Brexit matters

[AlterEgo]

There isn’t even a Scottish flag on the Scotland football jersey so that act of cringe would be particularly amusing.

 

[Richard Scott]

Why not. They voted to Remain, and they continue to display the EU flag at the Scottish Parliament.

In reality if all the Scottish voters had voted remain then we would still be in EU!

 

[AlterEgo]

In reality if all the Scottish voters had voted remain then we would still be in EU!

Well quite. Scotland voted to stay part of the UK so why not a Union Jack on their shirt as well?

 

[317 forever]

It's fair to say Brexit isn't the sole cause of all problems, but when we've just experienced a major pandemic we really don't want anything else to make things worse.. which Brexit clearly has/is.

The thing is, people can't claim Brexit has made no difference when our leaders are acknowledging it has - but saying that some 'short term' pain is worth the long term gain. Apparently all our suffering is part of a clever strategy to force wages up and remove all that unskilled foreign labour (you know unskilled jobs like care workers, lorry driving etc).

In other words, Brexit is making things worse for millions of us - but in the future we're supposedly able to look back and realise it was worth it. I wonder if the farming, fishing, care, hospitality and transportation and other sectors will agree.

Jacob Rees-Mogg did say it could take 50 years, so I guess we just need some patience.

But will he still be around in 50 years time to see the "benefits" of Brexit?

People may have voted Leave dismayed that EU immigrants were employed in jobs that they would have liked for themselves. Now that some such immigrants who were HGV drivers have returned home, we are short of such drivers until enough British people are trained to take these jobs, if indeed sufficient numbers are interested.

Both aspects of this have been exacerbated by Covid. More EU immigrants have returned home, either more worried about being away from their families or lonely and bored on furlough. Also, Covid has delayed driver training or them receiving their HGV licences from the DVLA.

 

[brad465]

So much for getting Brexit done, our Government won't stop banging on about an agreement they willingly signed less than a year ago not being good enough (i.e. the NI protocol), ironically led by Frost, an "unelected bureaucrat":

Brexit: UK's NI Protocol demands 'could break relations'

Ireland's foreign minister says the demands are a new "red line" that the EU cannot move on.

www.bbc.co.uk

UK demands on the Northern Ireland Protocol could cause "a breakdown in relations" with the EU, Ireland's foreign minister has warned.
Simon Coveney made the comments after the UK reiterated that it wants the European Court of Justice (ECJ) removed from oversight of the deal.
Mr Coveney said this was the creation of a new "red line" which the EU cannot move on.
The EU will bring forward proposals on Wednesday for reforming the protocol.
The Northern Ireland Protocol is the special Brexit deal for Northern Ireland, which the UK and EU agreed in 2019.
The EU proposals will focus on easing practical problems with the movement of goods from Britain to Northern Ireland, rather than changing oversight arrangements.
However, on Tuesday, the UK's Brexit Minister Lord Frost will give a speech in which he is expected to tell diplomats that removing the ECJ's role in dispute settlement is necessary to sustain the protocol.

He is due to say: "Without new arrangements in this area the protocol will never have the support it needs to survive.
"The role of the ECJ in Northern Ireland and the consequent inability of the UK government to implement the very sensitive arrangements in the protocol in a reasonable way has created a deep imbalance in the way the protocol operates."
The protocol keeps Northern Ireland in the EU's single market for goods and the ECJ acts as the supreme interpreter of the single market's rules.
In 2019, the UK agreed to the ECJ's role, but in July this year the government said it had only done that because of the "very specific circumstances" of the protocol negotiation.

Of course there's a number of reasons I can see for why they're behaving like this: firstly because recent shortages have not been as bad in NI, so the belief is the Government can't allow a contrast between there and the rest of the UK to be seen; second, we must have an enemy, whether that "enemy" is the EU, any particular country and/or other groups in society. If the population doesn't have an enemy it sees all the domestic failings the Government haven't done/are not doing anything about.

 

[XAM2175]

More shortages!

Nursing crisis sweeps wards as NHS battles to find recruits

Lack of EU staff adding to shortages: ‘There aren’t enough to deliver care we need’

www.theguardian.com

Ministers are being warned of a mounting workforce crisis in England’s hospitals as they struggle to recruit staff for tens of thousands of nursing vacancies, with one in five nursing posts on some wards now unfilled.

Hospital leaders say the nursing shortfall has been worsened by a collapse in the numbers of recruits from Europe, including Spain and Italy.

The most recent NHS figures reveal there are about 39,000 vacancies for registered nurses in England, with one in 10 nursing posts unfilled on acute wards in London and one in five nursing posts empty on mental health wards in the south-east.

The number of nurses from the European Economic Area joining the Nursing and Midwifery Council register has fallen more than 90%, from 9,389 in the year to 31 March 2016 to 810 in the year to 31 March 2021.

