Day: July 28, 2017

‘A bit of me is dying. But I can’t stay’: the EU nationals exiting Britain

A recent Deloitte report suggested 47% of highly skilled EU27 workers in the UK were considering leaving over the next five years, uncertain about their prospects – and those of their adopted country – once Britain exits the union…

Alexandros and Heidi, who asked not to be fully identified because they have not yet told their UK employers they are leaving, had jobs within days of posting their CVs online. After living in Britain, most recently in the north-west since 1995, both will take up senior positions with a leading German hospital company, on more than double their UK salaries.

Their decision was made easier by the fact that stones were thrown through the windows of their house barely 24 hours after the referendum, and that their six-year-old daughter came home in tears after being told in the playground by a classmate that she would soon have to “go home”.

“I feel betrayed,” Alexandros said. “To have worked so hard here, done those 16-hour hospital shifts, and be treated like this … with spite. Made to feel you’re not valued, not wanted, not good enough for Britain. It breaks my heart, but I just want to go now. Whatever might happen, we wouldn’t stay.”…

“Britain has changed,” said Michaela Aumüller, who after six years in Cornwall moved to Münster, Germany, in April with her British partner, Richard. “Something has been broken. Neither of us wanted to put up with the new attitude to EU nationals. There were incidents, little things, but they make such a difference.”

But the main reason, said Aumüller, was because “we don’t see our relationship being protected by UK immigration law. I’m self-supporting, I don’t have the paperwork, and if EU citizens’ rights ever become the same as non-EU citizens’ … we couldn’t be together in the UK.”

‘A bit of me is dying. But I can’t stay’: the EU nationals exiting Britain

There’s A Real Risk Brexit Will Only Worsen The NHS Staffing Crisis

huffpostuk-news-yahoopartner:

In recent years many employment sectors in the UK have come to heavily rely on recruitment from Europe, begging the question why it has taken the government so long to commission the recently announced review into the impact of EU migration on the UK’s society and economy; a review that will only be published six months before the UK must leave the EU.

EU nationals play an invaluable role in health and social care in the UK, and have been vital in addressing the staff shortages seen across the NHS. There are around 135,000 EU nationals working in the NHS and adult social care system in England alone, staffing our A&Es, our GP surgeries, looking after elderly patients in care homes and conducting vital medical research.

Recruiting from the EU has been vital in dealing with staff shortages in health and social care, and the NHS is dependent on EU workers to provide a high-quality, reliable and safe service to patients. Put simply, our health service would not be able to cope without them.

New figures have revealed the already crippling staff shortages the health service is facing, with more than 86,000 vacant posts across the NHS between January and March 2017, which many have suggested is an underestimation.

Poor workforce planning from successive governments has left the NHS in desperate need of more doctors, while the failure to meet the growing patient demand with sufficient funding and resources, has contributed to the overwhelming recruitment and retention crisis in our health service. In a recent BMA survey, seven in 10 hospital doctors reported rota gaps in their departments while almost half of GPs have reported GP vacancies where they work.

The unsustainable pressures facing the NHS mean we are already seeing fewer doctors in training are choosing to apply to or remain in the NHS, while at the other end of the scale, the unsustainable workloads have led many experienced doctors to retire early, or work abroad.

The health service is more reliant than ever on overseas recruitment, with the head of NHS England, Simon Stevens, making it clear that we will need to recruit around 2,000 more GPs from abroad to meet staffing targets.

Sadly there is a real risk that Brexit will only worsen the current staffing crisis across the health service. More than four in ten doctors told the BMA that they were considering leaving the UK in light of the referendum result, and we know that non-UK workers have already begun to leave the NHS since we voted to leave the EU.

The most recent set of migration figures, which cover six months since the referendum, also suggest that fewer people from the EU are choosing to come to Britain, as net migration from the EU fell by 51,000.

But this isn’t just about numbers, these highly skilled professionals have enhanced the diversity and skill mix in the UK health system. A diverse profession with a wide range of experience and expertise is beneficial to patient care.

To protect the future of the NHS, the government must work with health organisations to ensure robust transitional arrangements are in place, and that the immigration system remains flexible enough to recruit doctors and other NHS staff from overseas, especially where the resident workforce is unable to produce enough suitable applicants to fill vacant roles.

Dr Andrew Dearden is a GP and treasurer of the British Medical Association (BMA)

And, speaking of vintage Betty Crocker, this one arrived today!

I’d considered it before, but finally went ahead and tracked down a copy. Off eBay, from a UK seller, for under £20! Much better than when I was looking before. And it looks to be way less battered than my mom’s copy.

Besides the level of odd-sounding stuff you might expect from a 1961 Betty Crocker cookbook, it does have some pretty good cakes, etc. in particular. I may have to try a GF conversion of the Black Midnight Cake, though I’m not sure I want to mess with the cooked White Mountain icing we always had on it. (Apparently a popular enough recipe that it’s on their site now.)

But, the main reason I decided to get hold of a copy was the nostalgia value. My mom could have written this review (in part):

The Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book is absolutely the best all-around cookbook in the kitchen. I learned to cook from this cookbook over 40 years ago and have continued to use this cookbook as it offers good basic recipes.

That was one of the first cookbooks someone gave her when she left home in like 1968, and she was still referring back to it some 40 years later. Neither she nor my uncle entered adulthood knowing how to do much more than boil water, because they were barely allowed in the kitchen at all with my Mamaw’s OCD. Not sure how he learned to feed himself, but she gave this cookbook a lot of credit.

I’ve barely even opened this “new” copy yet, but I was pretty glad to find one at a reasonable price.

tilthat:

TIL that authentic Mongolian cuisine is mutton, mutton, and more mutton. (A “Mongolian barbecue” is neither Mongolian nor BBQ.) It is so monotonous that one travel author wrote “in 33 years of international travel [Mongolia] has without question the most pitiful food of any country I have visited”.

via http://ift.tt/2w6cmuW

Channel with some really interesting videos, including some traditional Mongolian dishes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_yXGNJDvXRd7041L8Gkw9g

https://www.facebook.com/ArtgerEntertainment/

The amount of mutton and some other meats makes a lot of sense, from traditionally herding cultures in a rather harsh environment. Making the best use of available resources. But yeah, Mongolia really does not seem like a great place to visit for vegetarian food.

(Mostly reblogging to add that interesting YouTube link, though.)

In March, the St Petersburg legislator who had become a spokesman for the law started mentioning me and my “perverted family” in his interviews. I contacted an adoption lawyer asking whether I had reason to worry that social services would go after my family and attempt to remove my oldest son, whom I adopted in 2000. The lawyer wrote back telling me to instruct my son to run if he is approached by strangers and concluding: “The answer to your question is at the airport.”

In June, the “homosexual propaganda” bill became federal law. The Duma passed a ban on adoptions by same-sex couples and by single people living in countries where same-sex marriage is legal. The head of the parliamentary committee on the family pledged to create a mechanism for removing children from same-sex families.

Two things happened to me the same month: I was beaten up in front of parliament for the first time and I realised that in all my interactions, including professional ones, I no longer felt I was perceived as a journalist first: I am now a person with a pink triangle.

My family is moving to New York. We have the money and documents needed to do that with relative ease – unlike thousands of other LGBT families and individuals in Russia.

Masha Gessen, in “As a gay parent I must flee Russia or lose my children” (via queerqueerspawn)
Source: queerqueerspawn