Thread 12 Starmer: From Prescott to Rayner, working class grit

[DuncinToffee]

Previous thread

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5203242-thread-11-starmer-will-that-phone-call-be-to-harris-or-to-trump-the-decidedly-superior-looking-cats-thread?page=40&reply=139989436

Johnson is just seething that he is of no importance. He clearly hates it.

That said there are some stories about Louise Haigh which are not all that flattering. And they all suggest she was done in by her own side.

My dad's neighbour had Bulbar Palsy, a nasty variant of MND. Its only saving grace is that it usually relatively quick (short years/months rather than many years). You progressively lose the ability to swallow and talk (it was in fact her speech that Dad - a retired medic - noticed and suspected Bulbar Palsy really early on but didn't tell her himself until it was officially diagnosed).

She had brilliant palliative care but ended up making the decision to stop allowing herself to be peg fed, so that she had control over her death. She stopped eating on 31 December (which she'd announce about a month before) and, iirc, lasted another 2 or 3 weeks into January. She died at home with her husband, son and daughter-in-law by her side. They were all devastated but respected her decision. The carers helped ease the final days.

MND is a horrible, horrible disease

My dad had a Swiss fund - although at least in Scotland, relatives/friends can accompany someone going to Dignitas and not worry about potential prosecution on their return.

In the event, he died suddenly and unexpectedly so we never got to that situation.

He had signed the petition asking for assisted dying, with safeguards, to be legalised.

FIL had metastatic cancer, amongst other things, and couldn't tolerate any pain killers. His last 3 months were horrific and when he got sepsis he declined treatment.

One of the cruellest things about these deaths is the way they end up in a hospital that won't release the patient once they are admitted until there is suitable care at home. It's this that broke my DF as he ripped the house apart to create the ground floor level access that was required before they would allow it. He spent his last few years believing if only he'd worked harder at that, then DM would have passed with family, not alone in functional hospital ward. Given he was almost blind, that was being hard on himself

Personally I think at that stage the silver cord had been cut and it was a mere shell left.

Or maybe that's me staying sane at nights ? Who of us will ever know, and how could we return to tell others ?

I agree, absolutely, that palliative care needs to be improved/invested in. But palliative care or assisted dying shouldn't be/aren't mutually exclusive. The aim must be to provide options for both, surely?

As the poem goes "The living will envy the dead" ....

It's a hard choice between improving end of life care if the standard of before death care.

If this bill finally becomes law, there needs to be a way of dealing with people waiting for care as they watch money (and a fuck of a lot of it if courts are involved) being spent on the soon-to-be-deceased.

Really understand the sentiment of staying sane at night, I’m haunted by the pain my Dad experienced I feel so guilty that he went through yet another surgical intervention two days before he died after he was literally ripped from ear to ear months earlier (he had cancer of the mouth & neck) his voice reduced to a whisper fed via peg as he couldn’t swallow I can still see his face lying in that bed I still can’t look at photographs of him because of what I saw in those last few days, it wasn’t the hospitals or the medical teams treating him fault but if he had been in a hospice, I’m fairly certain he would have been more comfortable & not endured so much suffering.
My mum received first class palliative care her every need & want provided without waiting around for hours for Doctors to prescribe pain relief she just slipped away so peacefully, but I can also understand others having strong feelings & concerns around assisted dying especially as pp around coercion & ulterior motives my heart goes out to each & everyone who has experienced the awfulness of loved ones dying in pain 💐

My left leaning Labour MP voted no, he gave his reasons I’m fine with that.

My dad had a Swiss fund - although at least in Scotland, relatives/friends can accompany someone going to Dignitas and not worry about potential prosecution on their return.

This is such a vital and necessary change in the law. It needs to happen here in the UK.

It is already happening in the UK. It just needs to happen in England (I don't know what the police/prosecution service's approach is in Wales).

Gregg Wallace seem determined to make matters worse for himself I see…

Indeed what on earth possessed him to think misogyny and ageism was a good defence?

He genuinely thinks the opinion of women too old for him to fancy a shag with isn’t 8mportant. They should probably be grateful for the attention 🤯

He’s odious. I don’t imagine anyone is remotely surprised.

Oh dear what's he said now?

I don't often find myself agreeing with Kirsty Allsop but I think she summed up the experience of women everywhere. For whatever reason, we don't want to make a fuss. But middle class women of a certain age (that's me btw) need to start calling out these men Every Single Time.

That there have only been a few complaints and all from ‘middle class, middle aged women’ and only from the Celebrity show.
To make matters worse for him, the BBC have said the complaints come from a range of ages and only one from Celebrity MC

He's an arse.

Indeed.

MPs, doctors and charities have drawn up a blueprint to deliver an “unprecedented transformation” of end-of-life care.

After parliament’s historic vote last week to legalise assisted dying, a commission on palliative care will be set up.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/dec/01/blueprint-drawn-up-to-deliver-unprecedented-transformation-of-end-of-life-care

I think that's a good thing. It was never an either/or for me.

Re Gregg, it was known ages ago that complaints had come from his work on Inside The Factory. People seem to have had collective amnesia about this. Including Gregg.

So they’ve listened to all concerns and put into place actions for one of those, which is excellent.
Removing the stigma around disability will be a much, much harder task, so hope they start to address that too.

Well, well, well. Apparently it has now been two weeks since the last small boat was recorded arriving in the UK. The 16th November was the last date and every day up to 30th Nov had 0 arrivals.

This coincides with the arrest of the man responsible for supply a large number of the boats on the 14th Nov.

Obviously there could be other factors, like the weather, but it’s interesting. Especially with posters repeatedly telling us that ‘smash the gangs’ is a pointless slogan and not something that can be done…

The reason for the radio silence on that story is that is not only doesn't support the narrative that the only solution is to piss away our basic rights. It contradicts it.

Here's the BBCs top floating story on the subject

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwyd47510gyo

See what I mean .?