A Hostile Environment for Yulia Skripal 178


An interesting facet of Theresa May’s “hostile environment” policy, aka institutionalised racism, is that Yulia Skripal will have to pay for her NHS emergency treatment because she was admitted to hospital. When the government announced its clampdown on use of the NHS by foreigners, including migrants and overseas students, it ended the provision of free emergency treatment for non-citizens in the UK, at the point of hospital admission – which in a real emergency is often required.

I could see the argument for charging “aliens” for attending A & E with a broken thumb, but not charging them for a massive heart attack. But the Tories do it the other way round. It is worth noting that in Scotland the Scottish government, which controls the Scottish NHS, has not implemented this Tory policy.

This policy was instituted in April 2015 directly as a considered part of the “hostile environment” for migrants. Reciprocal public healthcare agreeements with Russia and 16 other countries were cancelled unilaterally by the Tory government in 2016.

Of course, I do not doubt Yulia Skripal – whose whereabouts and freedom of action are unknown and who patently did not write the police statements issued in her name – will not be charged for her treatment, unlike others admitted in life-threatening situations. But think for a moment of the dreadful cases of heartache to other individuals and families that must have been caused by this cruel policy, all in the name of “discouraging” migrants. As with the case of the Windrush generation, I do not doubt there are scores of unheard stories of the effects of Tory callousness waiting to come to light. I am glad the Skripal case gave me the chance to highlight the issue.

Meanwhile in Salisbury we are going to have a great propaganda theatre of destruction, as places which people were allowed to frequent for weeks after the attack are demolished, to eradicate a strange liquid that is ten times more deadly than VX but at the same time ineffective, and is liquid but cannot be diluted, except its dilution was why it did not kill anybody, and which cannot be washed away, except if you got it on your clothes you are perfectly safe if you wash them, and which made hundreds of people sick except there were only three of them.

All of those contradictory statements are from the official government narrative on Salisbury as delivered over the last couple of months through the state and corporate media. It is beyond me how they expect anyone to believe their utterly incoherent nonsense.

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178 thoughts on “A Hostile Environment for Yulia Skripal

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  • DG

    Curious what “150% of the standard NHS rate” would be in her case?

    Your “Meanwhile…” para would be hilarious had not so much of the MSM swallowed it. Our ‘betters’ seem to have lost all ability to reason.

      • Andyoldlabour

        That article is comedy gold. The ex KGB spy who defected, now claiming that he is a “loyal British subject”.
        One and a half months after the “poisoning”, the police are asking people who visited the pub or Zizzi on that day to bag their clothes for collection, despite being originally told to simply wash them!!!!!
        This is like something out of a “Johnny English” film starring Rowan Atkinson.

    • MightyDrunken

      Interesting, Boris Karpichkov the source for this high level intelligence also claimed the Russians killed Gareth Williams

      Body of Gareth discovered on 23 August 2010, 9 July 2010, Sergei Skripal released with spy swap.

  • alan bolger

    craig,
    why not sell advertising space on this site via google ad sense?
    you generate a lot of internet traffic so i am pretty positive this would generate a lot of cash for you ,paid in dollars though

    • John Goss

      The content reads:

      “Let Yulia Skripal explain what happened to her and her father.
      The world needs to know that Yulia Skripal, allegedly poisoned by a nerve agent, is getting proper follow-up medical care by hearing her own account of the alleged poisoning. Apart from one telephone call nobody knows where she is or whether she has the choice to speak freely.
      There are many media accounts of the alleged poisonings of the Skripals (Yulia and her father Sergei) as conflicting and changeable as the weather. Parliament needs to discuss this whole affair in an adult way so that the public has a plausible explanation of what happened. Yulia Skripal should be given access to the media because otherwise the suspicion falls on the UK for holding her and her father against their wills.”

      • Dan

        Signed.

        I think this must be the first time in the history of the modern media that someone’s request for privacy has been respected so obediently and unquestioningly by the tabloids. If it was anyone else, the press would be pursuing her 24/7 until they got an interview or a photograph.

