Proponents of the Assisted Dying Bill have already received fierce criticism as it has gone through the evidence-hearing committee stage. At 10 p.m. last night Leadbeater announced in the Guardian her intention to amend the bill to remove the requirement for High Court approval. A crucial element which reassured MPs at the second reading…
Instead the Labour MP proposes what she calls “Judge Plus” – a panel with no serving judge made up of a KC or a ‘person with similar qualifications’, psychiatrist, and social worker – to approve assisted deaths. A judge will be part of the “Assisted Dying Commission” to select the panels…
Leadbeater on BBC Breakfast this morning says the numerous scrutinising elements as part of her model are superior, before pivoting to insist that any oversight at all is better than the current none. Curious…
“We’ve also got to remember that this law is trying to fix a problem that exists in that at the moment nobody is checking for coercion or assessing capacity in terminally ill people who are in some cases taking their own lives, in some cases going to a different country – Switzerland – for an assisted death.”
Leadbeater adds that lots of people thank her in the street for her efforts. Today detailed scrutiny of the bill begins and its opponents on the bill committee are up in arms. Danny Kruger calls the change of tack “a disgrace.” Sarah Olney says this has come at a “really unfortunate time” because there isn’t enough time to scrutinise the extremely significant change. Some in SW1 see cloaks and daggers here…
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”