Category: NHS

Do or Die

Updated on

15/05/2023 by author

Here is a roundup of Brexit news in case you are bored with COVID apathy. Remember COVID is a crisis. Brexit a disaster in slow motion. Brexit will make the bigger impact on our country in the long run. The toxic combination of Corona + Brexit = a Britastrophe. We must pull back from a Do or Die Brexit. Your ditch awaits Mr Johnson.

Down on the farm

I watched with dismay, as Parliament voted to lower our food standards. This opens the door to hormone fed beef, chlorinated chicken and a host of other dodgy practices. In case you think this doesn’t matter, US cases of food poisoning are some 10 times higher than our country.

I have mixed feelings about the farmers. I helped Liz Webster, PPC for Swindon, gain the only TV coverage for the Lib Dems in the entire South West in 2017. Liz organised the farmers marches. I attended the last event to be told that they did not wish to mention Brexit, as the issue was toxic. Instead they protest to save themselves. Parochial self-interest is a hardy perennial problem of Remain. There is a hierarchy of problems here with Brexit at the apex. In other words, stopping Brexit leads to solutions to other issues such as food standards, EU citizens rights and so on. But people would rather form into silos (sic), allowing our Government to operate “divide and rule” politics. Oh well, the farmers have been composted and we all lose.

Die Another Day

We’ve had “Do or Die” and “Die in a Ditch” from Boris Johnson, so we may as well have “Die Another Day” or “Live and Let Die”. Brexit negotiations remain deadlocked. Johnson is trapped by the ERG on one side, funded by Russia and wanting No Deal, which nobody voted for. He is also confounded by the EU, who must satisfy the four freedoms and protect their enterprise. It is always unwise to capitulate to bullies. The EU cannot give Britain a better deal for less money, as it will threaten the cohesion of the other 27 member states. I covered this point in the post Brexit Choices.

Why then are the negotiations deadlocked? Quite simply the “mechanics” of Brexit remain unresolvable. By moving one part of the puzzle to resolve one issue, the other parts become entangled. It’s what we call a “Wicked Problem” in consulting circles. Wicked problem do not lend themselves to simple solutions as Boris Johnson would like to believe. As reported last year, changing the leader or applying more “bluster” does not alter the underlying problems that exist with Brexit.

BOJONA-20

The latest instalment of industrial scale lies and gaslighting comes from yesterday’s COVID announcements. With £40 Billion worth of tax rises now inevitable, let’s examine some COVID facts that Boris Johnson must have missed whilst chasing a violinist …

Scientists advised the Government to install circuit breakers to stop Corona contagion on September 21, 2020. Ignored.

Professor Chris Witty told the Government that that the latest COVID rules will not be enough to contain the virus. Ignored.

Keir Starmer has just asked the Prime Minister to follow the science and install a 2-3 week circuit breaker across the UK. I predict he will either be ignored or blamed for the deaths already baked in by Johnson’s lack of action from mid-September, when he was talking about “Getting Christmas Done”. This is a repeat performance from February, when Johnson was more concerned with bonging bells, shaking hands and minting 50 pence coins than running the country.

Too Little, Too Late, pre-occupied with Brexit — 670 NHS deaths during the first wave due to inaction. 30 000 unnecessary deaths overall

Test and Trace is still not working, despite Matt Hancock promising to get it up and running many months ago. Without measurement, there can be no management of COVID and the idea of “Controlling the Virus” is at best fanciful, at worst dangerous.

Bojona-20 - Putting the K in ILL — Still pursuing Cummings eugenics aka herd immunity model

In case you think that the idea of unnecessary deaths are a feature of Brexit, please read what Wendy Novak has to say on the matter at Brexit : A matter of life or death.

Meanwhile £3 BILLION of your taxes has mysteriously disappeared on Government COVID contracts handed out to friends and cronies.

Hard facts on COVID + Brexit = Britastrophe

And Johnson now does not want to appear in front of the public, having hired Allegra Stratton to handle “comms” so he can move on to pursue more important matters.

The lesson for us all is neatly summed up by James O’Brien:

The four key lessons of the first lockdown:
1) Going in late makes everything worse.
2) Coming out early makes everything worse.
3) Not using it to get proper Test, Track & Trace in place makes everything worse.
4) Unclear messaging makes everything worse.

