Firstly, every supply, service or works contract for the NHS above a threshold value must currently, under EU law, be offered to every eligible firm in Europe. Threshold values are currently £181k for all supplies and services and £4.5m for works contracts. Search the OJEU database as I have just done, for NHS tenders, and it will return 514 pages of results, 34 contracts on offer from just yesterday alone, including the vasectomy service in Bristol and the pathology service in Worcester;
Now if a medical firm from Romania can bid to snip the testicles of Bristol's men, why not one from Boston or LA? If a Hungarian path lab operator can bid to analyse oncology samples in Worcester, why not one from Virginia or New England?
There's no rule that says contracts have to be awarded out of the UK - only that the bid evaluation process is open, fair and transparent (until you get to stuff over £20m or so - which is where EU corrupt practices, kickbacks, EU organised crime involvement and so on kick in) and Bristol's vas deferens could easily end up being severed under hands that have travelled no further than a few miles from the Avon.
Nor is there any rule that medical services performed in-house by the NHS' 106,000 doctors, 286,000 nurses or 22,000 midwives in commissioning groups, trusts and GP practices should be up for grabs - and no UK/US trade agreement will act to involuntarily privatise the NHS - God knows, the EU have been trying to do this for years without success. Just that instead of / in addition to EU firms bidding for contracted-out sevices and the supply of materials and equipment, US firms can also do so.
As for chlorinated chicken, well, if you've bought a ready-to-eat salad pack from your local supermarket in the past few days, you will have eaten chlorinated lettuce, in many cases using chlorine wash stronger than that used to rinse Septic chickens.
So the Remainers can carry on grunting - hollow pots and so on.
If we remain in the EU, either as a member or as a colony under Mrs. May's everlasting WA treaty, it is to be expected that access to our NHS will be traded away to the US corporates by the EU in exchange for lower tariffs on German cars and French/Italian food.
ReplyDeleteIt is obviously far better to be in charge of our own trade deals/policy than have one decided by the EU.
.......and the abuse of all of those poor kids who love to go to the local swimming baths, and be chlorine-washed in a solution of hypochlorous acid -- with the absolute approval of their parents.
ReplyDeleteDreadful.
If a chicken is properly cooked, the need for chlorination is voided, but the process is merely an added protection.
ReplyDeleteYou could say that US food standards are higher that those of the EU.
Personally, I prefer curry when I want to cook rotten meat, the relevant spices act as flavouring. Having said that, I am not sure whether chlorinating a chicken enhances or mars the flavour anyway.
The chicken thing is ridiculous, not even sure how it became 'a thing'.
ReplyDeleteThe ONLY chicken not treated in some way is the live bird market, still big in some countries, where the birds are usally eaten the very same day.
Anything that isn't going to be eaten immdeiately needs a shelf life, be it a couple of days or several years.
the swimming pool thing is interesting, one mouthful albiet spat out would have the same amount of actual chlorine than if you ate 20 whole chlorine-washed chickens a day (OK, exagerrated for effect but you get my drift)
Re NHS, thank you for the info Raedwald, most Remainer/lefty/Climate Nazi (funny how those groups - and other similar ones - coincide so much) have no idea.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteYou only need to know that the most litigious society in the world hasn't yet found an excuse to sue chlorinated chicken producers to know that the process is perfectly safe.
Even if your misleading headline were correct, the response is "so what? Isn't that the point of leaving? Why hand it to US profiteers rather than those closer to home?"
ReplyDeleteOf course you do understand what chlorinated chicken actually is.
ReplyDeleteChickens are herded into a field and are then bombarded with chlorine gas shells. Chlorine gas is captured by the packaging process and when unwrapped, the chlorine gas is breathed in. This destroys the taste buds, enhancing the epicurean experience. But this, alas, is an unexpected bonus as the lungs and eyes expire soon after.
Well that's the impression I got based on the shrill hysteria.
Of course, it is only right and proper that bell end Boris is taken to task for his outrageous lies about the NHS. The connection with Brexit and the likelihood that he has the best chance of leading the rump Tories is purely coincidental.
