Cold reality of no-deal

AS MPs return to Westminster from the real world after their festive break, we can only hope the New Year brings a new spirit of realism and compromise over Theresa May’s Brexit deal.

True, the Parliamentary arithmetic still looks bleak for the Prime Minister, but there’s a distinct feeling the tectonic plates may be shifting slightly in her favour.

In a poll of Tory supporters, a majority now back the deal and, on both sides of the Commons divide, there are sympathetic noises.

Arch-Europhile Ken Clarke now says he’ll support the withdrawal agreement (fearing the alternative may be no-deal chaos), as does equally committed Eurosceptic Edward Leigh (who fears the alternative may be no Brexit at all).

But of course, the biggest stumbling block remains the DUP. If there is no legally binding limit on the Northern Irish backstop, they will not support the deal.

Yesterday, the Irish Republic warned it would need ‘hundreds of millions’ in aid if there were no agreement because their economy is so dependent on agriculture exports to the UK. Similar demands would almost certainly follow from France, Denmark and Holland.

So if they don’t want to pay the price of a no-deal Brexit, Brussels negotiators must start helping Mrs May in her efforts to avert it. The stakes couldn’t be higher.

WE have become all too accustomed to the bleak phenomenon of family doctors closing their lists to new patients, or shutting down practices.

But the staffing shortages are not confined to primary care, with new figures suggesting that a retirement time bomb is ticking at the highest level of the NHS.

More than one in five consultants are aged 55 or older, leaving the senior tiers of the service at risk of terminal decline.

It’s time for the SNP to take responsibility for its chronic failure to manage the NHS – and attempt to head off a looming manpower crisis that threatens to undermine patient care.