Those who intent on driving us off the cliff will make sure they are protected from the crash .

Brexiters will be calling Fake News and Project Fear over news that  we face food and medical shortages unless the Tory government strike a deal before (or for the first time I can say if) the UK leave the European Union.

Like millions of others I am particularly  concerned after Matt Hancock, the new health secretary, admitted plans were in motion to stockpile drugs, medical devices and blood products in the event of a no deal, as speculation over such a scenario grows.

Sir Michael, who chairs the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), said officials must ensure drugs do not run out if the government fails to secure a deal with Brussels.

Speaking in a personal capacity, Sir Michael told the Pharmaceutical Journal: 

“There are problems, and the Department for Exiting the EU and the Department of Health and Social Care need to work out how it’s going to work.“Here’s just one example why: we make no insulin in the UK. We import every drop of it.“You can’t transport insulin around ordinarily because it must be temperature-controlled.”

My insulin comes from Denmark and needkes and testing strips from Switzerland,

One pack last me a month (i order two) and I need to order before I have two pens left (in case one is damaged) and store the one I'm not using in the fridge

I am not saying that the scenario is likely to happen , but such is the nature of the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg and Boris Johnson in that they don't seem to have any concerns over the economic consequences of a no deal, they seem oblivious to such a possibility.

One person who may be concerned  is Theresa May who was seen with a diabetes monitoring patch on her arm as she trod the red carpet at a glitzy awards show last night.

The Prime Minister, who was diagnosed with diabetes five years ago, had the small patch visible upper on her upper arm while shaking hands with well-wishers outside the Pride of Britain ceremony.

However it has emerged that more than  490,000 diabetes patients are missing out on a life-saving monitor used by Theresa May as they're "not a priority", it's claimed.

NHS data shows just 9,690 sufferers have been prescribed  the blood sugar monitoring equipment since it was approved - but experts estimate 500,000 could benefit from the “flash glucose monitor”.

The flash monitor - available to the NHS for less than £1,000 a year each - is a small sensor providing continuous measurements of blood sugar levels in the body through a needle-like sensor in a patch worn on the back of the upper arm for 14 days, and can free patients of continuous painful finger-prick testing.

We should ask the Prime Minister if she gets the monitor from the NHS or pays for it privately?

If its the latter then maybe she would not have a problem in ordering a bulk shipment of her Insulin before Brexit  privately.

It may be an indication of how much she shares fellow diabetics concerns 

According to the Daily Express, approximately just one in every 50 eligible people are currently receiving it, and it's claimed a "postcode lottery" is denying the patch to hundreds of thousands of diabetics.

Chris Askew, chief executive of charity Diabetes UK, said: 

“The delay in some areas in providing access to a ground-breaking technology that can help people to better manage their diabetes is unacceptable.
“We are urgently calling on local health bosses to give access to the device to those who can benefit, no matter where they live."
: “People with diabetes have already been waiting for too long. Every area should now have a policy providing access to flash for free on prescription.”
According to the Express, only half the 195 Clinical Commissioning Groups in England have prescribed it.

I have met one person in Wales who receives the patch through the Welsh NHS and whilst i don't real need one have a friend who would greatly benefit from it.

It is not scaremongering to be concerned to worry about this  and certainly the Government  should tell us how long supplies (even if stockpiled) if there is a No-Deal Brexit.

One thing is clear those who intent on driving us off the cliff will make sure they are protected from the crash ,

 it will be us passengers who face injury or death.

Tories embarrass "Welsh" Labour by nominating female candidate

The report from  the BBC that a   Conservative AM whose signature got Suzy Davies into the Tory assembly leadership contest has backed her rival for the job. looks like a bit of silliness from the party at first,.

After all those in the bubble may have looked at the 2015 UK leadership contest for the Labour leadership contest when Labour MPs nominated Jeremy Corbyn even though they backed another candidate , only to see the party faithful decide they wanted a full blooded  socialist not some pale imitation Blarite.