        • Mark

          Where is Max Clifford when you need him? Just imagine Yulia checking out of Salisbury hospital arm in arm with the great publicist setting off to sell her story to the highest tabloid bidder. Max would surely have sexed up the whole fairy tale with a bit of kiss and tell on the side. Maybe even getting a bit of syndication with the Russian gutter press. If only he hadn’t so tragically died.

        • Jo Dominich

          Hi Dan/John. Signed. At this stage, I doubt very much whether old Sergei is still in hospital or whether he too hasn’t been spirited away. The reason I say this is because normally, when there are disasters or major events, the Press are everywhere outside hospitals, tricking their way in with false identities etc. I don’t think Sergei is there. I am concerned about Yulia and it shouldn’t be allowed to drop out of public sight. If the ball was on the other foot and two British nationals had been attacked in the same way in Russia and the Russian Government responded in the same way as ours have done, there would have been a national furore and an international one as well. Under international law the Russian Consulate is entitled to meet with her whether she agrees or not.

      • copydude

        I signed too.

        The idea of people being ‘disappeared’ in the UK doesn’t sit well. I wrote to my MP on the subject. So many unacceptable practices are swept under the carpet, it’s necessary to keep this issue current.

        • Blissex

          «The idea of people being ‘disappeared’ in the UK doesn’t sit well.»

          What about the boast by G Williamson that he and his predecessor have been sentencing to death, as potential future criminals, hundreds of UK citizens and are having them assassinated by MoD+MI6 death squads?
          That boast was welcome enthusiastically by many, or simply thoroughly accepted by most of the public.

      • J Cooke

        I clicked on the link to sign the petition but got the message that you already had five signatures and that I couldnt sign it as they were seeing if it fulfilled the criteria for petitions.

      • Dennis Revell

        :

        Can’t get to it: Some BS Govt. ‘blocking’ page in the way:


        Petitions

        UK Government and Parliament
        We’re checking this petition

        5 people have already supported John Christopher Goss’s petition.

        We need to check it meets the petition standards before we publish it.

        Please try again in a few days.

        ?

    • John Goss

      Six people have already supported the petition. I just got an email.

      “Dear John Christopher Goss,

      Your petition is nearly ready to go.

      XXXX XXXX supported your petition – “Let Yulia Skripal explain what happened to her and her father.”.

      6 people have supported your petition so far. We’re checking your petition to make sure it meets the petition standards. If it does, we’ll publish it. This usually takes a week or less.

      Find out how we check petitions before we publish them:
      https://petition.parliament.uk/help#standards

      Thanks,
      The Petitions team
      UK Government and Parliament”

      Hope there is nothing in the standards to prevent it going ahead because that poor woman potentially needs our help.

      • Gideon Blackmarsh

        I’ve also signed it John. You said above (approx. 3 hours ago) that 6 people had signed it – do you have an update on that number?

        Before I signed, the information given on https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/218356/ was as follows:
        We’re checking this petition
        5 people have already supported John Christopher Goss’s petition.
        We need to check it meets the petition standards before we publish it.
        Please try again in a few days.

        After signing, I was told this (which implied it didn’t yet have 5 signatures):
        What next?
        This petition needs 5 supporters to go live.
        When it goes live, we’ll email you a link so you can start sharing it.

        Returning to https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/218356/ I see the same message as before, i.e. that 5 people have already signed. Surely that number should have gone up? It certainly shouldn’t have gone down in the 3 hours since you said you had 6 signatures.

        Perhaps my scepticism of the government is getting the better of me, but I can’t help wondering whether your petition will ever see the light of day.

        • John Goss

          Hi Gideon, thanks for your support. The latest email says 14 people up to now have signed the petition. Unfortunately until the petition is published I suspect it is difficult to get support since everyone it seems is going to get the message that the five people necessary to launch the petition have already signed. After that we can start spreading it.

          I’m a little sceptical too but let’s see. If we have to wait a week so be it. We’ve waited almost a month since Yulia’s phone call to her cousin. Nobody in the press or government seem in any rush to have her voice heard a second time.

