The Tony Nicklinson Case
This is a very difficult case and Tony Nicklinson seems certain that he wants to end his life, as is reported here on the BBC.
I am not sure, how I would feel if I were in the same state as Mr. Nicklinson. In fact as I am not anywhere near in the same state, I don’t think I have any right to comment.
But I do have more experience in this area than most.
Over the last five years, two of my closest relatives have died in great pain from cancer. My wife, when she was near the end, had wished it could have been ended, whereas our son carried on until the bitter end, not wishing it could be terminated.
So I have witnessed two totally different reactions, from a mother and son.
If I am honest, my reaction might be closer to that of my son, but that’s only because I am a very stubborn person and tend to feel that if there is life there is hope.
i also wouldn’t want to put anybody in a position, that they did something against their conscience. I also wouldn’t do something like throw myself under a train, as I know the reality of that from stories told to C, by one of her clients. I also wouldn’t like to mentally upset someone, who was just doing his job.
I am rapidly coming to a conclusion.
Everybody should have the right to do what they think best!
And no so-called religious man or politician has any rights over my choice. Years ago though, when I was down, but not suicidal, I spoke for twenty minutes or so with the Rev. Chad Varah. His advice saved our marriage. But then they don’t make them like him any more.
So to return to the Tony Nicklinson case. I feel that if he wants to end his life, then that is up to him. Provided of course he is of sound mind and capable of making a rational decision.
Presumed Dead Law
The Justice Committee of the House of Commons is calling for a new ‘presumed dead’ law. There is an article here on the BBC.
This law could go further in that we also need an Interim Death Certificate, for where someone has died, but the cause of death needs to be determined by a formal inquest.
The mother of a friend of mine died a few years ago and until the full Death Certificate, it created a lot of heartache, grief and administrative pain. Especially, as his father had delegated everything financial to his mother. He couldn’t even find out how much was in the bank account and what standing orders were set up. But an Interim Death Certificate would have remedied that situation, although perhaps to avoid fraud, it would not have the full rights of a full Death Certificate.
I heard from my legal friends at the time, that this is quite a common situation and so today I wrote to the Justice Committee. I just found the page for the Committee on the web. There is an e-mail address there. So if you have a matter for a House of Commons Committee, it is very easy to contact them.
Remembering M.R.D. Foot
M. R. D. Foot, who has recently died, was an historian, whose wartime exploits and subsequent researches led him to be a leading authority on the Special Operations Executive.
I seem to have come across him first, as he had written one of C’s books for her History and Politics course at Liverpool. But I remember him most for his book that he wrote in conjunction with Jimmy Langley, MI9: Escape and Evasion in 1939-1945. In there he relates how the first two British servicemen to make a Home Run from Germany were two Sikh sergeants in the Pioneer Corps.
It is a tale that has fascinated me and no-one seems to have any more knowledge than that one line in the book.
Hopefully, one day the tale will fully surface.
The Luckiest Footballer Alive
Former Tottenham midfielder Hossam Ghaly, was lucky not to be involved in the rioting in Port Said, despite playing for one of the teams involved. Apparently, he’d been sent off before the trouble started and was in the dressing room.
Can there have been a better time and place to get a red card?
An Obituary For an Unknown in the Fight Against Capital Punishment in the UK
I have said before that C used to visit prisoners in Holloway Prison in the early 1970s.
Yesterday, the Times and other papers carried reports of the death or full obituaries of the death of Stella Cunliffe.
Here is the report of her death on the Surrey Today website.
I have a feeling that C used to visit Holloway prison in a group, which involved this formidable lady. She seems to have provided the statistical evidence for the abolishment of capital punishment in parts or all of the UK. The obituaries vary.
There’s more here on Wikipedia, which states she was one of the first civilians to go into Belsen.
I think I met her a couple of times in about 1970 and we never knew what she did. Her male friend and they were just that, was a senior hospital manager and one of the best practical jokers that I’ve ever come across. I have to admit to stealing one of his best jokes.
The Elsenham Level Crossing
NetworkRail has pleaded guilty to causing the death of two girls at the Elsenham level crossing in Essex.
There is now an immense footbridge there, so you don’t have to walk over the level crossing. It would be a difficult climb for someone like me at 64 with a dodgy heart valve. So does everybody use it? Sometimes level crossings with proper warning systems are much better for most people, except the stupid and impulsive. At a similar level crossing at Foxton, pedestrian access across the tracks is controlled by locks on the gates controlled by the signalling system. That system has been at Foxton for years, so why wasn’t it installed Elsenham?
Further north, just south of Newmarket there is a level crossing on the Ipswich to Cambridge line at Six Mile Bottom. It is on a long straight road with a thirty miles per hour limit and the crossing has barriers and flashing lights. But it still manages to have had a couple of cars hit trains in the last twenty years.
My view has always been that all level crossings should be eliminated on railways, as they have always been a major place for tragic accidents. And also for suicides, as at Ufton Nervet, where several people died. But to eliminate some level crossings, like say the one at Six Mile Bottom would cost several million pounds.
I’ve Never Eaten A Chicken McNugget!
And after Rod Liddle’s description of what goes in them, I surely don’t think I’ve missed any essential food or vitamins. He entitles the piece,
Listen up, you silly McNuggets: start saying ‘no’ to kids, so I think you can get his drift. Or should I say his very caustic drift, as he weaves the story round the life and imminent death of Stacey Irvine, who’s lived on McNuggets since she was two.
Dami Killers Should Have Been Hanged
This was front page headline in the Evening Standard and it is the words of Damilola Taylor’s father Richard on the release of the two Preddie brothers who killed his son. Read the story of the case here.
I of course don’t agree, especially as the brothers were just 12 and 13 when they killed his son. They actually got eight years youth custody for manslaughter.
I know what it is like to lose a son, but I can’t help feeling that the Death of Damilola Taylor was avoidable, if the various agencies and parents on both sides had taken more care and stood by their responsibilities.
But what I object to, is that newspapers are increasingly going on that the death penalty is the solution to the problems of violence and knife crime. But we all know sensationalism sells newspapers.
One point we should always remember, is that the Taylor family relocated to the UK to get treatment for Damilola’s elder sister’s epilepsy. Surely with all it’s wealth Nigeria could do more to look after the people rather than descending into endless criminality and religious violence.
Standing Up To Cancer
Another obituary in The Times today is of Frank Horwill. By forming the British Milers Club and developing advanced training methods, he had a lot to do with the success of British middle-distance runners in the 1970s and 1980s.
He didn’t fit in with the athletics administrators, but how many great coaches in any sport do? And how many useless coaches do well-funded sports employ?
It was this paragraph in the obituary that I liked.
Four years later Horwill was found to be suffering from stomach cancer. He reacted with the sort of resolve that he sought in his athletes. To the consternation of his nurses he got out of bed each day to exercise with a drip attached to him. “I am going to enjoy this day,” was his mantra. He survived for another 23 years.
C had that attitude to her breast cancer and won by a mile. Sadly, her cancer of the heart was a much tougher problem.
In some ways though, Frank got the last laugh, as after serving a prison term for tax evasion, which was essentially to fund his athletes, he was rewarded with an MBE last year.
The Man Who Stabbed Errol Flynn
Bob Anderson has just died and his obituary is in The Times today. He had been an Olympic fencer and fencing coach until he started coaching actors in films.
Reading his credits, you get the impression that he was involved in organising the sword fights in every film that had one in the last few decades. He was also a double for Darth Vader in the Star Wars films.
In one incident he actually stabbed Errol Flynn. However, they remained good friends.
The Anonymous Widower 