According to the BBC

David Melding said Paul Davies was "clearly the best candidate" to bring the party together.
Suzy Davies's nomination triggered a contest following the resignation of Andrew RT Davies.
She said she always knew Mr Melding was backing Paul Davies, who is the current interim leader.
Asked why Mr Melding had nominated Ms Davies, a party source said they believed Mr Melding felt it was in the party's best interests that a contest take place.
Ms Davies had been nominated by Brexiteer AMs Janet-Finch Saunders and Mark Isherwood as well as Mr Melding.
Mr Melding, a former deputy presiding officer, said: "Paul Davies is now clearly the best candidate who can bring the party together and ensure that MPs, AMs, councillors and activists work together to remove Labour from power.
"In Paul Davies, I see a future Welsh Conservative first minister with the passion and experience to lead our country.
"The Welsh Conservative team has some great ideas to change Wales, but it's only by getting Conservatives into government that we truly transform our country - that's why we need a strong experienced leader with a track record of winning elections."
Suzy Davies said: "I always knew this and I am very grateful to David for allowing our members to have a contest for leader."
Paul Davies had been nominated by five AMs - Angela Burns, Russell George, Nick Ramsay, Mohammad Asghar and Darren Millar.

As Labour  Wales face the problem of not having a Woman in the ballot paper, being the only party  in the four leadership contests (Plaid.Tory,Labour and Ukip). they face embarrassment  and a reaction from sections of the party.

Only one woman, Eluned Morgan, has announced a bid for the contest.

But she needs at least five AMs to nominate her before she can become a candidate, and none have.

Only Mark Drakeford, the finance secretary, has secured enough support to be guaranteed a place in the race, with 12 AMs backing him.

Vaughan Gething is in the running but is one AM short, with four backers. Huw Irranca-Davies also wants to stand, but like Ms Morgan has not secured the support he would need.

Labour have in the past made a big thing about increasing female representation in all areas of politics fail to get one nominated for the only legislature  they control in these islands. 

It comes to something when the Tories can ensure that there is nor only a contest but that there is a Woman on the ballot, Labour may not even have a contest at all and Mark Drayford  receiving a coronation .

By all accounts he's popular. competent and on the left (though i have doubts of at least the last two.

We  may not however  get to find out what the members of that party actually think.

BBC censor Pro-Independence Blogs.

The BBC appear to be targeting Pro-Independence  Blogger's and attempting to censor pro independence Bloggers 

As the English Blogger  AAV tells us  

People are absolutely free to use short video clips of other people's copyrighted material to provide political analysis. This is confirmed by YouTube's own "fair use" guidelines.
However, YouTube have apparently decided to comply with the BBC's efforts to shut down several pro-independence channels by enforcing copyright takedowns against all videos containing clips of BBC output (regardless of fair useconsideration) and then suspending the pages for repeat violations.

One of these censored Blogs is unsurprisingly Wings Over Scotland one of the most read Blogs not only in Scotland but the whole of the UK,

Wings explains what happened to him.

We happened to be looking at a couple of old articles this morning, and noticed that some of them had blank spaces where videos should be.We didn’t think much of it at first, because people do sometimes delete old videos or shut down their accounts, but when we checked one of them we discovered it was hosted on the Wings Over Scotland channel.Or rather, it USED to be, because our YouTube channel isn’t there any more

This was surprising, because as far as we knew the channel was listed as being in “good standing” with YouTube, meaning it had zero copyright strikes, and we’d had no warning emails about anyone making a copyright claim about any videos, and indeed no notification of the account termination.

And then things got a bit sinister.

Because what appears to have happened is that the BBC has suddenly gone on a crusade against pro-independence sites, launching mass takedown demands that get your whole channel killed before you can respond to them. (Unlike Peter Curran, we got no notification from YouTube so we can’t challenge the claims individually.)

If you go to YouTube’s Copyright Centre, you’ll find yourself at a page which says you can file an appeal if you think your account has been terminated in error:

Wings whole take on this  can be seen on his Blog at least for now because who knows where the Unionist Censor will strike next?

Is is just the start?The BBC has come into a great deal of criticism not only for its Unionist Bias but for its constant failure to  cover Vote Leave breaking election law  and it  seems to have launched "a chilling attack on freedom of speech through their misuse of YouTube's copyright takedown system to shut down pro-independence commentators and blogs".


Can the recent  British parliamentary committee report that UK government should hold technology companies responsible and liable for "harmful and illegal content on their platforms," and that misinformation and "fake news" is threatening democracy be part of a plan not to protect democracy but the reverse?

Can we have the scenario where it is the Tories together with the BBC deciding like the US President what is "Fake News"  ir whatever criticises them?
.

"Welsh" Ukip will be first to declare new leader.