          • Dave

            I have also signed John. Just a casual visitor to this site but following the Skripal saga with great interest. Whether your petition achieves anything remains to be seen,

          • Gordon G

            John, I signed about 6.30 pm yesterday, and it said then that 5 people had signed. I do hope your petition is accepted, but I fear it may not be, given the quite extraordinary clampdown on news from Salisbury. Very heavy-handed control by the government here – as there must be a fairly large number of potential whistle-blowers even on the periphery of the ‘incident’. I suspect the nursing and medical staff at the hospital must have been warned off, threatened with the Official Secrets Act, loss of job/pension etc. It’s all too Kafka-esque.

          • John Goss

            Update. 20 people have signed but at this stage it only requires 5 signatures. It can take up to a week. Every time someone signs I get a message but I don’t think others see more than 5 supporters until it goes live. Thanks all for signing, I’ll try and keep you updated.

        • John Goss

          These are the petition guidelines and I don’t see that there is anything within them that could nullify it.

          https://petition.parliament.uk/help#standards

          I don’t know of any court injunctions prohibiting this freedom to ask parliament to protect a foreign national from expressing a viewpoint on what happened to her. This could be potentially stretched to invalidate it.

          “It refers to a case that’s active in the UK courts”

          There are no court cases at the moment as far as I know to do with the Skripals.There will hopefully not be any before the petition is published.

          What I expected to be there which is not is:

          If it is not in the interests of national security to publish it.

          • JJ Lothin

            I see they’re still keeping the petition under wraps: I am advised to ‘try again in a few days’.

          • Dennis Revell

            :

            UK Govt. is bullshitting you – As I can’t see any way to sign support for it, can’t see how it gets any traction.

            I believe they intend for the petition never to see the light of day.

            So much for Western “democracy”.

            .

  • Sharp Ears

    Questions to ‘Mr Shurrup and Go Away’ aka the Secretary of State for Defence today in the HoC.

    1. What steps he is taking to support the UK defence industry
    https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2018-04-23/debates/345457B5-2B0A-4D65-9523-58D8C277CB9E/DefenceIndustry

    2. What steps his Department is taking to invest in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defence capability.
    https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2018-04-23/debates/1D64E942-5182-4EA1-A67C-E7796BEAFFBE/CBRNCapability

    Plus
    Veterans.
    Russian Military Activity
    Recruitment: Capita
    Type 26 Frigates
    Future Accommodation Model
    Leaving the EU: Defence and Military Aerospace Industry
    Departmental Funding
    Social Mobility
    Departmental Staff: Wages and Conditions
    Baltic States: NATO
    Armed Forces: Capacity
    Wildlife Poaching
    Departmental Expenditure: Aid

    That took over one and a half hours for our Gavin and his team, Tobias Ellwood, Mark Lancaster and Guto Bebb,

  • Ed

    Regulations governing health care of foreign citizens in Russia are defined by Resolution #186 of the Government of the Russian Federation of March 6, 2013.
    Medical care is provided to foreign citizens in any medical institution that is federal, municipal or private care facility.
    Emergency and ambulance medical care is provided to foreigners FOR FREE and without delay. Emergency medical care is provided to foreigners in all state and municipal medical care facilities, and attended to by medical care professionals, first responders and police officials. These institutions and persons are obligated to provide medical care to a foreign citizen when his or her life is threatened due to accident, trauma, injury, poisoning or other reasons.

  • Goodwin

    You don’t need to charge alien visitors if they have insurance. Make it mandatory. What’s the problem? The NHS can no longer afford to be run like a charity – or do you want to pay more tax (assuming you pay any) so that it can continue to fund health tourism? Welcome to the real world …

    • Bayard

      You have obviously no idea how the costs of the NHS are allocated. 99% or more of the costs of the NHS are standing costs, i.e. we have to pay them whether the hospitals are full or empty. You don’t close hospitals or sack doctors and nurses simply because there are less people sick or injured that week. Thus “health tourism” (which concept itself is hugely over-exaggerated in an attempt to blame some of the NHS’s woes on evil foreigners) accounts for a tiny proportion of the non-standing costs, which themselves are a tiny proportion of the running costs of the NHS.

      • David

        There’s also the admin expenses of chasing payment down and maintaining costs for procedures — albeit the latter is part of the madness of the NHS internal market that already costs billions each year and dwarfs any “health tourism” in terms of cost. But let’s set that aside for a moment.