And yet here we are.
— James O'Brien (@mrjamesob) October 13, 2020

Britastrophe

Happy now?

Do or Die Brexit in a ditch Johnson?

What are you waiting for?

Take Action

Report MP’s for breaking international law.

Write to your MP and ask them to make Better Brexit Choices for a Better Britain, by opposing reckless behaviour by the Cabinet.

Snitch on MPs for breaking international law.

Do or Die Brexit

Posted in Boris Johnson, Brexit, Britastrophe, Corona, Economics, Environment, Farming, NHS, Politics, Russia, Trump | Leave a reply

Populism will eat itself

Updated on

14/05/2023 by author

Peter Cook

Remember, the withdrawal agreement was a 2019 ELECTION PROMISE. It’s not even a year on and Johnson has broken his marriage vows, his election promises and caused at least 30 000 unnecessary deaths. Are you still happy about this?

Write to your MP and demand that Boris admits that he lied to win the election. Ask them to oppose Johnson’s reckless Brexit.

Posted in Borders, Boris Johnson, Brexit, Britastrophe, Corona, Cummings, Farage, Gutter Press, NHS, Politics, Russia | Leave a reply

Dressing down for COVID

Updated on

14/05/2023 by author

Peter Cook

Britain has abandoned a £75 million plan to make vital items of reusable protective clothing to guard against a second wave of Covid-19. The plan had been drawn up in negotiations between the Cabinet Office – responsible for key government policies – and industry after criticism in March that the government had failed to build up stocks of PPE. Shortages of gowns and related items in hospitals and care homes were widely blamed for the rapid early spread of the virus, leading to a high death rate of more than 41,000 (in all probablility more than double that due to changing the metrics and slippery accounting). which made the UK fifth-worst in the world,

As well as meeting NHS needs, the plan had two ambitious and beneficial goals:

To support the UK textile industry. Most protective garments are imported from low-cost nations. The millions of protective gowns for our health workers would have come from UK factories.
To reduce waste. Protective gowns are mostly discarded after one use, adding to the UK’s waste mountain. The gowns to be produced with new technology could be reused up to 100 times each.

In addition, a centralised UK programme would have ensured compliance with rigid quality standards which cheap overseas suppliers have too often failed to meet. Orders for foreign gowns have proved to be sub-standard and unusable, causing unanticipated shortages. But 3 months of talks between industry and the Cabinet Office have ground to a halt after officials failed to agree the details of the scheme. The discussions ended after officials realised that, following protracted delays , many health trusts had placed their own local orders for gowns, reducing the need for the project. The Government has not announced the ending of the talks.

The cancellation of the project has been heavily criticised by industry. Adam Mansell, chief executive of the UK Fashion & Textile Association, representing manufacturers, designers and suppliers, said:

“There had been a fantastic opportunity for the government to tap into Britain’s technical expertise on textiles to set up a sustainable supply of reusable gowns made in the UK. The way the government has handled this project has been poor and says little for its commitment to help UK manufacturing.”

Yvette Ashby, chief executive of the Professional Clothing Industry Association Worldwide, added:

“The people working on this [in the Cabinet Office] appear to have little understanding of how the textile industry works. Their approach has sometimes appeared chaotic.”

Japanese textile maker Toray – which would have made most of the material for the project in a plant in Mansfield – said the Cabinet Office had been “slow and indecisive”. Had the government committed to the project, Toray said it would have been ready to increase investment in its UK plant.

David Stevens, chief executive of the Textiles Services Association, representing laundries which would have recycled the gowns (by washing each one 40-100 times) said the plan would have made “a lot of sense from both an environmental and economic perspective”.

Heathcoat Fabrics, with a big factory in Devon, said the failure of the talks was “a huge opportunity missed to not only eliminate any future supply issues but to also help the domestic textile industry at a time when jobs and unemployment are going to be a key issue”.