On 10 August  we will see the first result of the the three candidates in the four party leadership elections as UKIP Welsh Assembly leadership contenders  will cross the border and head to the Devon town of Newton Abbot - UKIP's HQ - to find out which of them has won.

As the BBC tells us 

The timetable has already slipped - the result was meant to be declared by the end of July. A problem printing the ballot papers has held things up.UKIP hopes the vote will settle the row that led to former assembly group leader Neil Hamilton being pushed out in favour of Caroline Jones.
But while the public contest has been very quiet, behind the scenes it seems relations between the key players are as bad as ever.
The party in the assembly has been hit by a row over who within the group of five should do an important job - representing the party on the Assembly Commission.
After Neil Hamilton was rejected from the post by AMs from other parties for a second time, the group has appeared unable to select an alternative.
Sitting leader Caroline Jones has also not been holding, in recent weeks, regular group meetings.
Given they have been struggling to even hold meetings, the question remains whether the gang of five AMs can hold together under the same banner after the result of the leadership ballot is revealed.

 Some of the recent problems have been revealed in a series of emails, seen by BBC Wales, from Neil Hamilton and another AM, Gareth Bennett, that make accusations against Caroline Jones and an aide.All three are candidates in the leadership contest.
Mr Hamilton alleged that Ms Jones had been "colluding with our political opponents" to undermine the UKIP group's decision for Mr Hamilton to remain the group's candidate for the Assembly Commission despite continued opposition from Plaid and Labour members.
The basis of the complaint is that, after the re-nomination was rejected by senior AMs on the business committee, a proposal for Ms Jones to do the job was brought up at a further meeting of the committee last week.
The paper trail shows that an aide to Ms Jones had sent colleagues an email saying Ms Jones would do the job voluntarily until AMs could be persuaded of Mr Hamilton's nomination, or someone else was found.
With no response to the email, it was assumed by the aide that there was no problem. (Mr Hamilton did apparently attempt to object, but the response was allegedly sent to the wrong address).
Mr Bennett wrote that the matter was raised at the committee as a UKIP group nomination.
"I replied that that was news to me, as I had received no instruction from the Group to nominate anybody," he wrote.
Mr Hamilton accused Ms Jones of informing the presiding officer Elin Jones directly.
A source close to Caroline Jones denied this, saying a clerk to the committee was told, as they had been told before about the push to re-nominate Mr Hamilton that was rejected.
But this was enough for Mr Bennett to claim Ms Jones and an aide had "undermined his position as group business manager", claiming there had been a "considerable amount of back-channelling".

The source rejected the accusations against Ms Jones and the aide, and accused Mr Hamilton of "doing everything he can to undermine Caroline to become leader again".BBC Wales understands that the aide felt they had been following procedures they were taught to follow.
The lack of a further decision from the group on who should be commissioner has not been helped by the fact that the group has not been meeting.
Mr Hamilton claimed this had been decided by Ms Jones unilaterally.
But an email from a group aide said the meetings were cancelled because of their disruptive nature, and that a number of AMs had felt that way.
Mr Hamilton declined to comment on the emailed comments when asked by BBC Wales.

Ukip have been having a bit of a rise in the UK polls recently almost entirely at the expenses  of the Tories as the latter see government resignations , by Hard Brexiters  as Prime Minister May carries on with he Omni-shambles  of trying to 
 get a uniform acceptance within her party over trade deals after Brexit.