        Any non-racist implementation is either widely open to abuse or will require some trusted form of ID – probably only a passport or driving license will suffice. I work with people who have neither and for whom the £34 for a provisional driving license, which they can never afford to use, has to come from either the food or heating budget whilst working in a highly exploitative, very low-pay sector renowned for its widespread abuse of zero-hours contracts.

        Somewhat perversely, these people are paid care assistants and over the years their job has got considerably harder as councils continue to cut their social care budgets and push people who in other times would be assessed as EMI care (elderly mental health) into residential homes; people suited for residential homes into assisted living facilities; and those for assisted living facilities into their own homes, where a “half-hour” visit can be as little as 5 minutes or as much as 15, because they include travel time.

        What happens to those who do not get the levels of care they require? Some will fall, and end up in hospital. A hospital is going to be reluctant to discharge back to the place they fell, but it may be the only choice. There is a good chance they will yo-yo in and out of hospital, each time suffering another significant blow to their dignity. After a few goes a care placement is attempted, except there’s a shortage of residential care places.

        Meanwhile, the care assistants are having more pressure applied to them. Care assistants get stressed, their mental health suffers, they take shortcuts that they know put themselves at risk and debilitating physical damage. Mental health services are a shadow of their former selves. Pills are cheaper than people. If you’re lucky they might work within 4 weeks. Hopefully they work before your mental health causes your employer to decide that, despite having a shortage of staff, your unreliability brings more demerits than the merits of your employment and, with little-to-no notice, you are no longer given hours.

        Going down this path without racism, even with the most charitable interpretation of the intentions, not only denies the poorest access to healthcare, it also places a further burden on the NHS.

        It amazes me that the party that still champions the negligible second-order effects of supply-side effects (or trickle-down economics) pretends it cannot see the effects of austerity. I now realise that a political party that promised to implement policies that would benefit the richest, most vile members of our society (or otherwise) whilst responding to (almost) every whim of the Daily Mail headline-writers could be no more racist, “incompetent” or unjust than this current government.

  • Yorkie

    You’d have thought poor Yulia would have been paying regular visits to her Dad in Salisbury hospital? Any sign of that?

  • mike

    I see the Yemen article now, Buz, on the BBC. It wasn’t there when I posted at just shy of 1pm. And it is of course buried on the website.

  • Mark Potter-Irwin

    Please support Craig Murray (With £s) in his attempt to bring us more truth and insight than most of the mainstream media. We all need an alternative view on the “World Narrative”.

  • Sharp Ears

    Funny mikney cont’d. No worries for Google. They have a large investment in Uber now worth $3.8billion. Their original investment five years ago was $258million!

    Alphabet profits ease tech fears
    Booming digital ad revenues boost Google owner
    April 24 2018
    Most of Alphabet’s profits come from Google
    The Google owner Alphabet has weathered the storm over internet privacy to unveil a bumper quarterly profit that breezed past Wall Street’s forecasts last night.

    The technology giant earned ++$9.4 billion in the first three months of the year++, nearly three quarters more than in the same period in 2017, powered yet again by its booming digital advertising business.

    Alphabet, which is valued at about $750 billion, is the world’s second largest public company, after Apple. Most of its profits come from Google, which sells digital advertising space on its search engine, YouTube video site and other platforms. Its interests also span cloud computing, smartphones, tablet computers, self-driving vehicles and life sciences.

    Analysts have warned that the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal that has engulfed…

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/alphabet-profits-ease-tech-fears-clhxfcpcb

    Trump’s ‘tax reforms’ have assisted them. Handy that.

    /.. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/alphabet-profits-ease-tech-fears-clhxfcpcb

    Google’s co- founder Larry Page is still at Google as its CEO. Sergei Brin has departed to Google.org https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google.org

    • Doodlebug

      @Charles 11:35

      To whom does ‘they’ refer and why should you be at risk personally? Have you visited Salisbury recently?

      • Charles

        “they” refers to May and Johnson, the Government, the members of HM’s opposition who are using event to harm Corbyn, Jeremy Heywood and his team that are managing this fiasco.

