Westministenders: The Return of Parliamentary Sleaze?

[RedToothBrush]

Brexit is quietly going round and round in ever decreasing circles.

The story is that the European parliament will not agree to a transition period beyond 1st January 2020.

The third minister responsible for getting the Repel Bill through the Lords has quit. There are now nearly 400 amendments. It is scheduled for 6 days parliamentary time in the Commons from this coming week. With another 2 possible the following week. Rather bravely AFTER the budget. Bored with May, CVs are being submitted for the position of Chancellor.

Interest Rates are looking likely to rise next week too with the message being 'this is as good as it gets'.

Another team of MPs has gone to the EU to see if they can check up on May and her team. This is unlikely to work as Nicola Sturgeon came across a brick wall.

And then there are the many many distractions from it all.

Catalonia has declared independence, which will consume EU time and energy.

There are rumours that the first prosecution in Trump Russia will be Monday (Guess who is currently in the US. Yep, the gurning one). And there are increasing muttering about Russia over here, with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg being called to respond to a Select Committee investigation into Fake News.

And then there's the sleaze. Jared O'Mara seems to be the first in the queue. There are rumours more will be outed in several parties. Suggestions include May's right hand man Damien Green who was previously named in 2008. And the Tory Whips have a 'sleaze list' which suggests they know whats going on, but have done nothing.

This morning we have Gove making ill advised jokes about Weinstein in this political climate. With Neil Kinnock laughing heartily in response.

Anything that happens will be political to discredit opponents not because there is a change of attitude towards the treatment of women. We know this, because of who is leading the charge on this. The skeletons are being dusted off out the cupboard rather than exposed for the first time in dramatic fashion.

Things, could take a very unexpected turn against this background.

Don't bet against it.

On another note, do you know that everything is now in place for banks to block accounts of pople on the ‘HO black list’. Oh and yes it can even be British passport holders.... and from today, banks are required to check...

www.freemovement.org.uk/immigration-checks-bank-accounts/

The NHS is also asked to check on, from now on, anyone who doesn’t sound like they should get so called free treatments in the NHS.
In the name of avoiding heath tourism, of you don’t sound British enough (or European atm??), you will be asked for your passport or visa etc...
I have to say, I’m wondering how it’s going to stop heath tourism from Brits who are liv8ng abroad but come back to be looked after by the NHS.... And I do also wonder how it’s going to work when so many people do not have a passport. If this isnt introducing ‘Id Cards’ by the back door, I’m not sure what it is (aka forcing everyone to have a passport to prove Id and nationality - which is basically what an ID card is)

How many Brits do come back to be treated Trafalgar? Since state pensioners in the EU/EEA in receipt of the S1 form have the right to still be treated by the NHS, I can't believe it is that many?

If this isnt introducing ‘Id Cards’ by the back door, I’m not sure what it is (aka forcing everyone to have a passport to prove Id and nationality - which is basically what an ID card is)

With the obvious end game being a person who doesn't have such ID - even if it's because the state refuses to issue it - becomes a "non person", which (I suspect) will be the real reason for such a scheme.

Theresa May has a track record when Home Sec. of trying to create "stateless" individuals who would have no protection anywhere in the world.

I too respect John Major more in later years.

• he actually won an election (against odds)
• he also put his leadership on the line, and faced down the EuroSceptics. Arguably creating the space David Cameron was able to inhabit many years later.
• he's as close to an everyman Tory as you can get

Shinestky i have no idea just as I think ‘authorities’ don’t either.
But a quick read on pages where you can retired Brits living in Spain for example shows that a lot of them have kept an address in the U.K. (usually a relative) or have failed to tell their surgery they have moved abroad. They then come back when getting treated in Spain becomes too expensive for them. Or they find it too hard to communicate with doctors there because they don’t speak the language.

Does it make sense to do that rarher than just using the heath care system of the country where they are? TBH I can see their point. When a cousin of mine moved here, she couldn’t get the medication she was given in France and was making her much better (thyroid issues). She did end up doing exactly that (but with the French system instead). Ive also had friends going back to France to get some procedure done there that they couldn’t have done here.
Ive never done it —because I wasn’t organised enough to do something like that or even think about it!— but yes I can see why one would get organise to do so.

