Although Meg had a somewhat disturbed start to her sleep with a period of some agitation shortly after we put her to bed, I utilised the technique of lying on the camp bed beside her and she was more or less settled after about three quarters of an hour. This morning, though, Meg seemed sleepy but more sanguine and the two workers arrived at their scheduled time of 8.10 but it was practically 9.00am by the time we were ready to breakfast. But it seemed to be a beautiful day and Meg seemed quite keen to get down into town so we made our way to 'The Lemon Tree' cafe where we had tea and toast. En route, we picked up a white cable stitch jumper which may be a little too large for Meg but will certainly prove easier to get on. We also bumped into two people we know well, the first being our Irish friend from down the road and the second being one of my Pilates class mates. We arrived home about five minutes before the carers were due to call for their late morning call and after they had left, I immediately set to work preparing our lunch of beef (from yesterday), a baked potato, broccoli and a tomato/peppers/onion/garlic mixture I was sort of experimenting with. This afternoon, we treated ourselves to a film called 'Interlude in Prague' and was the story of an affair that Mozart had with a young soprano with whom he was enamoured whilst his wife was away in a spa in Germany. The plot of the film, which may or may have some historical veracity, depicted various characters and scenarios some of which are represented in the opera 'The Marriage of Figaro' and others of which subsequently did find expression in 'Don Giovanni' which received its premier in Prague to great critical acclaim, something that did not necessarily happen when Mozart was 'employed' in the archbishopric of Salzberg where he was treated as though he was an ordinary servant. In both of the Mozart operas just mentioned, servants were often portrayed as scheming to get the better of their masters who often abused them and one does not have to delve too deeply into Mozart's biography to see where all of this came from.
Storm 'Bert' has done its worst throughout the country and, fortunately, the West Midlands has escaped its worst ravages. But the people of the Rhondda valley in South Wales, and particularly Pontypridd are having a massive clean up job to do and the news is reporting that in Northampton shire, Billing Aquadome holiday park in Northamptonshire is being evacuated after heavy flooding caused by Storm Bert. Billing Aquadrome flood sirens have sounded and the holiday park is being evacuated by the management with assistance from Northamptonshire Search and Rescue and Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service' This particular park since we lived in the East Midlands has been developed so the site contains a goodly number of holiday homes which, as they are single storey, do not give people the option of retreating upstairs so they all have to wait to be rescued. Here in our own locality the little town of Bewdley has been hit but despite massive flood defences put in place over the years, these never seem to be quite sufficient as flood increase in severity and a '1 in a 100 years' event becomes '1 every 10 years' as the impact of climate change is manifest.
The press have been indicating that this is going to be a critically important week for the private member's bill, popularly called the 'assisted dying' bill. One might have thought that with such a large majority of Labour MPs many of whom may not have the religious convictions of the Tories that might have been quite a large majority in favour of the bill in the Commons. But the Cabinet Members seem to be quite split on the issue and many political commentators are observing that the outcome of the vote to be held on Friday (to approve the principle of the Bill) is very hard to predict. Many MPs have still to make up their minds, some are changing from an anti to a pro position and vice versa and new arguments are being deployed all of the time. Speaking absolutely personally, I think the way the legislation is framed seems quite sensible (six months left to live, two independent doctors to agree the decision as well as a High Court judge) In the broadest of terms, I think it is probably acceptable to legislate in this way and to ensure what as a teenager in a Catholic school I was taught to be a 'good' death i.e. peaceable, not in pain, surrounded by relatives, one's affairs put in order and so on. However, I think that in practice I would feel inclined to vote against the Bill until I received cast iron assurances that the hospice movement was so well funded that no one was denied end-of-life hospice care should it be desired. It is quite possible to conceive of scenarios not where relatives are putting undue pressure, or any kind of pressure, or their loved one to end their life bit rather the person themselves may wish not to be a burden to their relatives and in the absence of good hospice care might think that assisted dying is the least worst option. But to argue against myself, for a moment, it might be that if we were to wait for the hospice movement to be properly funded, we might have to wait for a very long time and the proposed legislation would never be enacted. So that might induce one to vote for the bill. If, though, I was an MP I might vote for the bill knowing (and perhaps even hoping) what the House of Lords would reject the legislation which by the time all of the bishops and other faith leaders have had their say might well be the case. Another consideration to give pause for thought is the 'thin edge of the wedge' or the 'slippery slope' argument. In other words once on the statute book, the legislation might be 'liberalised' within about 10 years time as indeed the legislation on abortion proved to be. People are looking at the Canadian situation in which some 3% of all deaths are covered by their 'Medical Assistance in Dying' legislation and here the medical criteria have been loosened and the social criteria widened so the end of life might be considered just because there is no suitable provision to care for the terminally ill person. At this stage, all we can say is that the 'antis' seem to have much more voice than the 'pros' but we will have to wait until Friday to see which arguments have actually held the most sway.
© Mike Hart [2024]