        I am assuming that if a nuclear exchange occurs between the US and Russia that Britain will be the first target that is vapourised because of our proximity to Russian silos (London – Moscow 6 minutes at mach 20) and the requirement to take the UK out of the equation. So if that happens I will die.

        Not been to Salisbury recently (since March 4th) but I am a reasonably frequent visitor (5 or 6 times a year say) I have been meaning to go to get the goss in the pubs but it isn’t the threat of Novichoks that has prevented me, I stocked up on baby wipes as soon as I heard so I am well prepared.

        • copydude

          Charles
          April 24, 2018 at 12:01

          “London – Moscow 6 minutes at mach 20*

          Kaliningrad is much closer. And think of the poor Poles next door to Kaliningrad with the missile shield kit.

    • PreProle

      What is worthy of speculation is the Government’s motive for keeping the Skripols locked away from having any contact with the outside world. My guess is that it’s because they know too much and are considered to be unreliable in keeping what they know to themselves. If there is a consensus in Government circles that the Skripols can be bought – and indeed were bought by the Government for their role in the plot which was botched in Salisbury – then it’s unlikely we’ll ever hear from them again.

        • PreProle

          There would be nothing to lose and a huge political advantage to be gained by the Government parading the fit and healthy Skripols to the world in a press conference. The two could even reinforce the Government line on the Salisbury incident by expressing to the world’s media their own belief that Russia was behind the ‘attack’. After that, the pair could be spirited away somewhere. As I said above, nothing of this is happening because the Government fears the Skripols revealing more about Salisbury than it wants anyone to ever know.

          • copydude

            I honestly don’t know how she could look convincingly happy.

            I don’t see much difference in being disappeared to being murdered. Basically, you no longer exist. In her case, 33 years of life wiped out. She has no friends outside Russia and no life . . . no dog, no boyfriend, no job, no home. She is even separated from her Dad. They wiped her social media while she was in hospital and it’s not clear if she has any net.

            If MI6 didn’t do the deed in the first place, they’ve certainly finished her off.

      • copydude

        I’m convinced she won’t be seen again. It’s even hard to guess where they could place the all-new, identi kitted out Skripals.

        Sergei’s association with Christopher Steele is difficult, since Steele appears to have been the engine behind the Russophobia campaign and the anti-Trump dossier, a real tsunami of disinfo post Ukraine.

        It’s Steele who was briefing about Russia fixing elections in America, Europe and even the Brexit vote.

        America is of course very divided on Trump, with one half working on impeachment and the other firefighting. Either faction could be interested or embarrassed by what Skripal knows, depending what that intel might be.

        However, Steele has been referred to the US Justice department for prosecution and is also fighting lawsuits in America and the UK. Sergei’s MI6 mate and Salisbury co-resident, Pablo Miller, has also been fingered in the production of the dirty dossier.

        And yes . . you can’t help wondering if the hit was bungled, because the couple are a problem MI6 might prefer not to have.

        Tom Smythe wrote here: “Sergei was a poor candidate for just about any medical procedure with that paunch, history of diabetes I, miserable prison time, and at 66, probable micro-strokes, advanced arteriosclerosis and liver cirrhosis.” Another strange consequence of super deadly Novichock. You probably could have knocked him over with bad cold.

        • Doodlebug

          The Skripal affair raises concern on several levels, not just for the Skripals themselves, although they are obviously uppermost in one’s thoughts.

          In early May 2007 news emerged from Portugal, Britain’s oldest ally, that a three-year-old English girl had apparently disappeared while on holiday in the Algarve. Within 48 hours the location was awash with diplomats, including the UK ambassador to Portugal no less, and directives being given to the Portuguese as to pursuance of the investigation.

          Now the boot is on the other foot. Foreign nationals have had their lives seriously endangered on British soil, yet the government is denying even members of their own family any contact with them. In both instances the government has, in a very short space of time and on the basis of no evidence whatsoever, defined the crime in question and, in the case of the Skripals, proceeded to identify the perpetrator.

          In terms of compassion for the victims, the double-standard is self-evident. Inevitably it raises the important supplementary question of how the government is able to be so sure of its knowledge in the apparent absence of established fact?

          It is this Impetuosity which betrays a desperation to establish the media agenda.

