Legalising assisted dying in England and Wales ‘may hamper suicide prevention work’
The government’s suicide prevention adviser has said that legalising assisted dying in England and Wales may cause major issues in suicide prevention work if the state effectively concedes that taking one’s own life should be allowed in some circumstances.Prof Louis Appleby, who chairs the government’s national suicide prevention strategy advisory group, also said he took issue with MPs who said it was offensive to call assisted dying “suicide” – saying that it was wrong to bar the use of that phrase in this context.In an interview with the Guardian, Appleby said he did not consider himself an avowed opponent of legalising assisted dying, but said it would radically change the long-held consensus that it was right to try to prevent all suicides.“The suicide prevention consensus is a remarkable thing,” he said.“As society, we are signed up to the idea that we should do all we can to help [suicidal people] get through.
It’s very rarely questioned.Society accepts that it has a role in protecting people who are vulnerable and at risk.We look after our friends when they’re in crisis.We sit up all night with them.We look out for strangers on a bridge.
“My concern is that if we decide as a society, if we concede the principle that people who want to take their own lives should be helped through that crisis and out the other side, then conceding that ground is a huge step.”Appleby said if the bill passed MPs should consider introducing a cooling-off period, as is the case in some other jurisdictions, once an assisted death has been requested.He said he had been deeply moved by some of the stories of terminally ill people who wanted the right to an assisted death, but he argued this would open up the possibility of a validated suicide.“I’m worried once you say some suicides are acceptable, some self-inflicted deaths are understandable and we actually provide the means to facilitate the self-inflicted death,” he said.“That seems to me to be so far removed from what we currently do and from the principle that’s always guided us on despairing individuals, that it’s an enormous change with far-reaching implications.
”“It does mean that you start saying certain kinds of suffering are so terrible and so irremediable that we have to support people in this action to take their lives – which in every other sense we would try to prevent,”The private members’ bill, which is sponsored by the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater and is in the scrutiny stage where a committee of MPs is considering amendments, would restrict assisted dying to terminally ill people with fewer than six months to live,Appleby said it was important for MPs to consider the moment at which a terminally ill person might decide to proceed with an assisted death, citing his own analysis on when a terminally ill patient would feel the most suicidal,“It starts with the shock of diagnosis and that sense of ‘my life’s already over’,” he said,“But if you can get people through that period … that initial reaction seems to level out.
Getting through that first period of shock and despair is something that’s possible.We have to be prepared to try to support the people who can get through that initial despair and get into a period of life which is acceptable to them.“You have a number of potentially remediable risk factors like isolation, for example.Do something about isolation.Depression, treat depression.
It should be the offer of supporting people through the remediable elements of a sense of despair,”MPs will consider further amendments next week when parliament returns, including on whether to replace scrutiny of each case by a high court judge with a panel of experts who would have greater understanding of domestic violence and mental capacity,Leadbeater proposed the changes last week and caused a backlash among some MPs who said it was a potential watering down of safeguards,Proponents of the bill say it makes the system more secure by giving each case scrutiny from a senior legal figure, a psychiatrist and a social worker,In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.
org or jo@samaritans.ie.In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor.In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14.
Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
UK regulator fines four banks £100m over traders’ sharing of information
The UK competition regulator has fined four major banks, including HSBC and Citi, more than £100m after it found traders had been using Bloomberg chatrooms to share sensitive information about government bonds.The penalties follow a long-running investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) that discovered that individual traders at Citi, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and Deutsche Bank had messaged rival bankers about the buying and selling of UK government bonds – known as gilts – on specific dates between 2009 and 2013.The CMA said the banks had put in place “extensive compliance measures” to avoid similar behaviour by its staff, but it announced a series of fines on Friday. RBC received the largest fine (£34.2m), followed by Morgan Stanley (£29
Willingness to ease off ‘debt brake’ may decide the German election
Germany is used to running its economy with the brake on. Ever since the 2008 financial crisis Berlin has sought to burnish a reputation as the world capital of fiscal discipline, with a near-pious aversion to debt and pride in strong government finances.Under a rule known as the “debt brake” – introduced in 2009 by Angela Merkel to show Germany was committed to balancing the books after the banking crash – the federal government is required to limit annual borrowing to 0.35% of GDP.After this weekend’s elections it might not be long before the constitutional handbrake is relaxed to help reboot Europe’s largest economy with debt-funded firepower, and to find room for higher defence spending
St Pancras and Channel tunnel plan rail routes to Germany and Switzerland
St Pancras railway station in London and the Channel tunnel operator have agreed to work together to open up more trains from Britain to France, and routes to Germany and Switzerland.The agreement is the latest sign of growing momentum for new passenger rail links from England across the Channel, after Great Britain’s only international station announced plans to triple the number of people who can travel through every hour.St Pancras station is looking at ways to nearly triple the number of passengers passing through at peak times from 1,800 to 5,000, in an effort to open up more services to France and routes to Germany and Switzerland.London St Pancras Highspeed (LSPH) – the company formerly known as HS1 that runs St Pancras – and Getlink, the Paris-based Channel tunnel operator, said they would work together to shorten journey times, improve timetable coordination, align on growth strategies and introduce more trains each hour for international services in each direction.In January the rail regulator for Great Britain, the Office of Rail and Road, forced HS1 to cut the prices it charges rail companies for using its track between St Pancras and the tunnel to try to encourage new entrants
Elon Musk rebuffs claims that Tesla could invest in Nissan
Elon Musk has rebuffed the idea that Tesla could put money into the struggling carmaker Nissan, after a report that said a Japanese group was seeking its investment sent shares soaring.Nissan’s stock market value jumped by 9.5% on Friday after claims that the former prime minister Yoshihide Suga was among those who want the US electric carmaker to become a strategic investor, possibly in exchange for Nissan’s American factories.Musk immediately appeared to reject the idea, but his comments came after Nissan’s shares had closed trading in Tokyo at ¥458.80 (£2
Rachel Reeves given smaller than expected £15bn tax boost to UK finances
A rise in self-assessment and capital gains tax receipts gave the UK’s public finances a smaller than expected £15.4bn lift in January.The surplus is still the highest since records began in 1993 and a reversal of December’s slump, when the public finances slid to a £17.8bn deficit.In a blow to the chancellor, however, last month’s figure came in below the predictions of City economists and the government’s independent forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), who had expected a surplus of £20bn
UK lenders paid car dealers cash upfront that may have led to costlier loans
UK lenders paid “advance commissions” to car dealers that may have encouraged them to push costlier loans on to consumers, legal filings linked to the motor finance scandal reveal.Court documents seen by the Guardian show that lenders, including Lloyds Banking Group, have paid commission to individual dealerships in lump sums upfront, which campaigners say total millions of pounds.The filings claim that the practice encouraged sales staff to funnel contracts to those specific loan providers, regardless of whether it resulted in more expensive payments for the buyer.These advance commission arrangements were not explicitly disclosed to borrowers and “created stark conflicts of interest” that stood to harm customers, the filings claim.Failing to sell enough loans to earn all the pre-paid commission resulted in negative consequences for the dealers, it is alleged, such as problems with profitability, cashflow or the relationship with the lender
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