Officials may have had problems with the proposal to spread manufacturing around the country, preferring it to be concentrated in a few places. If so, this seems to be more a case of “Dressing Down” rather than “levelling up” poorer regions by Johnson’s Government, (where many of the UK textiles businesses are distributed). But the main factor was that while the talks were dragging on – with no sign that officials were close to a decision – many of the over 200 individual health trusts around the UK opted not to wait for the outcome, but instead placed their own orders, to avoid being caught out again by a second wave of the pandemic. Cabinet Office officials failed to foresee this result of their dithering. This has enabled the major suppliers of gowns from overseas to continue to dominate a market which British industry could have reclaimed as its own, The Cabinet Office under Dominic Cummings has failed to provide a sustainable and reliable supply of PPE equipment, of sufficiently high standards to meet NHS needs and providing badly needed employment to our textile industry.

The responsibility for this debacle rests squarely on Cummings and his rabble of advisors imported into Number 10.

They are not competent to handle commercial affairs and should be debarred from any future involvement in COVID procurement activity.

Write to your MP with this article via WRITE TO THEM.

Posted in Boris Johnson, Britastrophe, Corona, Cummings, NHS, Politics | Leave a reply

The Drugs Don’t Work

Updated on

14/05/2023 by author

Peter Cook

In this post, Wendy Nowak outlines the real issues facing those of you on medication if we allow Brexit to happen.

The Facts of Life … and Death

Believe it or not many of you will be affected by medicine shortages if Brexit happens come 31^st December 2020. Here I explain why I’ve been extremely worried for the past two years.

As soon as I heard rumours about shortages of medicines, alarm bells started ringing in my head. They are ringing even louder these days. I’m Type 2 diabetic and am prescribed insulin to control it, which is sometimes the case with Type 2s. Without insulin the complications of uncontrolled diabetes are dire

Blindness
Kidney failure
Cardio vascular disease
Amputation

By the way, Type 1 diabetics are totally dependent on insulin for survival. Only about 0.5% of the insulin used in the UK is manufactured here. It is also animal insulin which not many diabetics can take. The rest comes mainly from Denmark or Germany, from the big manufacturers Novo Nordisk and Sanofi Deutschland. The other issue with insulin is that, being temperature sensitive, it is not easy to stockpile. Before the last Brexit deadline the government promised they would buy loads of extra fridges and engage a wonderful ferry company to ship over our meds. Remember Seabourne? They didn’t actually have any ferries. Another government scam, which made me fear for my life even more.

Editor’s note: This has been the case for many years. In my early years I worked at Wellcome who used to make much of the supply of beef insulin. I worked on the breakthrough treatment of human insulin with Novo Nordisk. A proud moment in my life, only to be thrown away by a government that only understands money rather than quality of life and lies systematically to make us forget the meaning of life.

A group small group of us, one of whom is a retired medic, got together online to organise demos and die-ins, along with FB posts and tweets, to raise awareness of this issue. Considering the fact that this is a life or death issue the response from the British media and public has been appalling, which also worries me. Despite numerous requests, the British media have more or less ignored us, up until fairly recently anyway. Comments from the public ranged from brexiteers who basically don’t care if they or their relatives die as long as they get their blue passport (which isn’t actually blue!) to those who don’t quite understand the extent of the chaos we are facing. That could be down to lack of coverage in the media. There was also disbelief when faced with the hard facts which we laid before them, ie. The repeated warnings to the government from the medics and the pharma industry about shortages.

Are you prepared to see loved ones die for a blue passport?

Why we should all be worried?

Three quarters of our med supplies come from Europe. That figure is quoted in the government Yellowhammer report. It’s not just about me and it’s not just about diabetes. It affects thousands of patients, including those suffering from cancer, those on dialysis, asthma, epilepsy, glaucoma, rheumatoid arthritis, many immune deficiencies and many more. Anybody could be diagnosed with any of these conditions at any time.

The UK is pulling out of EURATOM, which guarantees our supply and ensures the safety of nuclear materials. The radioisotopes necessary for cancer treatment and diagnostic scans are at risk. They are also imported from Europe, are extremely time sensitive and cannot be stockpiled. Cancer patients are already being told that they will not be prioritised for treatment because they are over a certain age. Are you OK with that?

Who cares about Brexit?