  • Cesca

    Just posted this in reply to another comment on an earlier page, think i should repost in current comments too:

    *Think it’s a badge of honour i’ve just had a comment deleted on the Guardian, raising concern about the Skripals in a very reasonable way.

    The comment had attracted many upticks and replies b4 the Guardian censored it, so know a lot of ppl saw it. I am one of the influential commentators on the Guardian, know the editorial team would happily rip out my throat with their teeth =)*

      • Cesca

        *Wondering if any1 else feels concern about what is really happening to the Skripals?

        The only real info we have is the phonecall Yulia made, the statements released on behalf of her are seriously unlikely to have been written by her.*

        Do you think that comment was THAT contentious copydude?

        • Cesca

          Ooh, the final part of the comment was: *Don’t think it’s tinfoil hat territory to feel some concern*

      • Cesca

        Think it was a perfectly reasonable comment bro, it was 10 mins b4 the comment was deleted, they obviously waited for orders. This is nothing less than Fascism!

    • Andyoldlabour

      I had a comment deleted in the Independent the other day, despite it also receiving a few upticks. It was about the Douma “chemical” attack, and the fact that the UK/US were concerned that Russia/Syria would clean the area of evidence. I simply stated that given the hullabaloo with cleaning in Salisbury, I didn’t think it would be possible to “clean” the evidence of a “genuine” chemical attack.

  • Cesca

    *Think it was a perfectly reasonable comment bro, it was 10 mins b4 the comment was deleted, they obviously waited for orders. This is nothing less than Fascism!*

    The Tories being fascistic could be a worthy topic for you to consider writing about Craig?

  • MightyDrunken

    I am falling more and more into the “conspiracy” theory that most of the news about Russia over the last few years is mostly a concerted effort to marginalise Russia. I’ve heard people say that they think this is leading up to trying to kick them off the security council. I can’t see that happening but I have seen a story which suggest a way to bypass the security council and therefore Russia’s veto.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria-russia-un-veto-chemical-weapons-civil-war-general-assembly-a8319821.html

  • M E Cooper

    Surely she would have travel insurance? Can you check this? Why do we not check travellers entering the country have insurance or send them back?

    • copydude

      I think I mentioned before, you don’t get a visa for UK in the first place without health insurance.

  • Sam Sung

    Do you really think there was anything wrong with the policeman? I expect they asked if everyone was feeling ok and he said he had a bit of a sniffle so they put him in a coma for a week.

    • copydude

      There are no witness accounts of him showing symptoms. According to the hospital bulletin, he was recovering after only a couple of days. But strangely, he was not discharged until March 22. Local police were thrown off the case on March 6. No one at the scene of the incident with DS Bailey, several of whom came into contact with the Skripals, suffered any ill effects. DS Bailey, according to neighbours, has been away on holiday since and presumably won’t be returning anytime soon. His house has been designated for ‘intensive caustic scrubbing’ by DEFRA, according to Ian Boyd, in the coming clean up.

      Make of that what you will.

      • John Goss

        The whole story is a fantasy. It has to be a test to judge the extremes of how much media gunge the sleeping majority can take before thinking to themselves “That seems a bit odd.” I worked it out the first time I saw Dan (?) and Louise Minchin on BBC Breakfast (or whatever it’s called) mention the poisoning and give one another a look while commenting that it looks like a story that won’t end anytime soon. Neither of them broke into one of their famous smiles. Professionals what? I would have split my sides.

        • copydude

          John Goss
          April 24, 2018 at 18:56
          “The whole story is a fantasy*

          The Litvinenko story was iffy, but this narrative is risible.

          Speaking of Livinenko, his wife Marina has been speaking out lately. She has produced her mails from the then Home Secretary, Mrs May, who promised that ‘this will never happen again’. ‘Lessons have not been learned’, says Marina.

          Marina has a problem with Mrs May because Theresa ‘fought like a tiger’ (quote) not to allow a public inquiry, where witnesses could be challenged and evidence could not be kept secret.

          She has also spoken out again about the dirty money that arrives in London and warned the Conservative Party that it ‘taints their reputation’ to accept it.

          Well ho ho ho. She is not going to be invited for tea and scones in London this season.

