Any attempt to bypass parliament would provoke “a constitutional crisis”...“Pivoting to say the backstop has to go in its entirety, a huge chunk of the withdrawal agreement just scrapped, is effectively a wrecking tactic. The people behind this know that means there will be no deal.”
Hammond said he was certain parliament would find a legislative way to block the UK’s exit from the EU without a deal, even if Downing Street claimed that would be impossible. The former chancellor has met a number of leading figures opposed to no deal, including the shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer...“It’s very clear to me, and the Speaker of the House of Commons has also been very clear, that if a majority of MPs clearly want to go down a certain route, a means will be delivered to allow that to happen.”
However, he suggested he would not support moves to vote down the government and install a unity cabinet that would negotiate an extension with the EU...“I don’t agree with that at all, I don’t think that’s the answer. We have a Conservative government under Boris Johnson,” he said. “I want to see government be a success not just in delivering Brexit but across the whole spectrum of domestic and foreign policy. But I do want it to listen to what parliament is saying.”
The former chancellor also hit out at overnight briefings from Downing Street sources that he had blocked preparations for a no-deal exit and weakened the UK’s negotiating position...“We were already doing no-deal preparations and, although Downing Street repeatedly suggests that was not done, we spent £4.2bn. The Bank of England’s own analysis in June showed their estimate of damage to our economy had significantly reduced as a result of the no-deal preparation that we had carried out,” he said.
So shadowy deals with Remainers and the Speaker are needed to avoid a constitutional crisis. But a GNU is unacceptable and he wants the Conservative Government to be a success even though he is plotting to oppose one of its main strategies. Preparing for no deal was successful in limiting damage -- but more expenditure will not be?
Meanwhile, there have been a number of stories lately about shortages of medicines.These have nothing to do with Brexit, but are down to a combination of new regulations holding up production in new locations. And the search for superprofit of course:
The Scottish Medicines Consortium has recently decided the drugs Orkambi and Symkevi are not cost-effective, following on from the same decision made by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence in England in 2016. These drugs, developed by the American pharmaceutical company Vertex, aim to prolong the lives of people with cystic fibrosis and have increased some patients’ lung function by up to 20%. They are transformative for those taking them. The core of the dispute lies in the price Vertex is asking of the NHS for these life-changing medications – £104,000 per patient, per year. It has been estimated that the company will make a profit of $21bn (£17bn) over the drugs’ lifetime.
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