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BREXIT PARTY STANDING DOWN IN HAVANT SHOWS FARAGE WORRIED ABOUT LIB DEMS STOPPING BREXIT

Responding to the news that Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party will not be standing a candidate in Havant, Liberal Democrat candidate, Paul Gray said:

“Nigel Farage’s comments show he is running scared of the Liberal Democrats as the strongest Remain party in areas like Havant. He knows that we are the only party at this election that can take seats like Havant from the Conservatives and stop Brexit.

Nigel Farage looking startled
Source: Libdemvoice.org

“Boris Johnson’s Conservatives and the Brexit party are now one and the same. Both want to see an extreme Brexit that will damage our local economy, public services and limit opportunities for our children and grandchildren.

“Voters in Havant have a historic opportunity at this election to elect a Liberal Democrat MP, stop Brexit and build a brighter future for our country.”

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NHS in Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust area could lose 256 EU staff because of Brexit

The NHS in the Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust area could lose 256 staff from the EU as a result of Theresa May’s extreme version of Brexit, the Liberal Democrats have warned.

42% of nurses and over half of all doctors from the EU are considering leaving because of Brexit, according to recent research. This means in the Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust area, an estimated 256 NHS staff are at risk of leaving including 48 doctors and 151 nurses.

This would create a £1.99m bill to re-hire doctors and nurses from the EU after 2019, due to Theresa May’s plans for a £2000 immigration skills charge for each doctor, nurse and health worker brought in from abroad.

The Liberal Democrats have called for an immediate guarantee that all EU nationals in the UK, including those working in the NHS and social care, can stay after Brexit.

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate for Havant Paul Gray said:

“Hospitals in the Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust area depend on doctors, nurses and other support staff from the EU. But many are now planning to leave because of the uncertainty caused by Brexit.

“We must guarantee their rights to stay here immediately to prevent a damaging exodus of these skilled and hard-working people. Our NHS, and the care we all rely on, would suffer without them.

“The NHS is far too precious to be damaged by Theresa May’s decision to pursue a UKIP-style Brexit.

“The Liberal Democrats stand up to Theresa May’s extreme Brexit and give the people the final say, with the choice to remain in the European Union if they don’t like the deal on offer.”

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Clegg: NHS will be left with Theresa May’s £265m Brexit bill

Brexit will inflict serious staff shortages on the NHS creating a £265m bill to re-hire doctors and nurses from the EU after 2019, research by the Liberal Democrats has revealed.

Survey data suggests up to 26,500 members of NHS staff from the EU could leave the UK as a direct result of Brexit, while the number of EU nationals registering as nurses in the UK has already fallen by 90% since the referendum.

Liberal Democrat research shows the NHS will need to spend more than £265m to replace staff from the EU over the next five years, a Brexit bill of £1m per week, as a result of the Conservatives’ immigration skills charge on employers. This is on top of the £59bn blow to the public finances from Brexit over the next five years.

Commenting on the figures, Liberal Democrat European Union spokesperson Nick Clegg said:

“The Leave campaign promised that exiting the EU would free up £350m a week for the NHS. It’s long been clear this was a lie, and now we know that Theresa May’s choice of an extreme Brexit will in fact place yet more financial demands on a health service already under considerable strain.

“The NHS is heavily dependent on doctors, nurses and other support staff from the EU, many of whom are now planning to leave the country because their rights have not been guaranteed.

“These are skilled and hard-working people, who all work tirelessly to look after all of us. Our NHS, and the care we all rely on, will suffer without them.

“It will cost the NHS around £265m to bring in EU staff to fill these jobs over the next 5 years, a wholly unnecessary burden at a time when the NHS is being asked to make dramatic efficiency savings.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg. We already know the government is borrowing an additional £15bn a year as a direct result of the EU referendum – money which could otherwise be spent directly on the NHS.

“The NHS is far too precious to be damaged by Theresa May’s decision to pursue a UKIP-style Brexit.

“The Liberal Democrats will stand up to Theresa May’s extreme Brexit and give the people the final say, with the choice to remain in the European Union if they don’t like the deal on offer.”

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Ryanair Brexit warning shows risk of “no deal” for UK travellers


Ryanair has warned the UK is heading for an “ugly divorce” from Europe, and that leaving the EU without a bilateral deal could mean very restricted or no flying between the UK and Europe.

They also warned that Theresa May’s plans to leave the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice would mean Britain will leave the Open Skies agreement which governs flights between the UK and Europe.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said:

“This is the reality of Theresa May’s extreme version of Brexit and insistence we could just crash out of the EU without a deal.

“Jobs could be lost, flights disrupted and British travellers’ lives thrown into chaos, but Theresa May doesn’t care.

“We will fight for a better deal on Europe and to give people a chance to reject a disastrous Brexit.

“The British people should be able to decide whether Theresa May’s Brexit deal is right for them, with the choice to remain in the EU if they don’t like what’s on offer.”

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Clegg: May’s approach to Brexit is a threat to national security

Nick Clegg has accused Theresa May of putting national security at risk by pursuing an extreme Brexit that will see Britain locked out of an EU police database used by UK police and security services 16 times a second.

The Schengen Information System (SIS II) is an EU-wide database on organised criminal and terrorist suspects across 28 countries, including 35,000 people wanted under a European Arrest Warrant. It includes alerts on suspected ‘foreign fighters’ – people who have travelled to Syria and elsewhere to fight for ISIS.

  • UK police and security services queried the database over half a billion times in 2016 – equivalent to 16 checks a second.
  • 53 people are detained and questioned under anti-terrorism laws at ports and airports every day, where they can be checked against the database by UK Border Force officers.
  • In April 2016, the UK received 25 hits on alerts issued by other participating countries in relation to individuals who could pose a risk to national security.
  • The UK would lose access to the database under Theresa May’s plans to leave the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. Unless this position changes, UK authorities will see their access to the database cut off on 29th March 2019.

