Nov 1, 2019 06:54 PM
Despite sucking up to Trump, Johnson is being sold down the river
https://infacts.org/despite-sucking-up-t...the-river/
EXCERPT: . . . The US president is playing with us. In an interview with Nigel Farage on LBC, he said he couldn’t do a trade agreement with us because of the divorce deal Boris Johnson had already cut with the EU. In virtually the same breath, he said that we could do four or five times as much trade with America after Brexit. Both statements are nonsense. There’s nothing in Johnson’s divorce deal that stops an agreement with America. That’s because our Prime Minister hasn’t reached any deal with the EU about trade [...]
Meanwhile, Trump is plucking numbers out of thin air to seduce Brexiters into a trade deal that’s great for America but bad for Britain. It’s all about farmers and pharma. He wants to pry open our markets to US food such as chlorine-washed chicken – and to push up the price the NHS pays for US-made drugs. [...] drug pricing has been discussed in six initial meetings between US and UK trade officials, according to an investigation by Channel 4 Dispatches. If Brexit goes ahead, we are not just going to have to put up with nonsense on trade from Trump. We’ll be under pressure to kowtow on geopolitics, even when he doesn’t have our interests at heart... (MORE)
Labour are accused of peddling 'pathetic scare stories' about the NHS being part of a US trade deal after seizing on Donald Trump interview
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...-deal.html
SUMMARY POINTS: Jeremy Corbyn repeatedly claimed the US want the NHS included in trade deal. Donald Trump said last night the first he heard of the idea was from Mr Corbyn. Labour remain adamant the health service would be 'on the table' during talks. Health Secretary Matt Hancock accused Labour of trying to 'spread nonsense'.
EXCERPT: . . . Meanwhile, shadow international trade secretary Barry Gardiner told Sky News: 'The thing that people need to understand is that a Labour government will not roll over and have its tummy tickled by Donald Trump. We will stand up robustly to him over the issues of the NHS and drug pricing that they want to increase.'
Mr Corbyn has repeatedly claimed that US corporations could be given access to the NHS as part of a new post-Brexit trade agreement. The claim looks set to be a central part of Labour's election campaign, despite direct denials from Boris Johnson, International Trade Secretary Liz Truss and Mr Hancock.
Mr Trump last night said it was untrue – and suggested Mr Corbyn had made it up as he also claimed the Labour leader would be 'so bad' for the UK if he became PM. He said: 'I mean, it's so ridiculous - I think Corbyn put that out there.' He added: 'We wouldn't even be involved in that... it's not for us to have anything to do with your healthcare system. No, we're just talking about trade.' (MORE - details)
Donald Trump’s intervention leaves Boris Johnson with a double headache
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk...e-headache
EXCERPT: Donald Trump has waded into British politics, telling LBC host and Brexit Party CEO Nigel Farage that Boris Johnson's Brexit withdrawal agreement means that a US-UK trade deal can't be done [...] It's a double headache for Johnson: it gives Farage and the Brexit Party an opportunity to argue that Johnson's deal is a rotten one that is Brexit in name only, and it gives Labour and Corbyn the opportunity to pivot away from Brexit, a question on which the country is split almost exactly in half, and towards Trump, one which unites more than two-thirds of British voters in varying degrees of contempt
The reality is that Trump is wrong: Johnson's deal leaves plenty of room for a deep US-UK trade deal. It's Johnson's promises as far as food and agriculture go that will have to be abandoned if he wants a meaningful trade deal with the United States. But it leaves Downing Street in an awkward position: of at once trying to defend their deal and at the same time trying to minimise the ability of Labour to equate Johnson and Trump.
Their big consolation is that because their opposition parties have different incentives, the negative messages are drowned out. Corbyn, Jo Swinson and Nicola Sturgeon want voters to think that Johnson's deal is one that opens the UK up to becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Trump, Inc, while Farage wants voters to think that there is no prospect of a trade deal with anyone under the terms of Johnson's withdrawal agreement.
