I had a very good friend who was a GP.
I often consulted him on both medical and non medical matters.
I was always impressed by his diagnostic skills and his ability to prescribe remedies that more often than not were wise, drew on his considerable experience and most importantly worked and which occasionally involved letting things be.
Because of my relationship with this particular friend I have long held the view that it is these particular skills, of diagnosis and prescription, that make the medical profession worthy of respect and the views expressed by those in the profession worth hearing and often acting upon.
But all of that has now changed!
Not so much Dr Foster, who having gone to Gloucester, foolishly stepped in a puddle right up to his middle but rather Dr Fox, who, even more foolishly is leading us out of Europe.
The result of the misconceived referendum was almost but not quite too close to call.
What makes it especially saddening is that the privileged members of the leave campaign, with their dubious claims, false diagnoses, and even falser promises, sufficiently captured the hearts and minds of working people in those regions that depend so heavily on inward investment from, for e.g. Japanese car manufacturers.
Investment that is made precisely because the European market is critical to the continued success of these companies.
Yet it was people in those regions whose votes swung the outcome of the referendum toward leaving.
The big issues that seemed to count for most, immigration, jobs, incomes were falsely claimed to be linked.
That immigrants steal jobs and drive down incomes is patently untrue.
The increased use of robots in manufacturing whilst reducing some monotonous and routine jobs in fact increase productivity and wealth, begging the question of how that wealth is shared in post industrial societies.
Globalisation is not the surrendering of the control of a nation's identity it is rather the recognition that nations have to interact constructively to ensure a peaceful co-existence with other nations on the world stage.
To say that if you are a 'citizen of the world' that you are a 'citizen of nowhere' is so far from the truth of it that it needs to be challenged whenever, and wherever and by whomever it is claimed.
The so called dis-benefits of our membership of the European Economic Community are simply wrongheaded in both theory and fact.
My passport allows me to travel freely across Europe and especially in the Schengen Area of which the UK has never been a part.
The Euros in my pocket, allow me to spend freely in those countries in the Euro Zone, of which the UK has never been a part.
My holiday trips to countries in Europe allow me to travel without the need for Visa's a freedom and a privilege which may well be withdrawn.
Our future outside Europe does not look good however 'pro-secco and anti-pasto' we might be we will be seen as bad losers who have simply taken their ball home and are sulking in isolation.
As we head to a hard Brexit the full reality of what we have done becomes clearer.
The complexity of the negotiations becomes ever more complex.
The untangling of the complex relationships we have with our European Partners my need a Damoclesian Sword to untangle with the associated pain that will go with that.
Or we will simply remain in a long and drawn out and ultimately unresolvable relationship with the 27 other members in which we are on the one hand not in but on the other not out either.
It may be resolved but, as we hear from those who profess some independence in the matter, we will as a nation be poorer for it, culturally as well economically and as ever it will be the poorest who will pay the highest price.
Recently I went to the GP, he examined me and listened to my presenting condition, a skin condition resulting from sun damage, eventually having offered the relatively simple diagnosis he offered a prescription, a cream, he then showed my some photographs of the damage that the application of the prescribed remedy could do.
The pictures were X rated, blemishes, open sores, and eczema the pictures suggested that the cure could well do more damage than the condition.
So I left without filling the prescription.
Diagnosis requires a careful, mature, assessment of the facts and an interpretation of any likely future reaction.
Prescription then requires a careful, mature, assessment of the appropriate response, including the risks of acting or not.
Those who have promoted Brexit, those who are responsible for delivering it, those who claim that the future for the UK standing alone on the world's stage will be glorious have both mis-diagnosed the problems facing the UK in the difficult and challenging complexity of a world facing population growth, food shortage, climate change and the shifting of the tectonic plates of the global economy as the balance of power moves to the east.
We are now faced with a prescription which offers us the worst of all possible worlds as we stand isolated from our neighbours our allies, and our friends on the world stage.
