In between starting a trade war with China, selling out the Kurds in Syria, extorting the Ukrainians, and courting North Korea's Kim Jong Un, Donald Trump has apparently been plotting with United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson to set up a post-Brexit trade deal that would, of course, destroy Britain's health care system.
That's what Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn contends, producing uncensored official documents that he says confirm that the National Health Service is to be sacrificed in trade talks with the U.S. At a press conference, Corbyn showed what the Independent reported "appeared to be leaked government papers detailing six rounds of trade talks in Washington and London running from July 2017 to a few months ago." The more than 450 pages of documents, he said, left Johnson's assertion that the NHS was safe "in tatters." "This election is now a fight for the survival of our National Health Service as a public service free for all at the point of need," Corbyn said.
The memos precede Johnson's taking office, produced by former Prime Minister Theresa May's government. But there are two years’ worth of discussions, apparently, in which the trade demand from Trump included ending the NHS. That would allow U.S. pharmaceutical and device manufacturers a more lucrative market in the U.K. "Negotiations have advanced even further than we feared they had," Corbyn said. "The US and the UK have already finished initial discussions on lengthening patents for medicines."
To our British friends: This is entirely believable. Just look at what he's done in the U.S. He's right now telling federal courts that they need to strike down all of the Affordable Care Act—a very capitalist-oriented program designed to marginally constrain health insurance companies to make sure that the insurance they offer does actually cover health care. Of course eliminating the NHS would be among his demands in trade talks!