If it be your will wrote:I have no doubt the US would want full access to NHS contracts as part of a deal. I've no doubt the Tories would actively go with this, too. That said, we already have a huge amount of services outsourced to the private sector - I wouldn't particularly have any more objection to US firms than I do to Virgin Healthcare, who already hold several large contracts.
But it's the bolded bit I'm interested in. Why can we not say 'no'? You think there is no other way than to be trapped in the EU or be bullied by the US? That it is basically impossible to trade largely based on WTO, and only sign trade agreements that are mutually beneficial? This would be too depressing for words if you're right.
(I'm not intentionally doing that "Are you saying..." tactic, and then saying something exactly the opposite to what you were saying, I'm genuinely interested.)
I don't think they would just want full access. I think they would want it to be abolished in its current form and have us more to an insurance based healthcare system. And they can just wait. They don't need a trade deal. In fact by refusing to negotiate with us it would make it much more likely that we would get a Prime Minister willing to abolish the NHS because our economy will grow worse and worse, and what newly formed political party do you think will be best placed to exploit a country with a population angry at the state of its economy and economic prospects? And what has the leader of that party said in the past about the NHS? He said, "I think we're going to have to think about healthcare very, very differently. And i think we're going to have to move to an insurance based system of healthcare".
We weren't trapped in the EU, our membership in the EU protected us from the predatory instincts of the ultra-capitalists of the world and the tendency of our right-wing governments to want to capitulate to them. Well, lol, with Prime Minister Farage at the head of our government you're going to find out just how important EU membership was to us.
We just better hope a democrat wins in 2020 because if one doesn't then it means Russian election influence there is still working, and will continue to work because the
Republicans keep blocking attempts to prevent it and President Trump's government will absolutely press it's negotiating advantage if we leave the EU. And with our weakening economy and tendency to believe liars and fake news if it's what we want to hear, then we're becoming easy pickings for the kind of far-right wing Prime Minister who would see our most important institution carved up and sold off to the oligarchs.
Euro-skeptics who seem to think that the EU was some massive neo-liberal hell compared to what life will be like outside it have absolutely no appreciation of what we're facing. Sure, some of the neo-liberal aspects of it could have done with changing and improving, but we're about to find out just how much the rest of it protected us.
And it's not just the NHS of course. Every aspect of our trade with the likes of the US are going to see us at a disadvantage. So American companies wanting to invest here are going to lobby the American government to demand better conditions for their business, and by better conditions i mean weaker rights for employees, less rights for consumers, lower expenses, lower corporate taxes, higher subsidies, weaker labour laws (hilariously probably including the ability to employ foreign workers cheaply). ******* all sorts of **** we're going to have to swallow because of how weak our negotiating position is.
We are so monumentally screwed, mate.