29th March or bust

I had a work from home day today as I was due to see the consultant at Guys. It seems I now need to up my folic acid and also increase my inhibitors. Plus more ferrin(?) will be required by means of an iron infusion. I've also not been feeling to good, possibly a mild form of flu.

Also today the never ending saga that is Brexit moved forward. Already this month there have been defectors from both the Labour and Tory parties forming an independent group of MPs to oppose Brexit. This is good. It has also put pressure on both May and Corbyn. Only yesterday he agreed to pursue the idea of a second referendum. And today May agreed that there will be a vote on delaying Article 50. First a vote on her deal or no deal. The assumption is that the Commons will not vote for her deal. Then the following day a vote on no deal or delay Article 50. On the face of it it seems that leaving on 29th March is now dead in the water, as is her deal. But she is still trying to get those legal assurances from Brussels, so we will see.

Meanwhile I am quite concerned by how I might be impacted by a no deal scenario. If my dialysis supplies cannot be delivered it will be very serious for me. I counted about 20 different medicines and equipment that I require. It's not possible to stock pile. I don't have the room for it.

Taking back control

What can I say? We are plunged even further into the political crisis than last time I posted on this topic. The meaningful vote proved to be the biggest parliamentary vote against a Government ever. Yet Theresa May is still ploughing on, determined to see it through. For now she has agreed to invite the other political parties for discussions. But is she really listening?

This week there were further votes on amendments to the motion that was necessary after failing to get the vote through. Here a few noble parliamentarians (such as Dominic Grieve and Yvette Cooper tried but failed to give Parliament more powers to take back control from this despotic government. Grieve's amendment would have provided specific days for discussion and voting on next steps should May still not have the deal approved. Cooper's amendment was to extend Article 50. That too failed. Even an amendment to prevent a no-deal didn't go through. May's response to that is that the only way to avoid a no-deal is to vote for the deal. Even if the deal is worse than a no-deal.

It was the Brady amendment that passed that evening. This unicorn amendment seeks to remove the backstop from the Withdrawal Agreement. Yet we all know that the EU will never approve this. The whole point is that the UK can no longer be trusted not to contravene the Good Friday Agreement. What a mess.

And in all this melee I was invited to speak on Radio 5 Live breakfast show with my thoughts. I actually thought I would be discussing no deal and the risk to my kidney medicine and equipment. In fact I was asked to comment on who holds the power.