Uncool for Cats

Many veterinary medicines are also imported. These face the same issues as our own. Brexit has also caused a shortage of EU vets (as indeed it has among our NHS staff) who have had enough of the hostile environment which now exists in the UK. Not only are our pets at risk, but these vets also monitor our farm animals and help to uphold our food standards. Once again the warning went out a couple of years ago when we staged the Wooferendum marches. Once again, not enough people listened.

Join us at Cats Against Brexit Mayhem

COVID + BREXIT = BRITASTROPHE

We had a stockpile of medicines (well, at least of those which can be stockpiled) as a no-deal contingency. The pandemic has eroded these away, which leaves us in a dire situation in the event of no-deal. This is before any second COVID wave hits us.

What am doing about this?

I have a bit of a dilemma. As a diabetic I have to ensure I don’t catch the virus, but if I sit back and do nothing I face severe illness or death from med shortages. My risk assessment is that I can take precautions against COVID, such as wearing a mask, social distancing, hand-washing, but there’s nothing I can do if my meds run out. I go out protesting, socially distanced of course! As I’ve been told many times ‘the government doesn’t care about you’. To everyone who thinks it’s okay to say that and then do nothing I say, ‘get out there’. We the oppressed people of the UK need to show the government that WE care and we are willing to do hammer home that message. We are not willing to endure medicine, and indeed food shortages (I and many others need a healthy diet), enabled by their deception and corruption.

What can you do about this?

Write to your MP using this as a basis for your arguments. Ask for Brexit to be suspended.

Get out on the streets as Wendy suggests. It’s not too late to stop Brexit. Join us at Rage Against Brexit.

Posted in Borders, Brexit, Cummings, NHS, Politics | 5 Replies

Indecent Proposals

Updated on

14/05/2023 by author

Peter Cook

The theme for our weekly roundup is “indecent proposals”. No, not the movie, but the continuing stream of outrageous law breaking, morally reprehensible behaviours of our ruling elite, moral hazard and cronyism.

How much are you worth?

We begin with a question. What would you be prepared to do in order to earn £175 000 for two days work per week? Seriously? Ask Boris Johnson.

Judgement day

Brexit has spawned a culture of mistrust amidst politicians and a response to “Take Back Control” through an assault on all the checks and balances that exist to prevent politicians acting as dictators. Last year we had the pro-rogation of Parliament when Boris Johnson could not get his own way re Brexit. This year there are moves afoot to suppress the power of judges. These are the behaviours of a banana republic.

Backbones needed

How happy are you to know that we have left the EU only to find that our Government is now controlled by agents of Vladimir Putin? This has been brilliantly articulated by Garry Lawrence who has sent 34 Tory MP’s a white feather in the post as an award for cowardice.

Hunt the rapist

The Tory party still refuse to take action on the rapist MP in their midst. In all other walks of life they would have been suspended. Whilst we understand that the law must also be allowed to take its course, in the specific example of public figures, the problem of not taking action is two-fold:

Everyone will be under suspicion in the interim.
The longer this goes on, the more damage to the reputation of the Tory party.
Then, of course, there is the poor victim to consider. That does not seem to be on the list of concerns for Boris Johnson

Austerity II

“Dishy Rishi” Sunak may soon no longer be the Tory poster boy, after it was revealed that he plans to raise taxes to pay for the Corona + Brexit Britastrophe.

Burying bad news

Our correspondent in Winchester was gobsmacked when she found out that the investigation into Cambridge Analytica has been called off by the ICO. This is the latest in a series of failures to respect democracy, the very thing that Leave voters say they voted for.

Shooting Stars

In our continuing culture wars, we were astonished to learn that a key advisor appointed by Dominic Cummings suggested that Police use live rounds on Black Lives Matter protestors.

Posted in Brexit, Corona, Cummings, Farage, NHS, Politics, Russia | 1 Reply

Dead Cats and Real News

Updated on

14/05/2023 by author

Peter Cook

Our Government have resorted to putting lots of dead cats in the way of the real news about Brexit, COVID and so on. So this week, we have resorted to providing a whole front page dedicated to dead cats and the other to news.

