Big Ben may not have bonged Brexit in
Big Ben may not have bonged Brexit in but I’m sure there will be plenty of clangers to come.
The Government has proclaimed that a mega trade deal will soon be clinched with the Faroe islands. And we’ll have our blue passports back (printed in the EU but no matter). They promise there’ll be even more good news like this.
Brexit may have consigned the UK as an international laughingstock but at least we can now combat the dastardly plans of Eurocrats to foist straight bananas on us.
Without noticing the irony the Government gleefully launched a coin to celebrate Brexit. Marked with the slogan “Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations”, this came as a timely reminder of all that we’ve enjoyed during the past 47 years as a member of the EU, and which we now put at risk.
The Government wants to assure us that its strident negotiating stance will not lead the UK to become a smaller, more insular, and more isolated place led by angry Brexiteers.
But the signs are not good. Time and again during the recent election campaign foreign EU nationals – many who’ve been living, working and paying taxes here for decades – told me how meanness and racism has risen since the referendum. Indeed, a Romanian family running a local business in Helston have been subjected to vandalism, slashing of tyres and dumped dog faeces as Brexit day loomed. Others have been told to “go home now”.
Twenty years ago anti-european MPs (otherwise inaccurately described as “Euro-sceptics”) were considered swivel-eyed, obsessive, bar-room bores who used to stalk the Westminster corridors with acres of personal space around them. Now they’re mainstream and led by a plastic Churchill.
All I can do now is observe from a respectable distance. But I’ll defend the rights of those they seek to bully.
The appalling cavities in local NHS dentistry won’t be fixed by fake concern. I note the Conservative MP is adopting his familiar routine of responding to a real public concern with purposeful sounding activity intended to mask his culpability. Just as he did with the haemorrhaging of local post offices, the closure of Edward Hain Hospital and much else..
The problem with a Conservative MP complaining about the inadequacy of NHS dentistry is that it is a direct result of their Party’s policy. Dentists correctly warn the situation is unsustainable. The Government must reform the discredited contract system and end historic underfunding.
NHS dentistry is important not just for cosmetic and other dental benefits, but because poor dental health can lead to wider health detriment and serious and life threatening conditions.
Warm congratulations. The Cornish film Bait successfully reeled in the Bafta judges this week. Magnificent effort which put Cornwall’s housing injustice out there.
And congratulations to PM Johnson for successfully mouthing the right words on climate change this week, and helpfully flanked by the God of environmentalism, Sir David Attenborough. Even though he evidently hasn’t a clue what it means nor recognises the contradictions with all his Conservatives have done, voted for and said. But even he deserves credit when he adopts a more acceptable script. Though the contrast between words and deeds will be the evidence of his sincerity…or lack of it.