Thousands of nursing shifts each week cannot be filled because of staff shortages, according to hospital safe staffing reports seen by the Observer.

The prime minister, Boris Johnson, is already under pressure over worker shortages in the UK after Brexit, from lorry drivers to farm workers. Concerns among health bosses about the impact on patient care of acute staff shortages are revealed as experts warned last week that flu could kill up to 60,000 this winter.

NHS trusts are being paid by NHS England up to £7,000 for each vacant post to try to recruit nurses from overseas countries including India and the Philippines.

Patricia Marquis, England director for the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said: “There just aren’t enough staff to deliver the care that is needed, and we now have a nursing workforce crisis. We should never have got into a position where we were so dependent on international nurses. We are on a knife-edge.”

Hospital trusts struggling to fill nursing posts include:

- University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS trust – which runs Royal Stoke university hospital and Stafford’s county hospital – and which has reported 401 unfilled nursing posts to its board, a vacancy rate of 12%. The trust temporarily suspended non-emergency operations last month because of high demand and staff shortages. It is recruiting nurses from overseas, including from India and Ghana.

- Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS trust, which has reported nearly 700 vacancies for nurses, midwives and operating department practitioners, a vacancy rate of 13%. It postponed 287 operations in July and August and appealed last weekend for nurses to work extra shifts because of “staffing shortfalls in our critical care wards”.

- Mid and South Essex NHS foundation trust, with a 17% vacancy rate for nurses, one of the highest in the country. It has 2,269 full-time clinical and non-clinical vacancies. The trust reported that over the summer up to 1,850 patients a month were waiting longer than four hours in A&E because of staff shortages.

- A survey by the union Unite of 188 critical care staff at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS foundation trust has uncovered staff concerns of “chronic” nursing shortages and risks to patient safety. Nine out of 10 staff reported understaffing in their department on every shift.

Dave Carr, 58, a critical care nurse at St Thomas’ hospital and a Unite representative, said: “I work in intensive care for patients recovering from surgery and we need up to 11 nurses on that shift, one for each patient. We regularly only have three or four of our own nurses available and have to borrow nurses from other areas or get temporary staff. Staff are absolutely wrecked. More than 100 nurses have left the trust in the last 10 months.”

Shelley Pearce, 34, an accident and emergency nurse and RCN workplace representative in southern England, said nurses from Europe endured abuse from some members of the public after the Brexit referendum. She said: “I can quite understand why some made a decision to go home because they didn’t seem to be wanted.”

The government has pledged to increase the number of NHS nurses by 50,000 by 2025. NHS England announced £28m of funding in September last year to recruit nurses from overseas to help pay for accommodation, flights and quarantine. The upfront cost of recruiting a nurse from overseas is between £10,000 and £12,000.

By comparison, it takes three years to train a nurse in the UK and costs from £50,000 to £70,000. The government does not pay tuition fees, but provides maintenance grants worth at least £5,000 a year.

There is a global shortage of nurses, and consequently there has been criticism of trusts recruiting from overseas instead of training more UK staff. Even the new care and mental health minister, Gillian Keegan, is reported to have called it “unbelievably inefficient and also wrong and just bizarre”.

Despite this, a report by the Nuffield Trust thinktank commissioned by the NHS and published last week, said significant overseas recruitment would be required if the government nursing target was to be met. Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, called for a fully costed workforce plan in the government’s spending review this month.

She said: “We’ve had workforce shortages for many years, and we’ve seen that exacerbated by Brexit. The workforce is the engine of any hospital and when you have shifts that aren’t filled, that’s a huge challenge.”

Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, part of the NHS Confederation, said: “We have experienced the pressure we would usually see in the winter months over the summer. Many staff are predicting that this will be one of the most difficult winters the NHS has ever faced.”

A survey of more than 1,000 NHS staff by the Healthcare Workers’ Foundation, a charity that supports health service employees, found 73% considered leaving in the last year. Nearly one in three frontline staff said they were likely to leave in the next year.

The total number of full-time equivalent vacancies in the NHS in England has increased from 83,203 in June 2020 to 93,806 in June 2021, according to figures from NHS Digital, the government’s health and information centre. Over the same period, nursing post vacancies rose from 37,760 to 38,952.

Hospital trusts say they are recruiting staff from overseas to help fill posts. University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS trust said it had recently hired nearly 300 extra nurses, including 93 from overseas. Leeds teaching hospitals NHS trust said staffing was an “ongoing challenge”, but it was successfully recruiting new staff. Mid and South Essex NHS foundation trust said its gaps were filled by agency and temporary staff.