Nick Clegg has challenged Theresa May to answer three vital questions:

  1. How will we maintain access to SIS II without accepting the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice?
  2. What contingency plans has she put in place to mitigate the loss of this information on the movement of terrorist suspects across the continent?
  3. How will we issue instructions to other EU countries to stop and question terror suspects if we are no longer part of this system?

Nick Clegg commented:

“Theresa May’s extreme approach to Brexit will have the direct consequence of severing our ties to a fantastically useful weapon in our armoury against terrorism. By refusing to accept a role for the European Court of Justice in policing this European-wide database, she has ruled out our future participation it. “
 
“It is hard to overstate the importance of this database. We check it 16 times a second, looking for security threats that have been flagged to us by other European countries. And we use it to tell other countries to stop and question people who we think are potential terrorists. This is euroscepticism gone mad. If she fails to back down, Theresa May’s approach to Brexit poses a direct threat to our national security.”

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Theresa May and the Fall of Empire

 

An open letter to our PM care of Tom Rayner. This I feel was certainly worth republishing.

HOW ARE YOU FEELING NOW, THERESA?

Dear Theresa

I hope it has all been worth it.

As leader of the Conservative Party and UK Prime Minister, I imagine your life’s ambition has now been realised. A little bit of luck involved, perhaps, and nothing as vulgar or complicated as actually having to win a General Election, or even a party leadership contest. No. It all just sort of fell into your lap really.

Of course there was the small matter of having to ditch your principles over the EU referendum, where you made clear and credible arguments against the UK leaving the EU and rightly pointed out the damage this would do the the UK economy. But what is that to a battle hardened politician like yourself, particularly in this post truth environment we suddenly find ourselves in? The will of the people had to be respected after all.

No matter that apart from 37% of the eligible electorate registering a desire to leave the EU, it is impossible to know exactly what this means. Or how this might have changed now that lies about NHS funding have been exposed and the route you are taking for Brexit has become clearer. A route that takes us out of the single market and customs union, against your manifesto commitment, your own instincts, and the historic tradition of the Conservative Party, where Margaret Thatcher herself championed the benefits. A route that endless experts, including HM Treasury’s own economists, have warned will lead to massive economic damage and put thousands of jobs at risk.

No matter that the EU referendum was deliberately set up to be advisory, the only credible explanation for why a minimum two thirds majority was not demanded, as is normal when the outcome involves potential constitutional change. Why worry yourself with inconvenient truths like this when you are in the driving seat and call the shots? Why, indeed, when we have an opposition leader so derided and devalued that there is no-one to act as a restraint on what you now feel empowered to do?

Having subdued parliament and threatened The Lords with abolition for merely performing their constitutional duty you are on the verge of triggering Article 50, something you bizarrely wish to do with no safety net in place.

But how are you feeling now Theresa?

Things seem to be slipping in the wrong direction don’t you think? You thought that the SNP would be cowed and would pull back from demanding a 2nd referendum given the undeniable economic risks this might pose for Scotland.

But you were wrong.

And you will most likely be wrong about Ireland as well, where the reinstatement of a hard border between the North and the South will lead to irreparable damage to The Good Friday Agreement and potentially reignite hostilities and/or lead to calls for a United Ireland. Maybe your famed political instincts are starting to let you down at a crucial moment. A bit like the budget, where it seems you are quite happy to throw your Chancellor Philip Hammond to the wolves. Surely that is not because he is seen as too soft on Brexit, whereas you are a true convert?  The ultimate reformed smoker but in reverse.

So what will be the glorious legacy of your time as our Prime Minister? You might think history looks unkindly on Tony Blair’s legacy because of the Iraq War, and you are right, but he did not preside over the break up of the United Kingdom itself. I think you might trump even him with that one.

Your speech at the Tory Party Conference was bad enough, where comments about Citizens of the World demonstrated poor judgement and something of a nasty side. Ironic from the person famed for once castigating her own party of being the “nasty party”. And then there was the rushing over to the US to hold hands with Trump and the promise of a state visit. Pretty awful too. A bit like watching your grandparents snog.

But where you have really screwed up is by treating the Single Market with such contempt. Not even the most ardent Leave campaigners proactively argued that the Single Market was a bad thing by definition. How can it be? Unhindered access to a market of more than half a billion people “on our doorstep”, as Thatcher put it all those years ago.

What this has done is expose you as an ideologue, whose obsession with immigration has led you to ignore what is undisputedly best for the economy and the majority of the UK population, regardless of how they voted in the referendum.

Let’s hope for your sake that Article 50 is ruled to be reversible by the European Court of Justice providing a potential escape route for the country. Because without one the United Kingdom, the country of which you are currently the Prime Minister, may cease to exist due to your policy of hard Brexit driving Scotland towards a 2nd independence referendum.

And think about that. A Union that has stood for over 300 years, one that has seen its populations stand together through two World Wars, gone in a flash. And for what? A desire to pander to a specific element within your party that would like to see the UK turned into some form of low welfare, unregulated, tax haven for the super rich.

Is that really what you want your legacy to be?

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What Led to the Brexit Vote?

James O'Brien

I found an interesting blog post called The Great British Con about how Britain came to vote for Brexit.

The views are not necessarily shared by me but serious questions are raised about just how and why we got to our current position as a country.

We hear a lot about the “left behind.” And rightly so. Social division tends to result in a pressure cooker effect. When it blows, the targets are rarely the source of the problem, hence the EU being blamed for failures of the British government.

I’m open to discuss the issues raised and encourage comment and debate from both sides of the debate.