BLOG POSTS

The cat is finally out of the bag. As Sparrow Chat has been opining for the last decade and more, Britain’s National Health Service will be privatised and subject to a system based on US capitalist healthcare, if the Tories get their way – and right now it’s looking highly likely they will.

Back in 2016, Sparrow Chat ran a post detailing the follow up to ‘Atlantic Bridge’, Liam Fox’s “charity” that turned out to be a cover for US/UK power-mongers to connive and plan to make themselves immensely rich. A major part of those plans was to grab the UK National Health Service and bring it under the vulture-like wings of US drug and insurance corporations, making healthcare in the UK as costly and out-of-reach for many, as its counterpart in America.

The Guardian revealed the truth about Atlantic Bridge back in October 2011, with the headline…

“Liam Fox’s Atlantic Bridge linked top Tories and Tea Party activists”

Twenty US business leaders assembled in Pittsburgh in October 2006 to pay court to the coming man of British politics. They could have been forgiven for thinking Liam Fox, with his neatly parted hair and clipped Scottish accent, resembled the GP he had once been, rather than a potential Tory leader.

But, although few of the business leaders knew much about the shadow defence secretary, they were familiar with his charity, the Atlantic Bridge. This was the organisation whose patron, Lady Thatcher, was lionised in the US for her support of the free market and American military airbases on British soil. It was the organisation whose members in 2004 were ushered into the White House to be briefed by Karl Rove, George W Bush’s special counsel. And it was the organisation whose cocktail parties in the Carlton Club in London and Charlie Palmer’s steakhouse in Washington were high points of the transatlantic social calendar.

Shortly after addressing the business leaders at Pittsburgh’s Duquesne Club – “the finest city club in the country”– Fox explained that the Atlantic Bridge promoted the special relationship between the UK and the US by creating “a network of individual people who can know one another”. He declared: “We are trying to bring people together who have common interests and to recognise that in an ever more globalised economy, we will all be called upon to defend those common interests.”

Last week those interests came back to haunt not just Fox, whose fall on Friday rocked David Cameron’s coalition government, but also many Tory members of the cabinet, whose extensive links to the Atlantic Bridge are now under scrutiny…

…Sparrow Chat ran a later post in 2016, asking:

“Atlantic Bridge – Is It Dead Or Merely Undercover?”

 

I leave readers to decide, but before doing so, consider these familiar faces…

…in case you’re unsure, the guy at the back is Liam Fox, co-founder of ‘Atlantic Bridge’. Forced to resign from David Cameron’s government over irregularities that threatened UK security, Theresa May brought him back into her government after Cameron’s resignation following the EU referendum, as International Trade Secretary. His job was to dig up trade deals ready for the UK leaving the EU. He was well suited to the post, having used Atlantic Bridge to set up some of the most advantageous trade deals, just needing the UK out of the EU to make them work. Advantageous, that is, to those already wealthy individuals and corporations waiting to pounce on unsuspecting British companies, and the jewel in the crown that is the NHS. Fox keeps himself in the background of politics these days, but make no mistake, he’s very active in steering business and political matters just where he wants them to go.

The three stooges fronting the image are better known: Boris Johnson’s grinning ‘knife-in-the-back’ man, Michael Gove (left); Chris Grayling, the “let’s give thirteen billion pounds to a ferry company with no ships,” transport minister, who still didn’t get fired by Theresa May, and the clown of the Tory circus, Boris Johnson in the middle.

These four were all heavily involved in Atlantic Bridge, as this image (courtesy of Wikipedia) reveals:

We find Fox’s name on the original Executive Board, and in the snapshots at 2005 and 2007; Chris Grayling and Michael Gove were  also originals, and lo and behold, Boris Johnson does a stint in 2005.

Two of the four, Gove and Johnson, are candidates for UK Prime Minister following Theresa May’s resignation last week.

Today, Donald Trump and entourage landed on the lawn at Buckingham Palace. It’s a ‘State’ visit, cleverly arranged by Theresa May so talks on future US/UK trade can be discussed in private both at No 10, and in the US Ambassador’s residence in London.

Yesterday, the Guardian ran another main headline on the subject…

“US wants access to NHS in post-Brexit deal, says Trump ally”

The ‘Trump ally referred to in this headline is none other than the US Ambassador to Britain,  Woody Johnson…

The US will want business access to the NHS in any post-Brexit trade deal, the US ambassador has said, prompting anger from politicians and campaigners before Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK this week.

