Brexit means something

It's unbearably hot tonight in my flat. I should have invested in those blinds I looked st earlier in the year. Too bad. The fan is on, the doors and windows are open. My ankles have started swelling badly today. I'm drinking lots of fluids and trying to remain cool.

And tomorrow is the Queen's Speech, yet the government doesn't have an agreement with the DUP yet to maintain an overall majority. Chaos reigns both here and over in Brussels where Brexit negotiations have begun. Overwhelming evidence states that we should remain or have a soft Brexit yet, unbelievably, despite her reduced party presence in the Commons, May is pressing on with hard Brexit. Will someone, Ken Clarke, anyone, please stop her before it's too late?

Thoughts on hung

Well that's a turn up for the books. This was kind of what I was hoping for, except not with the DUP. Whilst it's great that there is some challenge to the hard brexit road we were likely to be going down, I am concerned by the right wing policies around equal marriage, abortion and climate change that the DUP hold. I've written to Neil Coyle, who was successfully elected back into my constituency last night.


I think this is Schadenfreude, given the mantra of "strong and stable" that was forced down our throats. Yet, unbelievably, as I listened to Mrs May speak outside Downing Street, she spoke as if she had a Conservative majority. She is still talking about the will of the people, completely ignoring the will of the people from last night. I expect she still has her feet being held to the fire by the likes of John Redwood and Rees-Mogg. Well the vital thing is that she avoids a vote of no confidence, as Labour and the Lib Dems will surely attempt quite soon, to challenge her authority. Interesting times. I just pray that this means an end, at least, to the hard Brexit nonsense.

Elections, terrorists, kidneys

I don't really want to forget this last week. The last week before the General Election on Thursday. Who'd have thought six weeks ago that the situation would be like it is now?

Then, Theresa May was leading massively in the poles. Then, Jeremy Corbyn was viewed as a bit of a joke, a crusty old Communist who had no chance of beating May. Back then I joined the Liberal Democrats, convinced that their offer to give the public a second vote on Brexit would be the sweet deal that put a stop to all this madness.

Six weeks on: the Liberal Democrat dream is in tatters and the race is neck and neck between Corbyn and May, depending on which pole we believe. The country is split, not so much between Remainers and Leavers but the young versus the old; those with property and pensions and those with no property and who are saddled with student debt. And more recently, since the atrocious attacks in Manchester and London Bridge the battle is on safety; the Tories whose period in Government over the past seven years has failed to stop the wave of terrorists versus Corbyn's IRA past and the relationship he really did have with those protagonists of The Troubles.

May has stuck to robotic slogans: "best possible deal for Brexit", "strong and stable government","me or a coalition of chaos". Yet with multiple u-turns on policy, such as with the hated Dementia Tax, has started to appear weak and wobbly. Corbyn, however,  has evolved from a simple communist to a confident leader in the making, focusing not on Brexit but on NHS, policing and minimum salary; yet one who will tax the top five percent, who refuses to keep us in the Single Market and is rumoured to be planning a mansion tax. It is to the young that Corbyn appeals generally and it is to the older population where May shines. The question on Thursday will be whether enough young people turn out to vote for him.

I'm not in keen for either Labour or Conservatives to win an overall majority. Neither are guaranteeing to keep us in the Single Market.  Neither see the beauty and necessity of freedom of movement. Only the Liberal Democrats, together with SNP can temper the nationalistic mood that has gripped the country since last year.

There are signs of hope. Macron won the French presidency. Netherlands remains Liberal. Europe is strong. We need Europe. In this world of ISIS terrorists we need to work together. I pray that on Friday there is no overall majority, that in the following days there is the "coalition of Chaos" depicted by May. It is what this country needs to heal, not a UKIP style Conservative Government and not a hard left Labour Government that strips hard working successful people of their wealth just for the sake of it.

I think about those who died in Manchester and London Bridge because of hate. I want to end the hate more than anything. When I think about it happening on my doorstep, along Stoney Street in Borough Market it fills me with sadness, but also resolution not to give in to hate, whether that be ISIS or Katie Hopkins' Twitter feed, which I blocked this week.

And as a background to all this I entered the kidney transplant list. It's a sobering thought that someone has to die to give me their kidney, unless I find a living donor of course. It's odd that I felt quite relaxed, almost relieved about it whereas others seemed somewhat upset. So long as I keep my old bloated ones going for as long as possible, although my ankles are now swelling and I'm still a little breathless. I ignore it, or intend to. Life is too precious to worry, especially when it can be extinguished in a second by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm more concerned by who my next prime minister might be, and how we can stop this fuckfest that is called Brexit.