Thread by @jamesmb

I want to address this tweet and the comments that followed. It seems that some of you did not get the point.

#NHS #StopBrexit #FBPE #PeoplesVote

The point is this:

The UK has access to technetium-99m because it's a member of an international treaty facilitating its trade & movement. Without it, treatment & detection of certain cancers is much harder, waiting lists will grow and people will die.

The further point is this:

There are 9.5 months to go until the UK drops out of EURATOM. 9.5 months is not enough to negotiate a brand new treaty or to join an existing one on another continent.

The further further point is this:

Molybdenum-99 has a half life of 2.75 days and decays to become technetium-99m (half life 6 hours). So the UK needs to get it from somewhere very close and with frictionless transfer.

So, let's now spend some time answering the specific points that were raised by #Brexiters about this very important issue, shall we?

This one: Yes, I have tears about the idea of people needlessly dying. It's not about whether you can afford it. It's about nuclear treaties.

This one: Not legally, you can't. Because of the treaty issue. See above.

This one: It's... oh. Wait. That's just an insult presumably based on not understanding the facts.

This one: Maybe "iamtommy" is some kind of local patois for "I don't understand nuclear materials or international treaties".

They get better - but this doesn't even come close to the stand out tweet insult of the day...

Generic insult.

One from a Villa fan...

I hate to conform to stereotype at this stage but look at the state of the punctuation on these three words...

Odd one. Seems to be suggesting that soldiers died for the right to make it harder to access materials that could save people's lives. Not entirely sure I follow the logic.

Nothing to do with price - everything to do with treaties governing the sale and transfer of nuclear materials.

Oh and it's about £150bn not a trillion - but they did not put it on the side of a bus, so there's no reason you'd know that.

Other countries are members of other treaties and buy it from other places that are closer to them.

This is fun, isn't it?

Did you know this has been raised in Parliament? parliament.uk/business/commi…

Asking for a friend...

See previous comments about treaties and that.

*sigh*

Not even close enough to the best insult. Not in the same ballpark.

*TREATIES*

"Hi, it's the UK here. We'd like to join your treaty and trade with you. We are very trustworthy."
"Did you pay your contractually agreed obligations to the EU?"
"About that..."
"And you want us to trust you?"
"Well..."
"No."

I'm not 100% sure but I am fairly sure you cannot buy nuclear material from your local Mercedes dealership. Could someone pop down to one later and check? Thanks.

Oh @COutwin, I think we both know that these people have "had enough of experts"...

And then we get to this. Firstly, I have never found it funny that this could happen. It's precisely because it is not funny that I raise it...

Secondly, it shows something about the Brexit mentality that the response to someone worried about access to cancer treatments and scan materials post-Brexit is to wish they get cancer.

This is what we are up against. Denial and hatred.

And it cannot win.

#StopBrexit #FBPE