Woody Johnson, who is a close friend of the US president, said every area of the UK economy would be up for discussion when the two sides brokered a trade deal.

Asked if the NHS was likely to form part of trade negotiations, Johnson told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “I think the entire economy, in a trade deal, all things that are traded would be on the table.” Asked if that specifically meant healthcare, he said: “I would think so.”

The cat is finally out of the bag!

 

 

“New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has expressed her bafflement at the United State’s inability to change their gun laws after so many mass shootings. While speaking with CNN, Christiane Amanpour asked whether other countries might learn from New Zealand’s swift overhaul of their gun laws after a lone gunman killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch. ‘Australia experienced a massacre and changed their laws’, Ardern replied. ‘New Zealand had its experience and changed its laws. To be honest with you, I do not understand the United States’. Ardern maintained New Zealand has a practical need for guns in certain circumstance but New Zealanders were in complete agreement with the changes her government made. ‘You can draw a line and say that that does not mean that you need access to military style semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles. You do not’”^<1>

“Land Of The Hypocrites And Home Of The AR-15 Assault Rifle.”

^{<1> “‘I do not understand the United States’: NZ PM Jacinda Ardern on US gun laws” The Guardian, May 15th 2019}

 

It’s difficult to obtain statistics on just how many UK citizens live abroad, but 2017 figures estimated around 4.6 million throughout the world. Of these, 1.3 million reside in the European Union.

Under UK law any citizen who has resided outside the country more than fifteen years loses their right to vote in UK general or local elections, or referendums.

It’s impossible to know just how many British citizens have been disenfranchised by this ugly rule, but even by conservative estimates the figure must be in the millions. Certainly sufficient to have put the 2016 EU referendum into serious doubt, had most of them voted to remain.

In their manifesto of 2014-15 the Tories agreed, if they were voted into power, to repeal the act brought in by the previous Labour government of Blair/Brown, but to date they’ve failed to do so. There was a half-hearted attempt earlier this year, if a Private Members Bill had been allowed to proceed. Although it had government backing, it failed because of a loathsome, disgusting, apology for a man whose resumé reads like that of the Roman Emperor Caligula:

Philip Davies is his name. He’s a Tory, but would likely be more at home in the US Congress as a far-right Republican Trump supporter, rather then on the back benches in the UK House of Commons.

Davies loves the sound of his own voice, which wouldn’t be so bad if he spouted anything worthwhile. He uses the filibuster frequently to block bills that would otherwise have become law. Davies’s interventionism in political dialogue is so common and so ridiculous that it doesn’t merit listing here. Check the links below for further information.

Suffice to say, when after three years of promises the government finally allowed a Private Members Bill to kill the legislation denying non-resident citizens the vote after fifteen years, Davies filibustered it until it ran out of time. Needless to say, this repulsive character is an ardent Brexiteer determined to prevent any increase in those who might vote to remain, in the event of a second referendum.

Davies is divorced, but is shacking up with this woman…

…Esther McVey, the Tory MP for Tatton  in Cheshire. McVey has just thrown her hat into the Tory leadership ring as a possible successor to Theresa May. She, like Davies, is an ardent Brexiteer and quite prepared to drag Britain out of the EU without any deal in place.

The EU referendum of 2016 was always rife with corruption and dark dealings. Is it sheer nationalism that drives these people? Do they still think Britannia rules the waves; that they still own the Indian sub-continent, and can claim back America as colonies once loose from the EU chains that bind them?

Or, is there a more personal interest in the success of Brexit? Perhaps it’s time the British people began asking just what these ardent Brexiteers really stand to gain, should they succeed in casting their country adrift from Europe, and the lengths they’ll go to ensure success – even to the extent of preventing nearly four million of their nation’s citizens from voting should a second referendum become a realistic option.

^{“Tories pledge to give vote back to all expats” ~ The Telegraph, September 1st 2014}

^{“He killed the bill: Britons living abroad for more than 15 years still don’t have a vote” ~ April 9th 2019, Dr Sue Collard, University of Sussex.}

^{“Esther McVey joins undeclared Tory leadership race” ~ The Scotsman, May 9th 2019}

And just two of many reports on the antisocial actions of Philip Davies MP:

^{“Here are some of the bills Tory MP Philip Davies has filibustered” ~ The Independent, December 16th 2016}

^{“Is Philip Davies fit to be an MP?” ~ The Guardian, February 2nd 2017}