I often consulted him on both medical and non medical matters.
I was always impressed by his diagnostic skills and his ability to prescribe remedies that more often than not were wise, drew on his considerable experience and most importantly worked and which occasionally involved letting things be.
Because of my relationship with this particular friend I have long held the view that it is these particular skills, of diagnosis and prescription, that make the medical profession worthy of respect and the views expressed by those in the profession worth hearing and often acting upon.
But all of that has now changed!
Not so much Dr Foster, who having gone to Gloucester, foolishly stepped in a puddle right up to his middle but rather Dr Fox, who, even more foolishly is leading us out of Europe.
The result of the misconceived referendum was almost but not quite too close to call.
What makes it especially saddening is that the privileged members of the leave campaign, with their dubious claims, false diagnoses, and even falser promises, sufficiently captured the hearts and minds of working people in those regions that depend so heavily on inward investment from, for e.g. Japanese car manufacturers.
Investment that is made precisely because the European market is critical to the continued success of these companies.
Yet it was people in those regions whose votes swung the outcome of the referendum toward leaving.
The big issues that seemed to count for most, immigration, jobs, incomes were falsely claimed to be linked.
That immigrants steal jobs and drive down incomes is patently untrue.
The increased use of robots in manufacturing whilst reducing some monotonous and routine jobs in fact increase productivity and wealth, begging the question of how that wealth is shared in post industrial societies.
Globalisation is not the surrendering of the control of a nation's identity it is rather the recognition that nations have to interact constructively to ensure a peaceful co-existence with other nations on the world stage.
To say that if you are a 'citizen of the world' that you are a 'citizen of nowhere' is so far from the truth of it that it needs to be challenged whenever, and wherever and by whomever it is claimed.
The so called dis-benefits of our membership of the European Economic Community are simply wrongheaded in both theory and fact.
My passport allows me to travel freely across Europe and especially in the Schengen Area of which the UK has never been a part.
The Euros in my pocket, allow me to spend freely in those countries in the Euro Zone, of which the UK has never been a part.
My holiday trips to countries in Europe allow me to travel without the need for Visa's a freedom and a privilege which may well be withdrawn.
Our future outside Europe does not look good however 'pro-secco and anti-pasto' we might be we will be seen as bad losers who have simply taken their ball home and are sulking in isolation.
As we head to a hard Brexit the full reality of what we have done becomes clearer.
The complexity of the negotiations becomes ever more complex.
The untangling of the complex relationships we have with our European Partners my need a Damoclesian Sword to untangle with the associated pain that will go with that.
Or we will simply remain in a long and drawn out and ultimately unresolvable relationship with the 27 other members in which we are on the one hand not in but on the other not out either.
It may be resolved but, as we hear from those who profess some independence in the matter, we will as a nation be poorer for it, culturally as well economically and as ever it will be the poorest who will pay the highest price.
Recently I went to the GP, he examined me and listened to my presenting condition, a skin condition resulting from sun damage, eventually having offered the relatively simple diagnosis he offered a prescription, a cream, he then showed my some photographs of the damage that the application of the prescribed remedy could do.
The pictures were X rated, blemishes, open sores, and eczema the pictures suggested that the cure could well do more damage than the condition.
So I left without filling the prescription.
Diagnosis requires a careful, mature, assessment of the facts and an interpretation of any likely future reaction.
Prescription then requires a careful, mature, assessment of the appropriate response, including the risks of acting or not.
Those who have promoted Brexit, those who are responsible for delivering it, those who claim that the future for the UK standing alone on the world's stage will be glorious have both mis-diagnosed the problems facing the UK in the difficult and challenging complexity of a world facing population growth, food shortage, climate change and the shifting of the tectonic plates of the global economy as the balance of power moves to the east.
We are now faced with a prescription which offers us the worst of all possible worlds as we stand isolated from our neighbours our allies, and our friends on the world stage.
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