The Daily Maul – To read more like this click on the image

If you MP voted for the Enabling Act and is a barrister, report them to the bar via Report your MP

If your MP voted for the Enabling Act, write to them via Write to Them. Explain the consequences of breaking international law.

Posted in Borders, Boris Johnson, Brexit, Britastrophe, Corona, Cummings, Farage, Gutter Press, NHS, Politics, Russia | Leave a reply

What troubles me most ?

Updated on

14/05/2023 by author

Peter Cook

You know what really troubles me about our Government? It’s the fact that nobody gives a damn about being lied to on a daily basis. My own brother typifies the condition known as learned helplessness, when he points out that he was lied to in 1996 about his pension by the Government and so he now expects to be lied to on a daily basis. Although he voted to Remain, he has swallowed the lie that we must not interfere with the “will of the people”, nor does he understand how he might go about this if he did.

Click on the image to read Reboot Britain

Mike Cashman devised an interesting way to test the nation’s agreeableness to being lied to with his “acceptometer”. It asks you to decide whereabouts on a Likert scale you are prepared to accept being lied to on a daily basis by politicians. Test yourself on this simple example:

It occurred to me that this very dark piece of music I wrote a while back sums up the essential value conflict that Mike speaks of. In the piece Nigel Farage reflects on the poverty of his existence in a kind of confessional, set against a very dark backdrop of synths and saxes in a retro futurist jazz mashup. This is not pop music!

We are donkeys

We will be taking the Bollocks to Brexit Mini Cooper out again soon with your support. We are looking at Hampshire, Yorkshire, Kent, Essex and London but are open to offers from feisty campaigners. Please provide your support via Bollocks. We take no prisoners.

Posted in Borders, Brexit, Corona, Cummings, Farage, NHS, Politics, Russia | Tagged Conservatives | Leave a reply

Later with Jools Holland

Updated on

14/05/2023 by author

Peter Cook

Today we visited Cooling Castle, home of Jools Holland with the Bollocks to Brexit Mini Cooper. Here is a report from our resident maritime consultant and Brexit sea dog Don.

At Cooling Castle

I arrived at the rendezvous at 5 bells in the Afternoon Watch. That is 14.30 for landlubbers and when the big hand is on the six and the little hand is on the two for Gammons and Tories. My fellow Saboteurs came separately. For those who have not been paying attention “Saboteur” is the term of derision that Gammons and Tories chose to refer to decent people who oppose Brexit. The term quickly fell out of favour in Gammon and Tory circles when we pointed out that “Saboteur” was what Vichyites called the French Resistance. Comparing me to the French Resistance is about the nicest thing anybody ever said about me. I took it as a compliment: Vive les Saboteurs! “Vive la Resistance” Merde a Brexit!

Alo’ Vera – Brexit’s Comin’ ‘Ome

The Bulwarks to Brexitmobile led the convoy and we drove around the environs. We set up a stall in Gillingham High Street near the church and our musical director set up his gear and serenaded us with anti-Brexit music. I chose a spot where I could keep a look out for Gammons, Tories and nobbled coppers. We did not hand out leaflets for social distancing reasons. I saw somebody advance purposefully towards our musical director. I thought I might be needed but I did the newcomer an injustice. He wanted to get involved. Took a couple of our flags and joined in the fun.

Nigel Farage’s Garage – one of the songs we performed on the street

A few people gave filthy looks and made vulgar gestures then moved on quickly. For the most part people were supportive, gave the thumbs up and wanted to photograph us. After a while we set off for Rochester. It was much the same there. Some people walked off pointedly refusing to look at us while others gave the thumbs up. By this time my old knee injury was playing up so I decided to call it a day. I can walk for miles and feel better for it but standing around plays havoc with my old injuries.

People in Ashford are unhappy about recent developments. It has sunk in that Brexit is going to cause delays at Customs so this hopeless inept government is setting up a huge lorry park for stranded trade vehicles. The site had been chosen for a new Amazon facility that would have provided employment. Instead they are going to get trucks belching diesel fumes because the drivers will need to run the engines to keep refrigeration plants working. That will not improve the atmosphere at all. This is not the earthly paradise that the people of East Kent thought they would get when they voted for Brexit.

