argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Assisted Dying Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2021-10-22
Topic: Health
Bhikhu Parekh (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I support the Bill of the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, and think that it represents a step in the right direction. Like all Bills, it has its limitations, but I am convinced that these can be rectified within the framework of the Bill itself We have had many communications in relation to the Bill and many of them have been very critical of it. They indicate or suggest that the Bill would put pressure on people to give up their lives, that it would devalue human life, that it would create an unacceptable culture in which human life may not continue to be prized as highly as it is now, that there are alternative ways of dealing with human suffering than suicide, and so on. I am convinced that these objections can be met. Many of them are highly exaggerated and some of them involve looking at the whole subject through the prism of the Holocaust. I do not think that this Bill contains anything even remotely similar to the Holocaust The point I want to make—and in two and a half minutes that is all I can do—is a very simple one. When people talk about assisted dying, what are they talking about? They are not saying simply that dying should be made peaceful and suffering relieved. They are saying that death presents people with terror and a paralysing fear that one is going to disappear without a trace to God knows where. The death of death has been the preoccupation of human beings for a long time. I think in that context the question human beings have been asking is: "Is death the end of life or can death be turned into an event in life such that I can regulate it? If I plan my funeral can I not also plan my life and my death?" That is what it is about. It is not just about relieving pain. It is about asking oneself how one can regulate one’s process of dying and death In that kind of context, some of the assumptions the objectors make turn out to be irrelevant. If one looks at many of the letters that we have received, they say, for example, that life should not be ended because it is given by God. Many of us may not share that view. Others say that life is not given by human beings, that it is a natural process and it should be allowed to run its natural course. Why should it run its natural course? What happens to human beings? What about their agency and their freedom? For all those reasons, I think the assumption that life should be allowed to run on is invalid. If that is invalid, then the question arises: does my right to life include the right to be allowed to continue to live until life comes to a natural end? Is no attempt to be made to terminate, for example, the life of an individual who has been in a coma for months or years? I think there is some degree of sentimentalism involved. I suggest that we face this question honestly and objectively.
Assisted Dying Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2021-10-22
Topic: Health
Thomas Pendry (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I recognise that I speak in this debate against a background of the intense and emotional feelings of those who passionately believe in either side of this Bill’s content. I also recognise that the promoters of the Bill of the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, have done their very best to ensure the inclusion of safeguards for vulnerable people in order to mitigate the worst fears of the Bill. History, however, shows that in those countries with similar legislation to what is before us, safeguards introduced at their inception were subsequently removed, as we know is the case in Belgium, the Netherlands and Canada: we have seen the erosion take place in those countries The loss of dignity for the terminally ill is something some argue comes from their illness. To contradict that view I have had, and no doubt other Members of this House have had, a communication from Mr James Mumford of the McDonald Centre at Christ Church in Oxford, in which he speaks about the concept of dignity in relation to the Bill. He argues that the palliative care communities have a relatively different idea of dignity from those proposed by the assisted suicide lobby. According to doctors, nurses and chaplains, Mr Mumford argues—those with extensive experience of caring for people at the end of their lives—dignity means showing people who are dying that they are still valued. I endorse Mr Mumford’s views I also agree with so many others who share that view, but one that really did move me—we heard from him today—was from my noble friend Lord Hunt of Kings Heath in his letter to the Daily Telegraph, in which he wrote movingly about his feelings during the last few weeks of the life of his 90 year-old mother and urged his fellow Peers to follow his example and reject the Bill. I follow the advice of my noble friend and those who believe that the Bill would be likely to be abused and distorted after its passing, as experienced in other countries with similar legislation.
Assisted Dying Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2021-10-22
Topic: Health
Ann Mallalieu (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I strongly support this Bill. On 18 July 2014, we debated a similar Bill in this House, introduced by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer. I have been haunted ever since by part of a speech by the late Lord Judd, who read out a letter which had been sent to him: "My uncle, a foreman toolmaker and a strapping six-footer who played football for the works team, developed cancer of the spine. He screamed until all his strength was gone, then he whimpered like a puppy. Twenty-four hours before he died his wife implored their GP to stop his pain. The GP replied: ‘I dare not give him any more morphine. It would kill him’. Twenty-four hours later the cancer had killed him".—[Official Report, 18/7/14; col. 884.] Intolerable and inexcusable suffering have continued ever since, because Parliament has so far failed to grasp this nettle. If the figures on the number of people affected given in the report from the Office of Health Economics are right, something like 6,000 people die unsatisfactorily or having had inadequate pain relief every year in the United Kingdom. By my calculation, that means that some 36,000 people have suffered since we failed to pass a Bill of this nature around six years ago To those who oppose the Bill for fear that the vulnerable, disabled, elderly or infirm will feel under pressure, either internal or external, to take this step, I say that the fears they express are precisely those which two separate doctors and experienced High Court judges will have in mind when examining each case individually. However strong your personal view, whether based on religious belief, personal experience or strong convictions about the sanctity of human life, is it right for you as an individual to insist that your view prevails when it will prolong intolerable suffering for someone else who happens to hold a different view The noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, has done this House and the country a great service by introducing this Bill, but it should not be a Private Member’s Bill. It should be a free-vote issue debated in Government time and I hope that on all sides of this House and in the other place pressure will be brought to bear to see that this happens.
