Why do we keep electing politicians who don't represent us

Personally I’m delighted the assisted dying bill is dead.

That was a shame today to hear about the Assisted Dying bill being kicked back. Unsurprising, but a shame. At least there are still options available abroad so that’s something to be grateful for.

Why do politicians fail to implement policies the electorate want? I’m going to assume they think they are representing the majority. They think they are upholding the values of the party. It’s well known that the wages offered will never attract the best people, so we end up with what we can afford.

Blame those who voted for Brexit for how awful it is

MP’s are not required to hold a referendum of their constituents on every issue. The accepted convention is that once we elect our representative we entrust them with the power to legislate as they see fit - which may or may not accord with any particular individual’s view on any particular issue.

I’m another person relieved this poorly researched assisted dying bill has been defeated.

A sensible consultation with health and social care, together with experts by experience in disability or with life limiting conditions and thought through options should have been the cornerstone.

The shittest version of Brexit? Every version was spectacularly shit. Pure foolishness and idiocy, unless you were a disaster capitalist hoping to make money on betting against Britain.

I know some people will come in here trying to defend it, but they are either fact resistant or contrarians who want to argue black is white

They can’t always think they’re representing the majority. Regardless of the rights and wrongs of the issue, polls consistently show majority support for assisted dying. And they show more support for it amongst older people than younger people. So it’s not even the argument that maybe applies to other issues where politicians go with the views of older people as they’re most likely to vote.

Scotland about to introduce a ban on multibuys for treat foods (no pleasurable snacks for poor people to accompany their no right to a dignified end of life)

I wouldn’t worry, it won’t make any difference. I don’t see any BOGOF offers on chocolates and crisps and cakes in supermarkets.

It’s all about round pricing now e.g. a box of cake bars for £1. Or a pack of KitKats for £1.50.

The assisted dying bill was awful. Badly written with no safeguards and protections
Read what is happening in Canada if you think its a good thing. We need good, well funded palliative care
It doesn't even work for your argument. It was a private members Bill so nobody had the chance to vote for it or not as it wasnt in the manifesto

What a vile thing to say just because they dont agree with you.

I wouldn't want any form of Assisted Dying legalised, but this particular legislation was exceptionally poorly drafted and lacking in safeguarding.

Incidentally, I strongly suspect that an inability to travel unassisted prevents more people from going to Dignitas than a lack of funds.

Obesity is the biggest threat to public health. Poorest people are the worst affected. The multibuy legislation sounds fairly sensible.

Based on personal experience of a close family bereavement, I’m in favour of assisted dying and sorry the bill has been defeated. It’s 2026 not the Middle Ages so it seems unlikely to me that we’re suddenly going to make leaps and bounds in palliative care or in funding for it. And some levels of pain and distress override the strongest painkillers unless an essentially lethal dose is provided. I think the safeguards were there and that the failure to make it available means people will continue to be faced with ending their life sooner than necessary because they have to be fit enough to get themselves to Dignitas on their own or with being unable to have the pain-free, peaceful end they wanted. Esther Rantzen is an example of that. My sense is that probably very few people would take the option but having it available would remove the need for premature trips abroad.

Since we’ve not had a referendum on this topic, you can’t possibly know what most people think.

MPs cannot vote to please everyone, as not everyone agrees.

Bloody hell. Someone disagrees with you and you wish them an illness so severe or terminal that they would want to die sooner?

Surely OP you can see the democratic society in which we (thankfully) live in means that people have many varying views and opinions, MPs will indeed represent the mix of views in one way or the other,
personally- I am against the assisted dying bill and I have been with family in their final moments but of course I don’t agree with everything the government decides

I know last time they kicked it back was to do with religion. I haven’t read why they did it this time. It makes me feel relieved to know that if I got really ill I could decide myself when my time was up and hop on a plane and be done with it. Why they want people cooped up in care homes for decades, only they know.

True. Esther Ransom is now too ill to execute her plan of assisted dying. I bet she is very scared right now. It’s sad 😔

@CurdinHenry some people do want whatever the hell is going on, I mean they voted for it. So that bit answers your question, I guess.

Anyway… I thought it was a tragedy that the assisted dying bill went the way it did. I honestly wondered if they screwed it up completely on purpose. There was so many things wrong with it and it was so straightforward to get it right.

I was really optimistic about it as well, I thought it would all be sorted so that I would have the option. They have screwed it up so badly that I don’t think anyone will have the option for a really long time.

And that in itself makes me ask if they did it on purpose.

So get off your backside and run yourself people spend a lot of time complaining but do nothing about it themselves

too much hatred in this country for the troublesome pensioners. I am glad the assisted dying bill has failed.

It’s easy to dismiss assisted dying if you haven’t actually been on the front line of where this might be needed

Earlier this year, my DF (85) passed away after weeks of agony; by the end he was begging to go to Switzerland shall we say; he’d stopped eating months before and just wanted to go but his body just wouldn’t let go. Obviously we couldn’t help him, and carry out his wishes; there were no options for him or us.

Me and my brother had to carry him from his heavily soiled bed with the ambulance staff from the downstairs bedroom he’d been in, gasping for breath to the ambulance, as the corridor would not allow a stretcher. He was smacked up to his eyeballs on morphine at that point, but his will to live had gone, and we dragged him into the ambulance to the hospice where he died 6 hours later

This is how it actually works in real life

If people want to go in these situations, let them, and help them.

Quite, with that attitude it’s likely a good thing the OP doesn’t feel represented.