Mike Williams

If you don’t question your assumptions, ask yourself why.

[Kemi Badenoch @KemiBadenoch]

Not everything has to be looked at through the lens of discrimination.

Conservatives managed to choose our first woman leader 51 years ago. Meanwhile Labour are celebrating Andy Burnham as their first female Prime Minister.

Claire has been promoted because she is excellent and Conservatives believe in meritocracy.

If Harriet is worried about discrimination, there is plenty in her own party to keep her busy.

Boris Johnson promoted me to the Treasury while I was on maternity leave in 2020. Nobody did a podcast episode on it because we didn’t think it was remarkable. He just knew I could do the job.

Women do not need patronising theories to explain their success. That is the point.

[Mike Williams @mikemw1]

#countdown numbers:

6,10,2,3,7,9
942

((9x2) -3) x10 =150
(150+7) x6 =942

[Dan Hitchens @ddhitchens]

Labour MP Dame Chi Onwurah, whose mother was a @dignityindying campaigner, always assumed she would vote for assisted dying. When she read the legislation she realised she couldn’t.

“This bill lacks the safeguards to deal with the reality that there are powerful economic and personal incentives for both the state and family members to encourage the vulnerable into taking their own lives.”

[Mike Williams @mikemw1]

The pro-AS lobby don’t like the word suicide, but they want people to top themselves. Not the greatest example of logic.

Are they also offended by the term ‘suicide prevention’?

[louis appleby @ProfLAppleby]

Dismayed to see the #AssistedDying Bill returning to Parliament.

When a proposal on such a profound ethical issue (whatever your view) reaches an impasse, we should pause & reconsider. Not push ahead & insist.

There are many views & they all matter.

[louis appleby @ProfLAppleby]

There’s a contradiction, to put it mildly, in the timing.

Sep 10, #WorldSuicidePreventionDay, when Parliament will commit to preserving life, bringing people back from despair.

Sep 11, the #AssistedDying Bill.

[Mike Williams @mikemw1]

#countdown numbers:

474
100,2,2,3,7,8

(7+2)x100 /2 =450 +(8x3)

[geofio @GeoFio8]

Quote..
The reason uptake has skyrocketed elsewhere is not because more people are CHOOSING to end their lives, but because the deliberate rationing and withdrawal of support from the old, the sick, and the disabled creates a 'market' for death. It is unmet need, coercion, and despair that is driving the numbers, not 'choice'. ❌🗣️📢

[Mike Williams @mikemw1]

The pro-AS lobby have said 2 things that contradict each other:
a) People who want assisted death are not suicidal.
b) If AD is not available, people might “take matters into their own hands.”

[Delta Hospice Society @DltaHspcSociety]

@Telegraph How typical! When they cannot win the debate with ideas, the ideologues turn to silencing the critics by cancelling, defunding, doxing, threatening, slander, defamation ... the weapons of the coward.

[BuDS Disability Service @BuDs_UK]

Government admits that disabled people will be coerced to end their life by structural pressures such as neglect, poverty and living conditions, if medically-assisted suicide is legalised. Is this the brave new world you want, MPs?

[Mike Williams @mikemw1]

Vulnerable people are at risk of being:
- manipulated,
- lied to,
- taken advantage of,
- made to feel unworthy.
They are sometimes told to sign forms, and if they don’t, it’ll get signed for them. #assistedsuicide

[Mike Williams @mikemw1]

I hope those fence sores aren’t terminal, Andy.

Sitting there and letting it happen isn’t neutral.

[Mike Williams @mikemw1]

Fair play to Starmer - he got out before the assisted suicide bill hits the fan.

[Nikki da Costa @nmdacosta]

The vote on 11 September is not 'on the principle' or 'to continue debate' it is about forcing THIS bill into law. A Bill that cuts parliament out of further decisions.

Can MPs look their constituents in the eye and really say they did everything possible to prevent abuse?

[Nikki da Costa @nmdacosta]

Government estimates that up to 115 with a learning disability, mental disorder, and/or autism will apply in Year 1.

By Year 10 that number will have more than doubled.

Do MPs feel comfortable with a public campaign targeting this cohort? Because the Bill permits it 7/

[Jack Parker @JackParkr]

NEW: Govt's updated impact assessment on assisted dying bill has just QUADRUPLED the estimated number of people who would apply to die

New 160-page official report has upper estimate for applicants (in first year of implementation) rocketing from:
- 1,078 under the old Leadbeater bill
- to 4,610 under the new Lauren Edwards bill

Updates are largely down to adjusted methodology based on fresh international data

Means lots of new info for MPs to chew over as bill gets 2nd reading on 11 Sept...

Report here: https://t.co/J9K8CWQFPe

[Mike Williams @mikemw1]

#countdown numbers:

626
100,50,25,3,10,10

(50+10+3) x 10 - 100/25

[Mike Williams @mikemw1]

I support choice, but not if it:
a) places an expectation on people to ingest lethal drugs,
b) changes a law that already protects people from assisted suicide,
c) produces a society that thinks some people’s lives are not worth living.

[Families Against Involuntary Medical Euthanasia @EoLWatch]

Opher hasn't a clue. Our families had to fight tooth and nail to get CHC funding to provide the care their loved ones' needed. Navigating the system is a nightmare and often families are left waiting months while the NHS and local authority play 'pass-the-buck' and other abdication of responsibility 'games'.

The indifference to patient care and family wellbeing beggars belief.

Most people in England are wholly unaware of the existence of CHC funding, which is why it is referred to by those in the know as the NHS's 'best kept secret'.

It is supposed to fund the care of people with a primary health need at home or in a nursing home, but has been cut back to the bone, rationed to the point it is rarely provided for anyone except those deemed to be in the last days, weeks of life.

The national eligibility average is just 17% - meaning 83% of applications are rejected. The vast majority of ICBs have rejection rates of between 80 - 90%.

The highest rejection rate is 95% (Gloucester), while in the Black Country it's 56.9% - yet more evidence of the UK's postcode lottery in healthcare access.