Assisted Dying Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2021-10-22
Topic: Health
Elizabeth Conway Symons (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I also congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Davidson, on a terrific maiden speech. It was excellent, and I thank her I hope that the House will forgive me if I make something of a personal contribution to this debate. Having survived acute myeloid leukaemia when he was 38, my husband again contracted cancer 25 years later. It was an incurable cancer of the oesophagus and liver. The Royal Marsden Hospital was terrific. My husband wanted to die at home. The senior palliative consultant provided us with drugs to relieve pain and fear. The drugs had to be given intravenously by a district nurse when we got home. The nurse who arrived—to administer the medication, we thought—refused point-blank to give my husband the drugs. I reminded her of the Royal Marsden’s instructions about the regime she was meant to follow. She refused, saying that she was in charge in my house and would make the decisions. My husband and I were staggered. In effect, the district nurse had overruled the senior palliative consultant in the leading cancer hospital in this country. Moreover, we were very frightened Very shortly afterwards, it was clear to me that my husband would die soon. He was in agonising pain and overwhelming distress. He tried over and over again to get out of bed because he would not give in. It took four members of our family to hold him down, but his distress was terrible. His was an appalling and terrible death. I did not know how to alleviate his dreadful suffering. All I could do was pray that it would be over soon. If I had known how to make his death easier, calmer and quieter, I would have done so, but I did not know and could not help him. I wish that I had known how to ease his end—but that would have been illegal, of course, and remains illegal for anybody in the position I was in. That is very wrong I support the Bill.
National Health Service Commissioning Board and Clinical Commissioning Groups (Responsibilities and Standing Rules) (Amendment) Regulations 2019 — House of Lords, 2019-06-10
Topic: Health
Judith Anne Jolly (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, I share some of the concerns expressed by the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton—she has dug out a few that I have not mentioned or even thought of. Many of us here will have had friends or family in receipt of this funding. My mother received it towards the end of her life. By way of clarification, can the Minister confirm whether FNC is funded in the same way as end-of-life care? If so, is there the same sort of uplift It would be good to look at this in the context of a Green Paper. I know that that is a dig and something that we say frequently, but so much of this would be much easier to debate in your Lordships’ House if we had a Green Paper to read and could try to understand the Government’s intentions These changes will impact on CCG funding with effect from 26 April, so the increase is not within the CCGs’ budget for this year. What will the extra cost be to CCGs? Is there likely to be an in-year top-up to cover it, however small The patients we are talking about will be resident in nursing homes. I wonder whether the sector was consulted about the changes. What was its reaction to LaingBuisson’s estimate of a 3.1% efficiency uplift? What was LaingBuisson’s rationale? If the Minister has that in her notes, I would be interested to know where the 3.1% came from. Why was it not 3%? I am sure that a lot of people would like to know that—not least the sector.
National Health Service Commissioning Board and Clinical Commissioning Groups (Responsibilities and Standing Rules) (Amendment) Regulations 2019 — House of Lords, 2019-06-10
Topic: Health
Judith Anne Jolly (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My noble friend makes a very good point. The majority of people who work in the sector are care workers on the basic minimum wage, or something related to that. What we are discussing this evening is nursing care which will be paid at a union rate; nevertheless, it is stretching the sector The Minister knows about the shortage of nurses, and the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, spoke about the shortage of care workers. Why do we have restrictions on agency nurses’ nursing hours of 10% of the total? Clearly, we cannot have agency nurses covering the whole thing; everyone across both health and social care frets about agency nursing and its expense over and above that of paying for directly employed people. But what is a nursing home to do if there are no salaried nurses available? Is the 10% smoothed over a month or a year? Is this realistic? How realistic is it for less than 10% of nursing hours to be delivered by the agency? This will be locally variable—relatively straightforward, perhaps, in city settings but where my noble friend and I live in Cornwall, people such as agency nurses are like hens’ teeth. This is not straightforward, and I am not convinced that it is absolutely workable This measure looks hurried, but I suppose any increase is welcome. I await the Minister’s response to some of the comments that I have made and those of the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton.