The Brexit Mindset summed up

Tomorrow we go to Tunbridge Wells on a circular tour starting at 11.00:

Route will include London Rd, High St, Sainsbury car park, Mt Pleasant, Town Hall, Monson Rd, Camden Rd, Powdermill Lane, Southboro High St. Then back down St John’s Rd, Mt Ephraim Rd, brief stop at Victoria Place, back up Lime Hill to London Rd.

There remains a possibility to visit Hythe and East Kent later on tomorrow

Posted in Brexit, Corona, Cummings, NHS, Politics | Tagged Brexit, Corona, Cummings, NHS, Politics | 1 Reply

Tory Party Conference

Updated on

02/05/2023 by author

Peter Cook

We have just produced these materials for the Tory Party Conference. Please share them widely:

Tory Brexit Scum is a Country and Western Punk Rock song by the band X RAY BREX. Download the album via Bandcamp. PG rated.

Tory Brexit Scum – see how they run …

And just for balance, we conducted an interview with BBC One News this week. We made the point that support for Labour was conditional on them opposing Brexit, which is perfectly possible, despite a load of bullshit from some areas of Labour. The BBC cut our comment on Brexit, naturally, but it was mentioned by Rosie Duffield. See below:

Posted in Brexit, Brexorcism, Britain, Europe, Leadership, Liz Truss, NHS, Northern Ireland, Politics, Russia, Sovereignty | 2 Replies

The NHS and Brexit

Updated on

02/05/2023 by author

Peter Cook

From a friend … This tells the story of the reality of Tory Brexit cuts in graphic detail …

Hi everyone, just want to explain to you all why I have been quiet since before Christmas.
Also to those of you that may be a bit cynical that the A&E is not in as bad a crisis as it seems.
I can tell you the images that are shown on TV are the easy on the eye images.
This is my experience please read to the end …
Before Christmas I had the flu virus. I made two attempts to get a doctor’s appointment. Both failed and I ended up needing antibiotics for what took place subsequently.
On Christmas Day I was in so much pain was taken to Medway hospital by ambulance had intravenous antibiotics sent home to come back Wednesday
On Wednesday attended SDEC (Same Day Emergency Care) after X-rays and bloods I was told I had severe pneumonia and pleurisy with infected fluid around my lung.
As no bed available I was sat in a recliner chair in SDEC treatment room 1.
There I stayed for 5 days.
There were 14 patients waiting for beds in an area that is not set up for long term patients hence SDEC.
in the day the general public and A&E patients were coming in for treatment next to us.
I was having constant iv painkillers antibiotics saline oxygen and nebuliser with all this going on around me.
As not a ward there were no washing facilities we had to use a public toilet which was often filthy NHS is short of cleaners.
I was left sitting in my own urine and diarrhoea as was too weak to walk out to the toilet. I vomited all down myself but no nurse was available to help me . The other patients were trying to help each other.
I honestly thought I would die in there.
The nurses were writing notes on paper towels as they had no paper.
Took 3 days to get a pillow and blanket.
I do not blame the nurses and other staff at all. They are so over worked and kept apologising for the situation. They are not equipped in that area for long term patients.
They had to search for breakfast and meals for us.
On the 6th day I was moved to a ward normally I hate going in to a ward but when I got there it felt as if I had stepped in to heaven it was clean, calm and quiet and when the nurse said would I like a wash (I had not had a wash for 6 days and had sores on my bottom).
I broke down sobbing. I had been so traumatised by what I experienced the nurse sat and held my hand to calm me.
I was in that ward for 2 days it felt like heaven.
I am now home with a 6 week recovery.
I do not blame the staff at the hospital.
I blame the Government.
“To get Brexit done“ they promised.
“To put £350 million EVERY WEEK into The NHS”.
“To build 40 new hospitals”.
“To fund and train 50,000 nurses”.
40, 000 have left the profession.
They have not delivered any of the above.
Our NHS is broken, A&E is in crisis and we need another A&E hospital towards Swale to cope with the amount of houses being built in Kent.
I am totally traumatised by what I experienced. No one should go to hospital and have to go through that.
Fuck The Tories.
This is their doing. They need to make it good.