Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[The Larch]

Breaking: Geronimo the alpaca is dead.

Goodbye England's rose

[Syt]

Lionel Shriver

https://twitter.com/MisterABK/status/1432707302629552132?s=20

Alasdair Beckett-King
@MisterABK

Lionel Shriver, a professional shriver of Lionels, has heard the confessions of every Lionel, taken on their sins and absolved them. And now you ask me to condemn her?

Okay, sure. 100%

[Sheilbh]

[...]

I have loved the Harambe-Geronimo images - though I feel they show a slight lack of respect to Geronimo by not including Prince Philip, Lady Di, Captain Tom and some poppies.


I also quite enoyed this one:

"Arrest me? What is the charge? Eating a meal? A succulent Chinese meal?"

[The Larch]

Going back to shortages in the UK...

NHS blood test tube shortage: Doctors 'facing difficult choices'

GPs are having to make difficult choices about which patients get blood tests because of the ongoing shortage of test tubes, doctors are warning.

The vials used for blood tests are currently in short supply - and the NHS in England and Wales is temporarily stopping all non-urgent testing.

Doctors say they are in a "perilous" situation and want more clarity about how long the shortage will last.

The government says it is working flat out with the supplier.

There are currently global shortages of blood tube products and company Becton Dickinson - which makes vials for the health service - is among those facing serious supply chain issues.

Becton Dickinson said it had seen record demand for its blood collection tubes in recent months, partly driven by the need for tests for Covid patients. It also said it was facing issues transporting the tubes, for example, challenges at the UK border.

Because of the shortage, the NHS in England and Wales has told surgeries and hospitals to temporarily stop some blood testing - with patients told they will only be able to get tests if they are urgent.

The tests put on hold include those for fertility, allergies and pre-diabetes - and the shortage will likely worsen over the next few weeks and last until mid-September, NHS England said.

Geraldine Gray, 65, from Nottingham, told the BBC the problems had been going on for several weeks. She had a blood test booked two weeks ago to diagnose a potential blood disorder, but it was cancelled.

"The day before I was due to have it, a receptionist rang up and said they were having to cancel certain blood tests... and the doctors had been through the lists looking at the ones that they thought were non-urgent."

"It's annoying," she said, of not being able to have the diagnostic test. "It's not a cancer blood test, it's not diabetes. But it's something it would be good to know I haven't got."

Another woman, Alison Webb, told the BBC earlier this week that she cannot have her yearly thyroid and cholesterol checked due to the shortages - and her tests are already overdue by four months.

"Now I've been told to ring again in a month's time. Terrible," she said.

But doctors have said the guidance issued to them is vague, and it is not always easy to decide what tests are essential.

"No doctor knowingly undertakes unnecessary blood tests and to now have to ration all those we are doing, as well as cancel hundreds more, goes against everything we stand for as clinicians," said Dr David Wrigley from the British Medical Association, which represents doctors.

"However, if we don't try to follow the NHS guidance, it's clear we will get to the point where even the most clinically urgent of blood tests may not be able to be done as we simply won't have the tubes for the blood to go into."

He said doctors and their patients had been put in a "terrible, unenviable position" and he thought it was " surprising that NHS England hasn't declared a critical incident".

Another GP, Dr Farah Jameel, from north London, said: "There will be some patients who absolutely must have blood tests, and I have got to make that decision and seek understanding from patients who perhaps could wait a bit longer."

Becton Dickinson said the supply disruption was also affecting other companies. It said it took its responsibility to provide consistent supply "very seriously" and that it was taking steps to boost supply and divert products from other regions to help the UK.

On Thursday, the NHS warned supply was "forecasted to become even more constrained over the coming weeks".

"While it is anticipated that the position will improve from the middle of September, overall supply is likely to remain challenging for a significant period," it said in a letter to doctors. Alternative products are being sought, it said.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said patient safety was a "top priority" and it was working closely with the NHS and devolved administrations to minimise any impact on patient care.

"The health and care system continues to work flat out with the supplier and stakeholders to put mitigations in place, and restore normal supply, and there continues to be stock in place."

[Josquius]

I got a text from my doctor today about this blood test shortage.
A few local friends, with different doctors, mentioned the same

[Sheilbh]

Telegraph reporting government is probably going to raise National Insurance (a tax not paid by the elderly) to fund social care (a welfare benefit for the elderly) because the Tories really never want working age people to vote for them again

Ben Riley-Smith
@benrileysmith
13h
Telegraph tomorrow publishes a load of intel on PM's social care reforms.