Trident — House of Commons, 2015-11-24
Topic: Defense
Elizabeth Louise Kendall (Labour, Centre-left): Does the Secretary of State agree that, if we want to keep Britain safe, it is not a question of choosing between renewing our nuclear deterrent and taking the necessary action against ISIL—given that both are vital—and that it would be foolhardy, not to say arrogant, to believe that anyone in the House can predict the risks and threats that Britain will face in the next 30 or 40 years?
Trident — House of Commons, 2015-11-24
Topic: Defense
Matthew Toby Perkins (Labour, Centre-left): Indeed I will. [Laughter.] Once again, SNP Members are laughing. They think that this is a highly hilarious debate, but the fact is that it is not highly hilarious for the people whose lives depend on it, and it is not highly hilarious for the people who rely on the NATO umbrella and the nuclear deterrent for their security We feel that it is not appropriate to vote on this motion at a time when we are still conducting our review. We think that the motion is a cheap piece of political point-scoring—
Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) (Coronavirus) (No. 2) Regulations 2021 — House of Lords, 2021-12-14
Topic: Health
Philip Alexander Hunt (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, it seems that we have come down to debating two specific issues. The first is, of course, the question of mandatory vaccination for healthcare staff and whether we should support it. The second is the way in which the Government have been treating Parliament over not just this issue but the hundreds of statutory instruments that have been brought in relation to Covid, many of them by the Minister’s department We are entitled to a full response as to why the impact assessment was published so late. As I said, I am afraid that this is not the first occasion. I have been following the work of Big Brother Watch over the Covid experience. It has set out clearly the hundreds of SIs that have been brought here retrospectively and the impact on parliamentary democracy. We all know that we are in the middle of a crisis and that, of course, the Government have to act quickly—we all understand that. Even so, the one thing that we are entitled to say is, if they are doing that, they should be able to produce the documentation to justify the action that they are taking The mandatory vaccination of healthcare staff was not a decision that was suddenly reached in the last few days; it has been trailed for weeks in the consultation. I declare my interest as a member of the GMC board. I am not speaking on its behalf, but the GMC and many other organisations responded to that consultation, so there is no excuse, in this instance, for there not to be a full impact assessment published alongside the SI so that my noble friend Lord Cunningham and his committee can consider it with ample time and we can then enjoy their recommendations to us.
Mental Health — House of Commons, 2015-12-09
Topic: Health
Deborah Angela Elspeth Marie Abrahams (Labour, Centre-left): My hon. Friend is making a very powerful speech. On prevention, is she as concerned as I am that a recent report by the University of Liverpool has estimated that an additional 590 suicides were associated with the work capability assessment process, a Government policy, between 2010 and 2013?
Government Contracts: Randox Laboratories — House of Lords, 2022-02-21
Topic: Health
Syed Kamall (Conservative, Centre-right): The noble Lord makes a point about predicting it in advance, but it is very easy to say that with hindsight. Let us look at a number of different countries and the WHO: some people argue that the WHO and Public Health England had only one job, and they were not prepared for it. Clearly, people were caught unawares; we were not the only country to be caught unawares.
Army Restructuring: Future Soldier — House of Lords, 2021-11-25
Topic: Defense
Anthony Gueterbock (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, there are many things in the Minister’s Statement that I welcome, and a more high-tech, more professional military with the most modern equipment is something that I think we all welcome. What worries me is that the Statement mentioned the word "global" four times. Do we really think we are a global power any more? We have one aircraft carrier, I think, which is fiddling around in the China Sea; maybe it has some Ajax tanks on trial there, but do we think we are going to invade China with it? We are getting to be a bit naive on this. Surely the time has come to get rid of some of this gear and concentrate on the humanitarian elements that the Army does and has done so very well, and to cut out some of these vanity projects that, to me, are just a massive waste of money.