      • Charles

        Presumably DS Nick Bailey was alone in the police station when the 999 call came through or all the uniformed constables were busy and suspected vagrant drugies / drunks are a high priority in Salisbury.

        The 999 call was made at 4:15 and by 4:16 the first emergency services vehicle was on the scene. The Air Ambulance was scrambled (but went the wrong way) it arrived half an hour later.

        It seems Bailey went home to Alderholt after his shift where he became ill.

        The photograph below was taken when the army were conducting the first decontamination process, it looks like they had run out of protective suits and gas masks (all used in Salisbury?) so they had to make do with a Working at Height Harness from the PPE cabinet.

        3rd photo down main article

        https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/03/16/world/may-visits-u-k-city-russian-double-agent-
        poisoned/

        https://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/f-may-b-20180317.jpg

  • Barden Gridge

    NHS has issued yet another pointless update on Sergei Skripal – the only updated information is the date.
    https://www.england.nhs.uk/south/2018/04/10/updates-on-the-salisbury-incident-3/
    “Updated: 24 April at 4.03pm.”
    https://twitter.com/BardenGridge/status/988867598791139328

    We’ve now had the same update on:
    18 April 2018 at 4.45 pm
    19 April 2018 at 5.00 pm
    20 April 2018 at 5.30 pm
    24 April 2018 at 4.03 pm

    And those are just the ones I know of.
    There may have been others in between, but only the latest one is shown on their website.

    Are they doing this so they can fob off anyone who asks what’s happened to Sergei (or Yulia) with “see our latest press release” and point to an encouragingly recent date on it?

    • Charles

      “one inpatient (a man in his 60s) remains in the care of Salisbury District Hospital”

      Are they not sure who he is?

      “after being exposed to a nerve agent.”

      Not according to Lead A&E Consultant Dr Stephen Davies – Lets hear an update from him

      “The NHS is not keeping a tally of every interaction”

      Why not?

      “Based on current evidence, Public Health England is advising that the risk to the general public from this substance has not changed and remains low.”

      It hasn’t changed, it remains low – then it wasn’t a Novichok

      • Barden Gridge

        Given the level of duplicity surrounding this case, you begin to wonder if they really are talking about Sergei.
        Maybe he discharged himself weeks ago and the NHS is under no obligation to tell anyone about that and this is a purely coincidental reference to another man in his 60s who sprayed some Roundup on his cornflakes “following the incident in Salisbury on Sunday 4 March”.

        I don’t think the NHS statements (especially the original April 10 one: https://www.england.nhs.uk/south/2018/04/10/updates-on-the-salisbury-incident-7/ ) actually state that “exposure to a nerve agent” is what the Skripals have been treated for. They’ve been treated for poisoning.

        Someone who has an X-ray in the morning and is then hospitalised for severe food poisoning after lunch could truthfully be said to have “been exposed to radiation” and to “be receiving treatment for poisoning”.

        They (whoever is covering this up) want people to infer that a nerve agent caused the poisoning for which they say the Skripals have been treated. That position is compatible with what the Davies letter says.

  • Charles

    There was a time that it would have been unthinkable that the British State could have been involved in the poisoning of the Skripals and if you did you would have been well advised to keep it to yourself.

    But things have changed, the Internet brings us insights that the MsM refuse to and we are now aware of how low our political classes have sunk.

    Britain condones and supports Israel’s continued onslaught of Palestine and the murder of its children. Our governments are capable of anything especially when there is personal gain in it for the decision makers and facilitators.

    So unfortunately for me Britain is more likely to have poisoned the Skripals (if they were poisoned at all) than Russia.

    What did for the Skripals may not have had any connection with what was found on the door handle and what was initially on the handle might not be what the OPCW inspectors sampled.

    When trust has been eroded there is no hope of respect and anarchy is not far away. The old and middle aged are exasperated but the young will tolerate it until a tipping point occurs. I fear we are not too far away from that.

  • Patrick Mahony

    If it wasn’t so serious the army taking up paving slabs that might have been vomitted on would be side-splitting.
    Seven weeks of rain and this benignly lethal substance has not gone down the drains. Or is the whole drainage system to be changed, and a new sewage works built?

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