Expected next week... breaks manifesto pledge by raising tax on c.25m... in order to cap lifetime care costs (at higher than expected)... No10-No11 at loggerheads on exact tax rise... Big political gamble.
To unpack some of our reporting tomorrow, a few tweets...
TIMINGS: Widely expected to drop next week. One source said pencilled in for Tuesday cabinet briefing then announcement. Makes sense to go early as rest of the spending review revolves around fixing this package.
PACKAGE: Broad outline as expected. A big move both on social care (cap plus assets 'floor') and better NHS funding. All paid for with a rise in national insurance. Broadly a 'bite the bullet and go big' moment.
CAP: A lifetime cap on how much an individual can spend on social care before the state steps in. Was expected to be £50k. But we understand will be much higher. Gov modelled 60k and 65k. Source thinks could be 80k. Higher = cheaper for the Treasury.
TAX ROW: Treasury and No 10 still at loggerheads re exact level of national insurance rise. We understand: Downing St keen on 1p rise. Treasury has pushed for higher, inc 1.25p. No10 nervous about being accused of bigger tax rise than Blair/Brown (per insider) who did a 1p rise.
MANIFESTO HEADACHE: 2019 Tory manifesto said "we promise not to raise the rates of income tax, National Insurance or VAT". So if reform is as understood it's a clear breach. Also had this line: "We not only want to freeze taxes, but to cut them too." Complicates the politics.
THE POLITICS: DowningSt's gamble is essentially this: it's middle of parliament; we have a poll lead; we need to act on this; voters will back tax rise linked to healthcare; 80seat majority makes rebellion win unlikely; if it all lands well Tories eat into Labour's lead on NHS.
TAX HIKE NUMBERS: 32 million adults are in employment. Around 26 million pay national insurance (per @resfoundation estimates). Still unclear exactly how much raised (depends on where NI rise ends up and OBR forecasts) but in region of £10bn+ a year.
PENSIONERS: There are calls for people above pension age to pay the NI rise too. To offset criticism that it's the young bearing the brunt. Would be big change... and one we understand currently not going to happen. (Partly due to pension triple lock change this yr). But tbc.
My news write-up and longer inside read about where it's all at are both in here. All set to be one of the big Westminster ding-dongs this month.
P.s. Worth saying talks b/w No 10 / No 11 / Health Dep still very much live. Gov spokesmen stressing final details yet to be locked in. So movement on exact care cap / NI figure / framing could still happen. A delay is not impossible, depending on how fraught it gets.

Meanwhile they are apparently absolutely committed (especially Sunak) to not touching the triple lock - so pensions could rise this year by as much as 8% - while services for the young and working age continue to stagnate and people are locked out of the housing market

[Josquius]

Should be looking at sorting out council tax instead... But then that would fly in the face of their plan to pretend councils are entirely funded by this and anything bad in your area is entirely the local council's fault.

Its depressing stuff. The thing is though how do we convince more young people to vote.

[Richard Hakluyt]

The NI distortion just gets bigger and bigger. If you have a decent pension then you can expect your wealthiest years to be in retirement, especially if you succeed in paying off your mortgage.

I don't like the look of the cap either; essentially that will take the lifetime savings of many whilst getting the wealthy off the hook 

[Richard Hakluyt]

Hunt has suggested a better alternative in my view https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/sep/03/taxes-should-fund-social-care-not-national-insurance-says-jeremy-hunt

But he is not in power of course.

[Sheilbh]

I don't like the look of the cap either; essentially that will take the lifetime savings of many whilst getting the wealthy off the hook 

Yeah - having said that at least two parties have run on paying for social care through an inheritance tax rise (Brown in 2010 and May in 2017). The details were different but in both elections that was a very unpopular policy.

I think that inheritance tax focus is probably fair. I also think social care would be the perfect area for a social insurance model because it can be ruinously expensive, everyone's at risk but not everyone actually faces these costs - all of those factors to me suggest insurance.

Should be looking at sorting out council tax instead... But then that would fly in the face of their plan to pretend councils are entirely funded by this and anything bad in your area is entirely the local council's fault.

Council tax is the third rail in British politics.

The first thing to do to sort out council is to re-value properties rather than base the tax on the value in 1991 (even for new builds) but no-one is ready to do that because the value has increased so much. But also my understanding is it was done once in 1991 and the plan was to update it regularly was such an administrative hassle for local government having to value all the properties in their area that no-one wants to do it again ever

And of course it's a tax that the elderly do pay - so it's the classic tax that's hated by the asset-rich but income-poor, like a pensioner who owns their own home but doesn't have a huge pension (I think if it was state pension alone their income would be low enough to get Council Tax Benefit).

[garbon]

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/the-heartwarming-story-of-three-teenagers-who-rescued-a-crab-from-a-fishmongers/

This is the heartwarming story of a group of teenagers who banded together to save a crab from the pot after taking pity on it, before taking it on a once-in-lifetime train ride back to the sea.

Sky Goodey, 14, rescued the "huge" crab with her two friends on Thursday.

They discovered the crustacean crammed away in a tiny space in a fishmonger's in Barking and felt sorry for it.

Without any questions from the fishmonger, the group bought the crab and took it on a train to Southend Victoria via Liverpool Street, where it was released.

Throughout their train journey, the teens kept having to take the crab to the toilet every few minutes to get it wet.

At the time, Sky's mum, Sue-Ann, was annoyed about her daughter being out so late.

"I, obviously, wasn't happy but her friend's mum brought her home from Southend in the end.

"If she'd have told me she had saved a crab and taken it on this big journey on a train to Southend, I would have said it was a pack of lies," she said.

But one look on social media was all the evidence Sue-Ann needed, with pictures popping up everywhere.

One user - Man Behaving Dadly - shared the story on Facebook, saying the group were "taking it back to the sea to live its best life". He named the crab 'Hope' on their behalf.

With everyone wanting to know the outcome, Sue-Ann later commented on the post saying: "They got to Southend and let it free and it's alive and well."

However, some criticised the teens' decision online, after hearing it had been covered in water while on the train. They warned that crabs were more at risk from being put in fresh water than being kept out of it altogether.

Looking back on the evening, Sue-Ann said: "It was funny but also they meant well.

"Otherwise, it would've been bought by someone and on their plate by the evening."

[Valmy]

Well...ok glad they did not accidentally kill the crab and surely just dropping off some animal into whatever habitat kind of looks like where it should live can never go wrong.

Kind of infantile and irresponsible. I would have felt better if they had done some research and consulted with how to properly care for crabs and how to rescue them than just do whatever because it felt good. That probably kills far more animals than it helps.

But I am glad the crab is alive I guess...for awhile anyway.

[Sheilbh]

It's a nice story of youths being wholesome

[viper37]

she watched Thew Boys.

[Valmy]

It's a nice story of youths being wholesome

Sure. I just worry about copycats. These kids got lucky in not accidentally killing that crab.