It has led Labour to be ahead for the first but they are still largely static,

) conducted	Polling organisation/client	Area	Sample size	Con	Lab	Lib Dem	SNP	Plaid	UKIP	Green	Others	Lead
20–24 Jul	Ipsos MORI	GB	1,023	38%	38%	10%	4%	1%	6%	3%	1%	Tie
22–23 Jul	YouGov/The Times	GB	1,650	38%	38%	10%	4%		6%	3%	0%	Tie
20–22 Jul	ICM Research	GB	2,010	40%	41%	8%	3%	0%	5%	3%	1%	1%
19–20 Jul	YouGov/The Times	GB	1,668	38%	39%	9%	5%		6%	2%	1%	1%
16–17 Jul	YouGov/The Times	GB	1,657	36%	41%	9%	4%		7%	2%	0%	5%
12–14 Jul	Deltapoll/The Sun on Sunday	GB	1,484	37%	42%	7%	3%	1%	6%	3%	1%	5%
10–13 Jul	Opinium/Observer	GB	2,005	36%	40%	8%	4%	1%	8%	3%	1%	4%
10–11 Jul	YouGov/The Times	GB	1,732	37%	39%	10%	4%		6%	3%	1%	2%
8–9 Jul	YouGov/The Times	GB	1,669	39%	39%	9%	4%		5%	3%	1%	Tie
6–9 Jul	ICM/The Guardian	GB	2,013	41%	39%	9%	3%	0%	4%	3%	1%	2%
5–9 Jul	Kantar TNS	GB	1,086	40%	38%	9%	4%	1%	3%	3%	2%	2%
7 Jul	Survation	UK	1,007	38%	40%	10%	3%	1%	N/A	N/A	7%	2%
3–5 Jul	BMG Research	GB	1,511	39%	37%	10%	3%	1%	3%	4%	0%	2%
3–4 Jul	YouGov/The Times	GB	1,641	41%	40%	9%	4%		3%	2%	1%	1%
22–27 Jun	Ipsos MORI	GB	1,026	41%	38%	7%	4%	1%	4%	4%	1%	3%
25–26 Jun	YouGov/The Times	GB	1,645	42%	37%	9%	5%		3%	3%	1%	5%
22–24 Jun	ICM/The Guardian	GB	2,013	41%	40%	9%	3%	0%	3%	3%	1%	1%
19–20 Jun	Survation/Good Morning Britain	UK	1,022	41%	38%	7%	4%	1%	3%	3%	1%	3%
18–19 Jun	YouGov/The Times	GB	1,606	42%	40%	9%	4%		3%	2%	0%	2%
11–12 Jun	YouGov/The Times	GB	1,638	42%	39%	8%	4%		3%	2%	1%	3%
8–10 Jun	ICM/The Guardian	GB	2,021	42%	40%	8%	3%	0%	3%	3%	0%	2%
5–8 Jun	BMG Research/Independent	GB	1,490	38%	41%	11%	2%	0%	4%	2%	1%	3%
5–7 Jun	Opinium/Observer	GB	2,005	42%	40%	7%	6%	1%	3%	2%	1%	2%
4–5 Jun	YouGov/The Times	GB	1,619	44%	37%	8%	4%		3%	3%	0%	7%
31 May–4 Jun	Survation	UK	2,012	41%	40%	9%	3%	1%	2%	2%	1%	1%
28–29 May	YouGov/The Times	GB	1,670	42%	39%	9%	5%		3%	2%	1%	3%
25–29 May	ICM/The Guardian	GB	2,002	43%	40%	8%	3%	1%	3%	2%	1%	3%
18–22 May	Ipsos MORI	GB	1,015	40%	40%	7%	5%	0%	2%	5%	0%	Tie
20–21 May	YouGov/The Times	GB	1,660	42%	38%	9%	4%		2%	3%	1%	4%
16–17 May	ComRes/Daily Mail	GB	2,045	41%	41%	7%	3%	1%	3%	3%	1%	Tie
15–16 May	Opinium//Observer	GB	2,009	43%	39%	6%	4%	1%	4%	3%	1%	4%
13–14 May	YouGov/The Times	GB	1,634	43%	38%	9%	3%		3%	3%	1%	5%
11–13 May	ICM/The Guardian	GB	2,050	43%	40%	8%	3%	0%	3%	3%	1%	3%
8–10 May	Survation	UK	1,585	41%	40%	8%	3%	1%	3%	2%	2%	1%
8–9 May	YouGov/The Times	GB	1,648	43%	38%	9%	4%		2%	2%	1%	5%
1–4 May	BMG Research/Independent	GB	1441	39%	39%	10%	4%	0%	4%	3%	1%	Tie

It is perhaps fortunate for all the Assembly parties  that we are entering the summer recess and they don't have to give a presence of Unity in the chamber.

Plaid has its own problems  whilst Welsh Labour may have the embarrassment of nor having a female candidate among rumors that Eluned Morgan may not have received enough nominations (6) from Labour AMs to appear on the Ballot.

Labour may be hoping for a coronation of Mark Drayford  or a quite genial leadership contest in the wake of acrimonious battles amomg the opposition.

It would certainly be a great benefit. but if Ms Morgan does not appear on the Ballot  then expect a major row.