Mental Health — House of Commons, 2015-12-09
Topic: Health
Clive Anthony Lewis (Labour, Centre-left): The Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust was the first mental health trust in England to be placed in special measures, where I am afraid it still languishes. Let me praise the staff who have held that trust together, and kept it going throughout this tough time. Despite that, throughout the coalition years, we heard—and still do—much about parity of esteem between mental and physical health. Unfortunately, the reality is very different. Unison members in my constituency worked out that if my local mental health trust were funded using the same formula as my local acute trust, it would have an additional annual income of about £69 million. Instead, however, it was cut by £30 million. Ultimately, were parity of esteem a reality rather than empty rhetoric, those cuts would not have been made In the face of severe financial constraints, my trust has been forced to cut services such as early intervention in psychosis, assertive outreach and the specialist homeless teams that were once in place. Each and every cut was a false economy. The impact has been catastrophic. People in crisis in my constituency have been left without access to a local NHS bed. Instead, they have been sent hundreds of miles from Norwich, separated from their families and care teams, to places as far away as Harrogate, Bradford, London and Brighton Forgive me, therefore, if I do not sound too excited by the announcement in the Chancellor’s recent autumn statement of an additional investment of £600 million for mental health services. An investigation by the BBC and the Community Care magazine in March found that £600 million had been cut from mental health services since 2010. It is therefore an affront to call this £600 million an investment. In reality, it is barely a replacement. Unfortunately, it is too late for those in my constituency who have lost their lives or suffered life-changing injuries because help was not there when they needed it. The Government have failed patients, failed their families, failed staff and ultimately failed my community.
Arts Funding — House of Commons, 2015-06-04
Topic: Culture
Edward Vaizey (Conservative, Centre-right): The Government strongly support the fair distribution of funding for culture and arts across the country. Indeed, last week in Hull the chief executive of the Arts Council announced that the amount of lottery funding to bodies outside London would increase from 70% to 75%.
Arts Funding — House of Commons, 2015-06-04
Topic: Culture
Edward Vaizey (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Lady’s point is well made to Labour councils up and down the country, which is that they must maintain their investment in culture instead of withdrawing it. It is a partnership, which is why the Chancellor of the Exchequer was pleased to give the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull £1.5 million to help it host the Turner prize, but that is accompanied by local authority investment of £3 million. The message to all those Labour councils is that they must support their local arts organisations—particularly those of the hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant).
Arts Funding — House of Commons, 2015-06-04
Topic: Culture
Graham Charles Stuart (Conservative, Centre-right): It is indeed good news that the Turner prize will be presented in Hull. It is not always popular on both sides of the House, but what more can the Government do to encourage other such events to support Hull as the city of culture, and to ensure that Hull benefits from that in the long term?
Arts Funding — House of Commons, 2015-06-04
Topic: Culture
Edward Vaizey (Conservative, Centre-right): I know that my hon. Friend, who is standing to be the Chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, is an aficionado of the Turner prize, as well as many other cultural events. He will know—I do not need to tell him—that Derry/Londonderry benefited from a huge range of events, from the BBC and other cultural organisations, and I expect Hull to benefit in the same way.
Export Licences: High Court Judgment — House of Lords, 2019-06-20
Topic: Defense
John Burnett (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, I want to take the issue a little wider than the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, and my noble friend Lady Northover did. Does this judgment—or this case, for that matter—have any impact or bearing on British troops or advisers who are in Yemen or have been, or may be, deployed there? They could well be using equipment exported by virtue of the authority of these licences. If the noble Earl wants to write to me about that, I would welcome a letter.
Maritime Security — House of Commons, 2020-02-12
Topic: Defense
Stewart Malcolm McDonald (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Not least because of the Minister’s own constituency, he will understand that there is an obvious breach point in the high north of Scotland for adversaries to come into, as has happened before. Can he assure the House that the Scotland Office will be engaging fully with the upcoming integrated defence review, and will he agree to meet me to discuss some of the issues that are important to him and to the rest of Scotland?
Syria and Iraq (Cultural Heritage) — House of Commons, 2015-06-04
Topic: Culture
Questions: What recent discussions he has had with the Foreign Secretary on the effect of the political and security situation in Syria and Iraq on the cultural heritage of those countries.; In 2008, the Select Committee welcomed the Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Bill and considered that the ratification of The Hague convention would strengthen our commitment to the protection of our cultural heritage. Seven years on, cultural heritage is being pillaged at an alarming rate and the EU directive is due to be implemented by the end of the year. When will the Government get on with it?
Robert Edward Jenrick (Conservative, Centre-right): I echo the comments that we heard a moment ago. Everyone who campaigns on this issue agrees that the two foundation stones that are necessary if the UK is to have credibility are, first, to ratify The Hague convention and, secondly, for the Government to put money where our words have been for many years, by creating something such as a cultural protection fund to protect and support the brave men and women on the ground, under the auspices of great institutions such as the British Museum.
Welsh Language and Culture — House of Commons, 2015-06-04
Topic: Culture
Edward Vaizey (Conservative, Centre-right): I congratulate my hon. Friend on increasing his majority as part of the best result for the Conservatives in Wales for more than 30 years. The House will want to take note of that truly fantastic achievement The Government are committed to supporting Welsh language and culture, in partnership with many bodies—including, of course, Welsh language programming with S4C.