Assisted dying bill has the right safeguards

Huge majority of Scots back legalising assisted dying as new Holyrood bill published

I wonder how many of these Care Not Killing people have watched someone dying in agony and pleading for the end, despite the best efforts of a palliative care team. I have on a number of occasions, and believe me, it’s horrifying.

What is being proposed includes a great many safeguards, and there is no indication that these will be in any way extended.

Going to Switzerland is beyond the means of a great many people, and also usually has to be done earlier than someone might choose, because of the conditions of doing so. The model proposed follows Oregon, which has made no changes to its strict conditions in all the years since the law was first enacted, not countries like Holland which have.

Jess Mitchell

David Pratt: Don’t be fooled, Israel and the US will kiss and make up as Gazans die

Agreed, the US is not going to undermine Israel in any fundamental way, not least because at the end of the day, they both have a common enemy in Iran, absolutely key in this whole story ... all the niceties are illusionary.

The US were complicit in Saddam Hussein’s war against Iran back in 1980, which saw the widespread use of chemicals weapons and the death of one million people. And the British had of course toppled Iran’s democratically progressive and hugely popular Mossaddegh government back in 1953, basically because he nationalised the oil, paving the way for Iran’s turn to radical Islam.

Ultimately, the whole region is in a total mess, from Syria to Iraq to Yemen to Palestine, and I’m afraid the British state has played a key role in it all, with a compliant media totally complicit in the UK’s deeply unethical foreign policy.

The EU, which should be offering an alternative policy for the region, has followed the US lead just as blindly as Sunak and Starmer.

Ultimately, it’s all about the oil and keeping the Suez Canal under Western control...

Wendy Rivers

Lesley Riddoch: No more ‘Mr Nice Guy’ Humza, let’s hear you roar

As you say, Lesley, it’s a sair fecht when honesty and integrity are regarded negatively.

But we do need more fight from Humza and Flynn. They are, I believe, making inroads and I hope they’re ready for the imminent election.

When we get that majority, Humza will need to ask presumably Starmer to move on the break-up, Starmer will undoubtedly refuse or do a May (“now is not the time”), and then we must go to the international courts. No point in wasting time on the complicit Supreme Court and its sycophantic lawyers.

I hope they’re ready for the fight – I am!!!

Jean Dunlop