A spokesperson for Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS foundation trust confirmed 118 nurses left this year, but said 97 started and another 30 were going through pre-employment checks. They said the trust was listening to all concerns raised by staff: “The safety of our patients and wellbeing of our staff are our top priorities. We are investing in recruiting more nurses, as well as continuing to provide extensive health and wellbeing support to our staff.”

Health experts say the overall NHS workforce is growing, but not enough to keep up with demand, and the proportion of unfilled jobs across NHS England has grown over the year.

The NHS said: “The NHS is committed to reducing nursing vacancies, including through international recruitment, and increasing wellbeing support for existing staff to boost retention.

“The nursing and midwifery workforce grew by over 2.7% over the past year with over 330,000 extra full-time staff delivering care, and 80,000 people across the country applied for a nursing course this year.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We are seeing record numbers of nurses working in the NHS and applications to study nursing and midwifery have risen by 21% this year alone. We will continue to support our NHS workforce to grow to tackle the backlog, with 50,000 more nurses by the end of this parliament.

“We are working closely with Health Education England, NHS England, Skills for Care and the wider sector to make sure we have staff with the right skills up and down the country. This includes improving retention, investing in and diversifying our training pipeline, and continuing to ethically recruit from overseas.”

The key figure: The number of nurses from the European Economic Area joining the Nursing and Midwifery Council register has fallen more than 90%, from 9,389 in the year to 31 March 2016 to 810 in the year to 31 March 2021.

 

[JamesT]

More shortages!

Nursing crisis sweeps wards as NHS battles to find recruits

Lack of EU staff adding to shortages: ‘There aren’t enough to deliver care we need’

www.theguardian.com

The key figure: The number of nurses from the European Economic Area joining the Nursing and Midwifery Council register has fallen more than 90%, from 9,389 in the year to 31 March 2016 to 810 in the year to 31 March 2021.

It’s a key figure if you want to point at Brexit as the root of all ills. A different figure to consider is the total number of nurses, which was 647,605 in March 2017, and 681,527 in March 2021. So despite a fall in nurses from the EEA, there are now more nurses.
The full report can be found at https://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets...s/annual-2021/0005b-nmc-register-2021-web.pdf

 

[MattRat]

It’s a key figure if you want to point at Brexit as the root of all ills. A different figure to consider is the total number of nurses, which was 647,605 in March 2017, and 681,527 in March 2021. So despite a fall in nurses from the EEA, there are now more nurses.
The full report can be found at https://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets...s/annual-2021/0005b-nmc-register-2021-web.pdf

It doesn't help when the government is also acting like Brexit is the problem, telling us to just deal with a problematic 'trasition' period. Brexit isn't the failure, they are, and guess who signed that deal.....

 

[XAM2175]

A different figure to consider is the total number of nurses, which was 647,605 in March 2017, and 681,527 in March 2021. So despite a fall in nurses from the EEA, there are now more nurses.

But we still haven't got enough - so surely we would have less of a problem if we still had nurses from the EU and EEA willing to work here while we sorted-out a longer-term plan?

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Does having a "Commonwealth" make it easier for recruitment in those industries and services from the countries in that organisation?

 

[MattRat]

But we still haven't got enough - so surely we would have less of a problem if we still had nurses from the EU and EEA willing to work here while we sorted-out a longer-term plan?

Actually, the bigger problem is beds, which have gone down during the pandemic.....

 

[XAM2175]

Does having a "Commonwealth" make it easier for recruitment in those industries and services from the countries in that organisation?

To a certain extent yes; there are a handful of "preferential" visa categories only open to Commonwealth citizens, but they relate more to working holidays and acquisition of residence by descent. For most "skilled worker" pathways there's no difference.

Actually, the bigger problem is beds, which have gone down during the pandemic.....

Your point being?

 

[MattRat]

Your point being?

Sorry, it just bugs me how that particular crisis has just been swept under the rug, when it should be headline news during a pandemic.

 

[brad465]

Get ready for our reputation to sink even lower, with an imminent trade war that nobody voted for and will be triggered by our unelected Frost:

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on.ft.com

The UK and the EU edged closer to a trade war on Sunday after Brussels rejected London’s demands for a comprehensive rewrite of the Brexit deal’s contentious Northern Ireland protocol.

 

[alex397]

Get ready for our reputation to sink even lower, with an imminent trade war that nobody voted for and will be triggered by our unelected Frost:

Subscribe to the Financial Times

A subscription to the Financial Times provides you with the insights and perspective you need to succeed, now.

on.ft.com

I can’t wait for the incredibly balanced, nuanced and factual stories from the tabloids….

 

[birchesgreen]

I can't see how us entering a trade war with the EU will end well for us, but i am sure this is what we voted for.

I can’t wait for the incredibly balanced, nuanced and factual stories from the tabloids….

