With the benefit of hindsight, it was always likely that the involvement of a Judge in every single application for an assisted death would have to be removed. There weren’t enough Judges to go round, they didn’t have the training and they would have charged too much. So Kim Leadbeater’s decision to replace them with… Continue reading Goodbye Judges
That’s the trouble with bureaucracy. It creeps up behind you and catches you by surprise. The first you know about it is when tasks that used to take a week or two suddenly can’t be completed in less than four. So it is with funerals. In 2019 the rules, which had been in place for… Continue reading Funerals now delayed to four weeks
There are two organisations campaigning for a change in the Assisted Dying laws in England and Wales: Dignity in Dying (DiD) and My Death My Decision (MDMD). Both are in favour of Kim Leadbeater’s current Bill. DiD effectively wrote it. MDMD are in support but disagree with some elements of it. The Bill as drafted… Continue reading Board changes at MDMD
Spare a thought (and perhaps a degree of sympathy) for Sarah Sackman MP. Her political career in 2024 was little short of meteoric. 2025 will be a greater challenge. After a career as a London Barrister, she entered Parliament last year as the MP for Finchley and Golders Green. She had gained the seat from… Continue reading Sarah Sackman MP
The Government will no longer be implementing the “Dilnot proposals” in October this year. They can’t afford it. Under plans made by the previous Government, from October no one should have been asked to spend more than £86,000 during their lifetime on social care costs. After that point their bills would have been paid by… Continue reading UK Elderly Care postponed – again
If you had been asked a couple of months ago which UK organisation could most be relied upon to support an Assisted Dying Bill, you would probably have said “Liberty”. You would have had good reason to do so. Formerly known as the National Council for Civil Liberties, it has a long history of defending… Continue reading Why is Liberty opposed ?
Assisted Dying has never been legal in West Virginia. Worried that the current campaign to change that law might succeed, the supporters of the status quo decided to enshrine its illegality in the State’s Constitution. They succeeded, but only just. In May 2023 all West Virginia voters were asked to pass “Amendment One” to outlaw… Continue reading Belt and braces in West Virginia
During earlier Parliamentary debates upon Assisted Dying several Peers and MPs expressed their fears that the “safeguards” contained in Bills such as Lord Falconer’s were not strong enough. “Two doctors”, they felt, was not enough. Peers, in particular, were keen that the doctor’s opinions should also be signed off by a High Court Judge. So,… Continue reading New doubts over Judges’ role
News that Sean Davison’s case has now been delayed until June will have been regarded as a mixed blessing by campaigners supporting Kim Leadbeater’s assisted dying Bill next Friday. On the one hand, they will be relieved that the case will not be drawing media attention whilst the Bill is, hopefully, making its way through… Continue reading Court delays
Two weeks before the General Election in 1987 David Young, the man appointed to run the Conservatives’ re-election campaign, walked into Margaret Thatcher’s office with a fistful of new polls. They made gloomy reading. The election was going to be close – and might even be lost. The three big helpers of the 1983 campaign… Continue reading Campaign wobbles