The electorate might simply conclude that if Johnson is being attacked from both sides, he must be doing something right: or voters might unite in thinking Johnson's deal is a rotten one despite doing so for verty different reasons. It speaks to the big known unknown of the general election... (MORE)
https://infacts.org/despite-sucking-up-t...the-river/
EXCERPT: . . . The US president is playing with us. In an interview with Nigel Farage on LBC, he said he couldn’t do a trade agreement with us because of the divorce deal Boris Johnson had already cut with the EU. In virtually the same breath, he said that we could do four or five times as much trade with America after Brexit. Both statements are nonsense. There’s nothing in Johnson’s divorce deal that stops an agreement with America. That’s because our Prime Minister hasn’t reached any deal with the EU about trade [...]
Meanwhile, Trump is plucking numbers out of thin air to seduce Brexiters into a trade deal that’s great for America but bad for Britain. It’s all about farmers and pharma. He wants to pry open our markets to US food such as chlorine-washed chicken – and to push up the price the NHS pays for US-made drugs. [...] drug pricing has been discussed in six initial meetings between US and UK trade officials, according to an investigation by Channel 4 Dispatches. If Brexit goes ahead, we are not just going to have to put up with nonsense on trade from Trump. We’ll be under pressure to kowtow on geopolitics, even when he doesn’t have our interests at heart... (MORE)
Labour are accused of peddling 'pathetic scare stories' about the NHS being part of a US trade deal after seizing on Donald Trump interview
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...-deal.html
SUMMARY POINTS: Jeremy Corbyn repeatedly claimed the US want the NHS included in trade deal. Donald Trump said last night the first he heard of the idea was from Mr Corbyn. Labour remain adamant the health service would be 'on the table' during talks. Health Secretary Matt Hancock accused Labour of trying to 'spread nonsense'.
EXCERPT: . . . Meanwhile, shadow international trade secretary Barry Gardiner told Sky News: 'The thing that people need to understand is that a Labour government will not roll over and have its tummy tickled by Donald Trump. We will stand up robustly to him over the issues of the NHS and drug pricing that they want to increase.'
Mr Corbyn has repeatedly claimed that US corporations could be given access to the NHS as part of a new post-Brexit trade agreement. The claim looks set to be a central part of Labour's election campaign, despite direct denials from Boris Johnson, International Trade Secretary Liz Truss and Mr Hancock.
Mr Trump last night said it was untrue – and suggested Mr Corbyn had made it up as he also claimed the Labour leader would be 'so bad' for the UK if he became PM. He said: 'I mean, it's so ridiculous - I think Corbyn put that out there.' He added: 'We wouldn't even be involved in that... it's not for us to have anything to do with your healthcare system. No, we're just talking about trade.' (MORE - details)
Donald Trump’s intervention leaves Boris Johnson with a double headache
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk...e-headache
EXCERPT: Donald Trump has waded into British politics, telling LBC host and Brexit Party CEO Nigel Farage that Boris Johnson's Brexit withdrawal agreement means that a US-UK trade deal can't be done [...] It's a double headache for Johnson: it gives Farage and the Brexit Party an opportunity to argue that Johnson's deal is a rotten one that is Brexit in name only, and it gives Labour and Corbyn the opportunity to pivot away from Brexit, a question on which the country is split almost exactly in half, and towards Trump, one which unites more than two-thirds of British voters in varying degrees of contempt
The reality is that Trump is wrong: Johnson's deal leaves plenty of room for a deep US-UK trade deal. It's Johnson's promises as far as food and agriculture go that will have to be abandoned if he wants a meaningful trade deal with the United States. But it leaves Downing Street in an awkward position: of at once trying to defend their deal and at the same time trying to minimise the ability of Labour to equate Johnson and Trump.
Their big consolation is that because their opposition parties have different incentives, the negative messages are drowned out. Corbyn, Jo Swinson and Nicola Sturgeon want voters to think that Johnson's deal is one that opens the UK up to becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Trump, Inc, while Farage wants voters to think that there is no prospect of a trade deal with anyone under the terms of Johnson's withdrawal agreement.
The electorate might simply conclude that if Johnson is being attacked from both sides, he must be doing something right: or voters might unite in thinking Johnson's deal is a rotten one despite doing so for verty different reasons. It speaks to the big known unknown of the general election... (MORE)