Probably lots of war imagery. Plucky British Tommy against the brutal EU Hun. Going to be absolutely nauseating.

 

[MattRat]

I can’t wait for the incredibly balanced, nuanced and factual stories from the tabloids….

Wasn't there a Yes Minister clip about the different opinions people who read certain tabloids had?

 

[brad465]

Wasn't there a Yes Minister clip about the different opinions people who read certain tabloids had?

You maybe thinking of this one (my favourite is Bernard's description of the Sun):

 

[MattRat]

You maybe thinking of this one (my favourite is Bernard's description of the Sun):

Well, it's a little more embarrassing for me as my nan gets the Daily Mail, and I actually like to read it myself.....

I mean, I look at other news too, but it is still embarrassing.

 

[OhNoAPacer]

I can't help but think that Lord Frost must be absolutely furious with the person who negotiated the treaty he is trying to sort out!

 

[gysev]

This weekend, Belgian press reported that the popular school trips to London are becoming too expensive because of the new travel rules. Schools report a 20% rise. It seems most schools now prefer trips to Berlin. That can't be good for tourism in London.

 

[jon0844]

We don't need tourists! That only puts up hotel prices and creates queues at popular attractions...

 

[ainsworth74]

Well, it's a little more embarrassing for me as my nan gets the Daily Mail, and I actually like to read it myself.....

I mean, I look at other news too, but it is still embarrassing.

I would never be embarrassed for reading a wide range of material from different sources. I disagree, strongly, with the editorial slant of the Daily Mail and maintain it has done harm to the UK to advantage it's proprietor and their friends but a colleague takes it regularly and I'll have a read through because I think it's important to escape your own bubble. Plus, to be fair, there are often some interesting stories in there amongst all the guff.

 

[edwin_m]

I would never be embarrassed for reading a wide range of material from different sources. I disagree, strongly, with the editorial slant of the Daily Mail and maintain it has done harm to the UK to advantage it's proprietor and their friends but a colleague takes it regularly and I'll have a read through because I think it's important to escape your own bubble. Plus, to be fair, there are often some interesting stories in there amongst all the guff.

I admire your tolerance. It wouldn't do my blood pressure any good at all (I might even turn into a gammon...).

I can't help but think that Lord Frost must be absolutely furious with the person who negotiated the treaty he is trying to sort out!

Can't help thinking that sort of self-hatred drives quite a bit of the Brexit sentiment... though I see Lord Frost didn't attend a boarding school.

 

[Richard Scott]

We don't need tourists! That only puts up hotel prices and creates queues at popular attractions...

So who's using the hotels and visiting the attractions?

 

[jon0844]

So who's using the hotels and visiting the attractions?

Hopefully nobody, so us born and bred Brits can enjoy everything to ourselves. Only MPs and Prime Ministers should ever travel abroad for holidays.

(or, as I thought was obvious, I was not being serious!)

 

[MattRat]

I would never be embarrassed for reading a wide range of material from different sources. I disagree, strongly, with the editorial slant of the Daily Mail and maintain it has done harm to the UK to advantage it's proprietor and their friends but a colleague takes it regularly and I'll have a read through because I think it's important to escape your own bubble. Plus, to be fair, there are often some interesting stories in there amongst all the guff.

I was more referring to 'the Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country'.

 

[Horizon22]

It’s a key figure if you want to point at Brexit as the root of all ills. A different figure to consider is the total number of nurses, which was 647,605 in March 2017, and 681,527 in March 2021. So despite a fall in nurses from the EEA, there are now more nurses.
The full report can be found at https://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets...s/annual-2021/0005b-nmc-register-2021-web.pdf

Brexit is obviously part of the issue although not the whole. I'd say an equally important reason (or more important) was the Conservatives scrapping the nursing bursary several years ago. Those chickens have now come home to roost.

 

[WestCoast]

This weekend, Belgian press reported that the popular school trips to London are becoming too expensive because of the new travel rules. Schools report a 20% rise. It seems most schools now prefer trips to Berlin. That can't be good for tourism in London.

I wouldn’t rule out a quiet U-turn by our Government at some point on accepting EU ID Cards for visitors when Ireland picks up our potential tourists. I know it’s fairly common for Germans for instance to have only an ID rather than a passport so acquiring one will be a deterrent to visiting the UK when they could go all over Europe and even Turkey with their ID, I believe.

 

[nlogax]

I wouldn’t rule out a quiet U-turn by our Government at some point on accepting EU ID Cards for visitors when Ireland picks up our potential tourists.

I'm betting that there'll be more than one quiet u-turn in coming years as this and successive governments attempt to claw back some of the benefits that existed pre-Brexit. All that's possible without specifically entering a customs union or reintroducing free movement anyway.