Brexit: where is the deal?

Brexit is happening. Source: http://www.thedailybell.com

Prime Minister Theresa May will trigger Article 50 tomorrow, starting the two- year process of leaving the European Union.

Britain, which has been in a state of unprecedented uncertainty since the outcome of the referendum last June, has now to honour its commitments to the European budget by paying a hefty divorce bill of £50bn.

However, the country may fail to meet one of three negotiating priorities, as it is willing to pay only a fraction of that amount.  

Mr Barnier, the EU chief who leads the Brexit negotiations and set the criteria, has warned of the possibility that the EU and Britain could fail to strike a deal with painful consequences for both economies.

His other priorities are not undermining the peace in Northern Ireland and deciding the status of the over 3 million EU nationals living in Britain.

The government should put into place an action plan aimed at protecting the rights of millions of people who have built a career and a life in Tanland, by not forcing them to move elsewhere. The act would help to maintain the current skilled and varied workforce and perhaps encourage more people from overseas to move to the UK and contribute to the economy, as it has been for many decades.

Otherwise, how is the British labour market going to cope with fewer and fewer EU workers choosing to move to the UK? The overall number of people in the European Union looking for a job in Britain has fallen by almost a fifth since January (Indeed, 2016), while the NHS hospitals have seen a sharp fall in number of EU nurses after Brexit vote, aggravating an already strained healthcare system.

To immediately guarantee the immigrants’ rights would make even more sense in the light of data revealing that 1,2 million British-born people reside in Europe and they hope not to be negatively affected by the Brexit agreement (United Nations, 2015).

A bad deal or no deal at all could be disastrous and cause severe delays at airports and long queues at Dover, as well as the suspension of the deliveries of nuclear material, not to mention the impact on the food industry. In fact, as many companies import ingredients from the EU and related costs are expected to rise even further in the short-term, companies need to decide whether to absorb that additional payment or change to a UK supply.

On top of the necessity to support  fair competition, Mr. Barnier has highlighted the tremendous importance of Great Britain and the EU co-operating on security and defence. Not by chance the European Union has helped avoid war between its members since 1945.

Wheelchair vs buggy

This January the Supreme Court of UK has ruled that bus companies must end first come first served policies and do more to accommodate wheelchair users.

Wheelchair user boarding a bus. 

 Source: http://www.rica.org.uk/content/buses

Disabled activist Doug Paulley from West Yorkshire brought his case after he was denied access to a bus in 2012, when a mother with a pushchair refused to make space for him and the driver did nothing to force her to move.

It has not been a straightforward journey, though. Doug Paulley’s appeal, which has been funded by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, was upheld after the successful county court case outcome against FirstGroup in 2013 had been overturned by the court of appeal the following year.

                                                                

 “It has been amazing the amount of support that I have had of so many people, disabled people, organisations, lawyers, families, LAs. This hopefully is going to make a major difference to disabled people’s travels”, said Mr. Paulley. 

A ruling on the case is expected before the end of 2017 and the brave traveller hopes that the Supreme Court will finally make the right legal and moral decision that supports the major objective of social inclusion for physically impaired people who are too often left in distress while travelling:

 “Not all the justices agreed (…). There was a significant disagreement on some details (…). What this judgment means is that the drivers have to make their own decision as to whether or not the person has been unreasonable in refusing to move. If they are, the driver has to tell them they are required to shift and if necessary refuse to continue the journey until they move over”.

Wheelchair and mobility scooter-users are highly dependent on buses to get around and while a buggy can be easily folded, the same solution does not apply to wheelchairs, especially when the disabled passengers are travelling alone.

Those who are physically impaired face challenges while travelling in London, too.   
Insufficient wheelchair-friendly transport is a widespread problem in the capital, where only few tube stations have step-free access. 

The Transport for London (TFL) website reads: “Around a quarter of Tube stations, half of Overground stations, most piers, all tram stops, the Emirates Air Line and all DLR stations have step-free access”.  

However, some of these stations still have a gap and step between the platform and the train.

Season's Greetings

Image: http://wondrouspics.com/seasons-greetings-2/

As we near the end of 2016 and look to the New Year, I want to say a massive thank you for visiting my blog and enjoying the monthly stories. I hope you will all continue reading “All around UK” in the months and years to come. 

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Wonderful 2017.

Deny, Deny, Deny

From right to left: Eve (J. Sharkah) and Joyce (S. Marks) are facing fierce 
competition and challenges. Source: https://www.parktheatre.co.uk

Deny, Deny, Deny is Jonathan Maitland’s five-handed drama on professional athletes taking performance-enhancing drugs.

The story is set in the future and Eve (Juma Sharkah) is an ambitious sprinter who has come to Shepherd’s Bush in London from a deprived background in Sierra Leone, to win gold at the 2028 Boston Olympics.

She is already a rising star, ranked 58^th in the running, and to raise her game Eve switches to an unscrupulous and incredible results-achieving coach called Rona (Zoë Waites), who targets the athlete’s vulnerability and encourages her towards a radical gene therapy treatment: a form of DNA refashioning that leaves no detectable traces of toxins in the bloodstream.

Eve will become the world’s first genetically modified athlete.

Throughout the process, Rona pits Eve against rival runner Joyce (Shvorne Marks) and progressively gets her to dump Tom (Daniel Fraser), her sport journalist boyfriend.  

The transformation does not only affect her personal life, though.  Despite Rona’s promise that injecting RNA drugs is as innocuous as drinking orange juice, Eve can no longer see the colour green once the drugs take hold.  In addition, her eyes start glazing with robotic intensity during the second act of the play.

Eventually the athlete will succeed.  However, is it worth crossing ethical lines in order to cross winning lines?

The final scene between Tom and Eve may answer to the question by clearly showing the human cost of Eve’s overriding ambition.  She is now a coach herself and has not seen Tom for several years.  

Interesting in Maitland’s play is the set design of a rectangular sports arena with the audience on all four sides, while the lighting transforms the arena itself into a running track. 

Through short and dynamic scenes the author paints a saddening portrait of a world in which you are only cheating if you are found to do so.  

The anti-doping enquiry towards the end of the play, which is conducted quite informally, sees Rona shouting abuse and proclaiming that cheating is a nationalised industry.

The coach also emphasises:  

“Where there is no doubt, there is no progress.

“Some of the greatest things in life happen when we cross the line”.

It is in the court scene that Sarah Finigan, who plays various characters throughout the play, brings new energy and the way she challenges ruthless Rona is cause for reflection.

Deny, Deny, Deny is a tale of ambition, love and jealousy which runs at the Park Theatre until December 3.