deal with,  and possibly worse. 

[User deactivated.]

I'm not really sure why i'm posting this, but i'm dismayed by the state of the health service and need to vent, and I guess the reasons for its decline are political to some extent.

My 7-year old daughter has Strep A. She had a severely sore throat, fever and rash, and then began to go downhill with high fever, frequent vomitting, stomach pain, unable to drink or eat. Called the GP - no appointments, obviously. 111 - an hour to get through then 6 hours to be called back by a doctor just to tell us there were no appointments at the out-of-hours clinic and recommended we should go to A&E. Fortunately i'd already gone.

We arrived at A&E to patients queueing out of the door just to get registered. That took an hour, then we were sent to the children's emergency department, which was also queuing out the door. Another hour went by before we got into the waiting room. The waiting room was like being on a train at rush hour with people standing shoulder-to-shoulder because there weren't enough chairs. My daughter was sick all over the floor (and over herself) because there weren't any bowls out and someone was in the toilet. I tried to clean this up with tissue but it took 45 minutes before it was cleaned up properly by staff because they were so busy. All in, we were at the hospital for almost 7 hours before being discharged with antibiotics. At this stage I had to hunt down the pharmacy within the hospital because the prescription was only for pharmacies within the trust, but both the inpatient and outpatient pharmacy were closed and the main reception confirmed i'd have to wait until the next day to get it. I tried blagging it at a Boots pharmacy on the way home, but they were having none of it. Next morning I came back to the hospital on my own and the pharmacy wouldn't let me have the antibiotics because the doctor hadn't signed the prescription. Back to  the children's department and a few hours later I had a signed prescription and could finally get some penicillin to my daughter. She's making a good recovery already and is feeling much better.

Of course this wasn't the worst experience anyone has ever had in a hospital. The experience of the poor families who have recently lost their children to Strep A as a result of inadequate medical intervention is unthinkable (see the news). Still, it was a clear sign to me that things are broken and it felt like a service more fitting of a developing country (i'd wish for better for them too). I'm expecting that my daughter and I will both have new ilnesses later in the week due to how busy it was, full of poorly kids crammed into a small waiting room for hours and hours. The next time I need prescription medicine for myself I would honestly just go to an online pharmacy on the dark web before trying the hospital!

And don't let me forget that we also got booted off our NHS dentist recently without warning, for not having booked an appointment in 12 months. Now a 3 year waiting list to get back in and no others taking on within a 15 mile radius (tomorrow I start making phone calls up to a 20 mile radius) 

[mrjonathanr]

Sorry to read this Liam.  As the parent of a daughter a little older, I can imagine how that might have felt. Horrendous. I hope she makes a quick recovery.

[Bradders]

Fucking hell mate. Thanks for sharing. Hope she's better soon.

All of that is incredible, and no one should have to go through it, but the bit with the prescription only being valid for pharmacies within the trust blows my mind. I can guess why that'll be; so when people prescribed medicine by the trust have to pay the trust for the prescription....

[James Malloch]

That’s awful to hear - I hope you’re daughter keeps getting better. It’s the kind of thing which is making me consider some kind of private health insurance.

A friend has a hernia in his throat which means he can’t exercise without being sick (including walking any real distance). He’s god knows how long into trying to sort it - and had a good year or so wait left in the best case scenario.

One of the worst bits is the postcode lottery attached. Whilst our local hospital didn’t know about the specific treatment he was going to get, their waiting lists were half the length. It made him consider moving to just try to accelerate things.

He can go private but that’s got a £10k price tag attached to it. I don’t know what the answer is but I wouldn’t want to rely on the NHS for anything important at the moment…

[Bradders]

It’s the kind of thing which is making me consider some kind of private health insurance.

Which is exactly how socialised healthcare dies!

Or at least is eroded to the absolute bare minimum.

[User deactivated.]

Thanks for the well wishes.

I also forgot to mention that back in March, neither the midwives nor the ambulance turned up to the birth of my youngest and we had to deliver her on our own. The labour ward had closed due to staff shortages and after calling 999 it took more than half an hour to be connected (imagine if this was to report a stroke, some bleeding to death etc???). Once we were connected it took an hour for the ambulance to arrive even though I live just 4 miles from the hospital. The baby was delivered safely before they arrived

It's an absolute shambles. I have limited private health care through my employer, but I'm going to increase my cover to a full ride for all my family ASAP. I'm fortunate to have the means to do this and I fear that private health care will become normalised over the coming years.

[SA Chris]

2 horror scenarios. Unbelievable that it's as bad as this in some places, and they have the gall to portray striking health workers as the bad guys. I bet every MP has the best private health insurance available.

[James Malloch]

It’s the kind of thing which is making me consider some kind of private health insurance.

Which is exactly how socialised healthcare dies!

Or at least is eroded to the absolute bare minimum.

Yep, you’re probably right. But there’s no way I’d go through what some friends have been through.

In their situation I’d be using my savings to go private, so I may as well get insurance.

Same for dentists. We can’t get an NHS one within any reasonable distance so my last bits cost £600 going private rather than the low NHS cost. But if you need it what other option is there?

[Bradders]

Absolutely wasn't criticising you there James, to be clear.