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.

Meaningful Vote

The time has finally arrived for the meaningful vote.

It was promised last December, only to be pulled at the last minute. So there is no guarantee that it will take place at all, tomorrow. But the time is now here, surely here, for Parliament to have its say and that the answer must surely be no. The vote would take us out of the European Union, remove freedom of movement both ways, subject us to rules over which we have no say. It is a bad deal.

What I love about this is that the Brexiteers are so ignorant and prejudice that they would rather stop us leaving the EU just because they can't stand the idea of us temporarily being ruled by another entity, even temporarily as a pathway to Brexit. It says it all that they would sacrifice their own dreams on the alter of their hatred of the EU.

Well let them, it helps me and everyone else who doesn't want to leave the EU anyway. If this deal is voted down then the threat being peddled by Theresa May is (last week) of a no-deal, and (this week) of a no Brexit. Well I vote for a no Brexit.

Hopefully once this deal is voted down we can see Parliament exert itself and take back control. There lies another irony as its the same slogan used by Brexiteers in 2016, only now they are not too keen on it when it means preventing them hurtling towards no deal.

The whole thing is a mess. Hopefully we can extend or abort Article 50 and either stop Brexit once and for all, or put it all to the country again with a People's Vote.

Interesting times. What will Labour do? Will they manage to seize power? Will Parliament manage to stop Brexit. Will Theresa May fight on and change all our lives forever?

Ennui

I was lying in the bath earlier when I thought about it. I usually have a bath rather than a shower in order to protect my exit site. It's quite nice anyway to be submerged (partially) by bubbles and warm water as I contemplate life.

It's ennui, the definition of my own life right now. Ennui for having a fucking inconvenient kidney disease; ennui for how debilitating it is, zapping my energies, ennui for the mist I have lived in for the past 20 years as a prescription medication taker to slow my blood pressure down; ennui for the daily drag of attending a job I really am bored by, yet having no interest in any other thing; ennui for the constant saving up for a pension, a future that is meaningless; ennui for Brexit, for the fact that I am powerless to control its outcome; ennui for the fact that I can't even escape the Brexit hell hole for France and warmer places due to being stuck in Blighty with my gammy kidneys; ennui that I just don't understand what it is all about and why I am blindly doing it, whatever "it" is.

What I can do is cocoon myself away with my heating on full blast, eating chocolate, listening to teenage angst music pretending all of the above doesn't exist.

Ennui.

Face Palm

Where do I begin to depict the events of the past week. I've actually been putting off writing a post because, if truth be told, I am fed up with Brexit. So fed up. And actually this is what Theresa May is hoping for, that people will now be so bored of it that they will just want the Government to get on with it. Well unfortunately Mrs May, I do not want you to "just get on with it". I want you to stop it.

So after the Government pulled the vote for the disastrous Withdrawal Bill, knowing that it would be defeated catastrophically, Mrs May faced a confidence vote with her own party. I have to say that when faced with danger, she is a survivor. She survived that, with 200 members voting for her, putting paid to the ambitions of Mr Rees Mogg. Then she scurried off to the EU to attempt the impossible and get a legal definition to the infamous backstop. Well guess what, she didn't get a thing. Yet she returned to try and argue the exact opposite, that the EU had given her assurances that the backstop would only ever be used as a temporary measure. It's like she is living in a parallel universe.

I've noticed in the past week how much more febrile is the atmosphere in political interviews, on that silly stand overlooking the Houses of Parliament. On Twitter too. Something is changing. Perhaps it is panic on behalf of the Brexiteers as they finally realise that they have lost the argument and the spectre of a second referndum starts looming. Even that weasal Darren Grimes, live on Sky News, seemed to threaten national violence if another referendum is declared.

Then today, just after the Government declared that a new date for the vote on the Withdrawal Agreement will take place next January, Jeremy Corbyn seemed to finally wake up and announce a vote of no confidence in Mrs May. Only its all pretense. A vote of confidence in her doesn't really matter. He needs to declare on in the Government if he is really pushing for a General Election.

And worst of all I watch BBC News coverage about American politics and the fact that Russia meddled in virtually every social media platform in order to elect Donald Trump. Yet nobody is reporting that it is highly likely that Russia did exactly the same to cause Brexit. Face palm.

Meaningful vote

So there we have it; the proposed Withdrawal Agreement has been delivered and is now being debated in Parliament. And it is not looking good for Theresa May. As it stands she will not manage to get this "meaningful vote" passed next week, despite the enormous push she has given to it.

The deal is flawed. The backstop is one thing, but equally the fact that we will be "rule takers" and not "rule makers". This makes me chuckle. If we wanted to leave the EU why did we want to be rule makers anyway. People have just not thought this through. And this is what gives me the believe that when it comes to the crunch we will not be leaving the EU. Sooner or later common sense will prevail and the impossible conundrum will be finally exposed for what it is.

So the decision now is between May's deal, no deal or no Brexit. Well both May's deal and no deal are not really going to prevail. The devastation that would occur throughout this country in the event of a no deal isn't worth thinking about. I for one would suffer from this scenario, unable to have access to my medical supplies.

This whole sorry story just needs to end. It is so depressing to think where we have gone as a country, where removing freedom of movement "once and for all" is seen as a "win".  The only person winning would be Theresa May who, having failed to control immigration whilst Home Secretary, when she could have done under EU rules, now is attempting to finish the job.

It makes me so mad that we are considering throwing away everything that we have built over the last 45 years. But like I say I am still quietly confident that common sense will prevail in the end.

Time will tell, next Tuesday when the vote goes through the House of Commons, I am hoping about anything that it will fail. Then the Grieve Amendment will mean that Parliament can attempt to wrestle control from the incompetent hands of the government and put an end to any chance of a no-Brexit. Then it can start to pick up the pieces of this unholy mess.

We have a deal...or Suez

This week was a dramatic one in politics. One Thursday a deal came in, finally after 2 and a half years. And it went down like the proverbial lead balloon.

I don't know why anyone is surprised. It was always going to be painful. Not least because of having to deal with the question of the Irish border.

This has triggered a number of letters to be sent to the 1922 Committee. Whether it reaches the magical number 48 is quite likely.

Theresa is on the offensive. After all, why would we choose a "no deal" over this "bad deal".

Has it really come to this?

Now it is blindingly obvious to Brexiteers as well as Remainers that the only solution is to remain.

Theresa seems to be toast but then she has a habit of clinging on. She will no go quietly that is for sure.

This has got to be the biggest political upset since the Suez crisis. This has to stop.

Surely.