Honesty in politics is paramount and sacrosanct.
Thank you remainiacs, for pointing out the threat to the holy NHS. We can't have the evil yankee running dogs of capitalism near it. We can't have them selling clinical waste to McDonalds can we? We can't have our temples (sorry, hospitals) all turned into Trump towers.
Don't worry, I'm sure Elton John will compose a suitably heart rending dirge. NHS in the wind.
Fuck me, death really is beginning to look like a blessed release.
"Profiteers" Cheesy? Anyone in business you mean? Or will middle class Marxist Greenfreaks provide the medical services under remainiac plans? Why are "profiteers" better if they are EU shite rather than from far away? Is this the non-parochial remain gang talking?
ReplyDeletePS --The US health care system--compromised by corporate socialism as it is --still produces MUCH better success/cure rates than the UK . An American with the very dangerous throat cancer has twice the chance of surviving than under the TLC of the National Death Service.
And the EU does want rid of the NHS. It has produced numerous reports about how many more UK folk die because of the NHS bungling and sloth than would die under the health care of the European nations. BTW those systems are sodall to do with the EU ( tho' EU liars are not above trying to claim credit for them)having been set up by the various nations back before the EU was snot dribbling from the EEC's nose.
Claiming that remain = "saving" the NHS shows what a bunch of lying pukes remainiacs are. As if more evidence were needed.
I actually agree about the NHS's poor performance, Ecky. It does need a root-and-branch rethink.
ReplyDeleteBut handing it over to the most exploitative isn't the way. Look at what happens in countries with better outcomes than either the US or the UK. They're in the EU, btw.
ReplyDeleteIf the EU was all you make it out to be then surely all countries would have equal health care and results? Isn't that the purpose behind it?
Isn't our tap water "washed" in chlorine?
ReplyDeleteAlso avoiding halal is a tricky business.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete"But handing it over to the most exploitative isn't the way. Look at what happens in countries with better outcomes than either the US or the UK. They're in the EU, btw."
As well as being a deceiver Cheese you are none too bright. I told you the European nations health systems were NOT set up by and pre-date the EU. Those nations are in the northern hemisphere. That also has nothing to do with the EU.
Not too sure that it is only "the ill-educated remainiacs" that are uttering this nonsense, seems to me I have read several ConMen PM candidates mewling the same ill-informed nonsense.(of course that does not mark them out as leavers because most of the candidates are remainiacs)
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting how many of the patrician class and presstitutes are deathly afraid that yUK industry cannot compete worldwide.
I think the main problem with the NHS is that it has been overwhelmed by the great increase in the population, which is now double what it was when the NHS was set up.
ReplyDeleteMicromanagement by various governments hasn't helped.
Don Cox
Like by far and away most law, that relating to what health care governments must provide is a sovereign matter for EU member countries.
ReplyDeleteWould you rather it weren't?
If the UK had to provide the same standard as, say, France or Scandinavian ones, then I don't think many would complain. Maybe it's a pity that the Lisbon Treaty did not cover health provision?
PS, cases of gonorrhoea in the UK equal those of the rest of the EU combined, Don.
ReplyDeleteyes Ed; amusingly the super gonorrhoea cases - men and women - seem to be caught by Brits abroad, how odd. maybe just a coincidence.
ReplyDeleteOne area where it would be helpful to bring the U.S. into the NHS would be management. It would be very beneficial to root out the left wing jobs for life paper shufflers at the top , reverse the politically correct mindset, stop wasting money and get a fair days work out of the staff.
ReplyDeleteYes, Thailand is a favourite for that, apparently, Span.
ReplyDeleteWell after Verhofstayd's "L'EU c'est moi" rant in the EU "parliament" back end of last year bitching that ignorant morons won't give them more power, I think European mental health services are going to be challenged in the next few years. I think he's showing tertiary stages of EUphilis.
ReplyDeleteThat and "I'm a bigger threat to livers than Hannibal Lector" Juncker and lets not forget Martin Seigheilmayr.
In the word of the late, great Terry Thomas, "an absolute shaaaaarr".
Wonder when they'll start turning on each other. Can't be long now.