Unfortunately only down for 11 minutes I think.

Isn't being "stateless" against the UN Charter?

Inasmuch as the Government can create laws that define British citizenship, eg that being born here is not enough, you have to have a British parent but only if such laws do not result in an individual becoming stateless

I'll admit, I only have a vague recollection of this point and haven't yet googled to check.

Isn't being "stateless" against the UN Charter?

It was only that which stopped her - seriously. Even then, ISTR some rather snarky "hand wringing liberal" insult slyly directed at that pesky UN. Which is an insult to the holocaust which was caused - in part - by a lack of similar protection in the 1930s.

She is nowhere near as bright as she thinks she is, having mistaken her part to power as being due to ability, rather than suitability.

Trafagar the vast majority of the people living in France that I know (us included) are fully registered with the French health system through our S1 forms. We use the excellent French health system all the time but we could also be treated free by the NHS if we wanted to as it is designated as our competent state.
The same is true of state pensioners in Spain and all other EU/EEA countries (and given the number of English speaking doctors in the places where people congregate in Spain I can't see that the language is likely to be much of a problem). If people have kept a place in the UK and go backwards and forwards then the issue is where they are legally resident (the 180 days rule) and paying taxes. I would just like to know how many people do go back to the NHS, who do not have that right through residence or state pension. I suspect it is far fewer than people think.

In the name of avoiding heath tourism

sums it up perfectly. Like "austerity" was in the name of "the deficit".

Bollocks to both. They're just mechanisms to ensure the less well off lower classes (because that's always been what the Tories - as opposed to conservatives - have ever been about) can be put and kept in their squalid little places, with their polysupersaturatedfatburgers, bad taste, and cannon-fodder brats.

How much money has the bedroom tax "saved" ? Who cares. How many working class people have been taught a lesson about their place in society ? Not enough, but it's a start. Hopefully Universal Credit will do for them, and it it doesn't the rent rises we'll be seeing will kick a few more to the kerb.

How dare they think just because they have a vote they can tell us what to do with our money.

Too much ?

We have kept our UK bank account too motherof four dragons and would be stuffed without it as we get our pensions paid into and then transfer a fixed sum. We did have to fill out forms to conform our tax residence in France recently though.

Well I think mother that the main things for us were to be resident, have health cover and pay taxes. We did have to register as tax resident when we arrived though which involved a UK form going very slowly through the French system. 😀

We have always understood that we have to keep them current, but can't have any new ones. It also annoys me that we can't download and use the app!

We don't have a UK address though. If we did go back (over my dead body) we would be fully entitled to the NHS, as we are now.

Not entirely residence though. State pensioners living abroad retain the right to use the NHS if it is their “competent state” and their state pension is paid by the UK. If you work and make contributions abroad (EU EEA) then that country becomes your competent state and pays your pension, though some of it may come from years accrued in the UK.
In summary people who have retired abroad have the right to use the NHS.

We've still got a UK bank account, but we also still complete UK tax returns (we have income from renting out our property) and are Brit Cits. We have been able to keep everything going, but - as a pp says - cannot do anything new, including moving our tracker mortgage onto a fixed rate mortgage .

My understanding - which could be wrong / may not be how it is implemented - is that the new rules bite on those who cannot show that they have a legal right to be in the UK. So Brit Cits are fine, even if resident overseas, because they could come back and live in the UK legally without needing permission. Non-Brit Cits are fine if they have up to date permission (visa, ILR). It's those without permission who are supposed to be caught by the rules - though it would interesting to know how many people living in the black economy have bank accounts now. And what the rules are supposed to mean IRO people who have valid permission when they open their accounts but subsequently overstay and (presumably) move onto the black list.

I have posted this before but here it is again
www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-overseas-visitors-hospital-charging-regulations/summary-of-changes-made-to-the-way-the-nhs-charges-overseas-visitors-for-nhs-hospital-care
I will shut up now. 😀