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A thread on no deal Brexit. This came to mind as I’m currently trying to feed a newborn, but I was in India in 2016 when Modi scrapped the 2 largest banknotes. The news had a story of a baby who died after a hospital refused to accept his parents' money https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/baby-died-hospital-india-refused-accept-parents-money-banknotes-mumbai-modi-cash-crisis-dies-a7416336.html%3famp
I know far too little about Indian politics to say much on that story, but the obvious point is there can be an enormous human cost of policy decisions. governments forget that at their peril. When ministers speak of “disruption” with no deal, what is the true human cost of that?
When I was briefly asked to cover no deal brexit for @thesundaytimes last year (a friend called me the “apocalypse and sheep farming correspondent”), what struck me was that risk. The granny who can’t get her medicine; the remote community where the baby formula doesn’t arrive.
The gov kept claiming this was “project fear” etc but it was - of course - in its own planning documents. My Yellowhammer scoop remains the proudest moment of my career. It shows ministers know exactly what the risks are of where they are taking us https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/operation-chaos-whitehalls-secret-no-deal-brexit-plan-leaked-j6ntwvhll
On drug shortages, this is old now - talking about crashing out of the EU on 31 Oct 2019, and the gov will say a lot of work has been done on ensuring the supply, but a single case like this will be one too many. @djnicholl @Gabriel_Pogrund) https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/medicine-fears-the-pain-is-excruciating-ill-be-suicidal-if-i-cant-get-my-drugs-ff5v7twfn
Is the job of (good) government not partly to ensure that most of us never have to worry about there being an adequate food and medicine supply? To run a society in which no one feels that they have to stockpile loo paper? That seems a bare minimum.
Anyway, this started as a v personal thread, precisely because the “personal is political”. My baby is 3 days old; even I - a tragic Brexit obsessive - shouldn’t have to be worrying about whether we will end up back at no deal over some fish British people don’t even eat.
And this guy certainly shouldn’t have to (with thanks to @HadleyFreeman for the styling - I think this baby grow belonged in its past life to the twins? Xx)
