Poll: public want care home opt out for assisted dying

It's a big day in parliament tomorrow. Both sides of the assisted dying debate are gearing up for a crunch Commons clash when Kim Leadbeater's Bill returns for its Third Reading. One key flashpoint in its recently-completed Report Stage was when Rebecca Paul's amendment to allow hospices to opt out of providing assisted dying was voted down by Leadbeater and 278 other MPs.
Now, Mr S has got his hands on some polling which shows that Paul's position is backed by nearly two-thirds of the British public (quelle surprise). According to a Whitestone Insights poll of 2,091 adults commissioned by the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics, 64 per cent of the general public agree that 'if assisted suicide were introduced in the UK, hospices and care homes should have a legal right to opt out of participating in it', with only 14 per cent disagreeing. Polling was conducted between 4 and 5 June.
When 'don't knows' are removed, this figure jumps to 82 per cent of the public who think there should be a legal opt-out. The leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales has already warned that dozens of hospices and care homes could be forced to close if MPs approve the Bill tomorrow. Over to the House of Commons…

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The Herald Scotland

29 minutes ago

• The Herald Scotland

Are you ‘upset'? The dangers of flags in Scottish schools

Ms McDonald also said in the letter that she'd spoken to her pupils and explained the symbolism and association of flags and symbols to different groups of people, and how using the pictures was contrary to the school values of respect and kindness. 'I hope this helps everyone understand where mistakes have been made,' she said, 'and we can move on enjoying the rest of the end-of-term celebrations.' The language, the tone, the phrasing – 'inclusion', 'acceptance', 'offensive', 'upset', 'I hope this helps' – is a good example of the way some people in the public sector have learned to talk, indeed feel they must talk: plaintive, patronising, passive aggressive. I also dread to think what Ms McDonald said to the pupils when she 'explained the symbolism and association of flags'; if her letter's anything to go by, she's the last person who should be explaining it. But as I say, the headteacher has now said sorry through her council, East Renfrewshire. A council statement said she'd never meant to suggest the union flag was sectarian and 'apologised for any offence and upset that has been caused' (more upset and offence you'll notice). The council issued its statement after the local MSP, Tory Jackson Carlaw, said he was angry about the head's letter and that equating the Union flag with sectarianism was deeply offensive (I think we may need to ban the o-word). We also need to put all the apparent offence and upset in perspective. It would seem that someone saw the pictures of the event, noticed the Union flags, and contacted the school to say they were upset. The headteacher then reacted in the way she did, writing her letter, which upset other people, meaning the headteacher then had to apologise to them as well and suddenly we're in a spiral of offence and apology. The problem is that, in a hyper-sensitive culture, we assume someone being 'upset' requires some kind of reaction: a there-there, a soothing letter or placating policy announcement. Consult your granny: it does not. Read more These are the latest plans at the Glasgow School of Art. Really? No more Edinburgh Book Festival for me – where did it all go wrong? A Scottish legend says cancel culture is over. Yeah right The fact that someone was upset by the pictures of the event at Arthurlie Primary is also an indication of how flags work. Stick a flag up a pole – any flag, any pole – and you'll immediately please some people and upset others. The Union flag makes a particular type of Scottish nationalist puce with fury – God forbid any Scottish supermarket that puts it on British sausages – and increasingly the same applies to the saltire and a particular type of Unionist. The situation also got a lot worse after 2014, but we are where we are. What it means a decade on, in 2025, is that putting up a Union flag, or a saltire for that matter, in a school, or anywhere, is not a neutral act. Maybe there was a time, before the Scottish referendum, when flags went up without much comment; I also used to think, with some satisfaction, that a lot of Scots find naked patriotism and flags a wee bit embarrassing. But the referendum changed things, flags led to more flags (flagflation) and now there's anger because the flag you see isn't the 'right' one. Hence someone looking at a picture of an event at Arthurlie Primary and getting upset. There-there. The position the school takes now is that it was not their intention to imply the Union flag is sectarian but beyond that, it's unclear what their policy is. The council statement says the school should be 'focused on a diverse British society' and 'foster an ethos of respect for diverse perspectives and national identity'. So does that mean it's OK to put up Union flags to reflect one of the diverse national identities? Or does it mean it's not OK to put up Union flags because it only reflects one of the diverse national identities? They may have withdrawn the 'sectarian' accusation but where they actually stand on flags is uncertain. Jackson Carlaw (Image: PA) Perhaps if Ms McDonald had chosen her words more carefully, we wouldn't be in this position. The use of 'sectarian' was certainly ill-advised given its connection to the Troubles and traditional religious tensions which still bubble in parts of Scotland. She also failed to take into account that many Scots, including some of the parents of kids at her school, will feel positively about the Union flag and so ended up committing that most heinous of modern crimes: offending someone, while trying to avoid offending someone. She also appeared to be handing a kind of veto to people who get upset by the Union flag but get over-excited by saltires. You know the type. And why is it always me who ends up sitting next to them at parties? Anyway, expressed in a different way that didn't appear to single out the Union flag, perhaps the headteacher could have explained that there are dangers in all flags in schools. There will be some who argue that the Union flag is different and that it's the national flag of the UK and therefore represents everyone, but I'm afraid – given everything we've been through in the last ten years – that would be naïve at best or evasive at worst. Best, perhaps, for schools to just try to be neutral and, crucially, consistent: no Union flags, no saltires, no flags at all, not mine, not yours. The risk you run otherwise is that you start to introduce the kind of stuff that comes with flags. You may remember a few years ago Michael Gove suggesting 'British values' should be taught in English classrooms, no doubt draped with union flags. Some Scottish nationalists also talk about 'Scottish values' and maybe one day they'd like to teach them in schools plastered with saltires. But in this country, we're rather sceptical about all of that or used to be – it's something the Americans do, not us. And maybe that's something we should try to keep hold of. And maybe the best place to do it is in a classroom free of flags.

Daily Mirror

2 hours ago

• Daily Mirror

Air India plane crash to 'internal decapitation' - 5 times people cheated death

WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT. As the story of the story of Air India Flight 171 survivor Vishwash Ramesh leaves people stunned, the Mirror takes a look at five other cases of individuals who have survived against all odds People from all around the world have been fascinated by the story of Vishwash Ramesh, the British passenger who walked away from the site of the Air India Flight 171 with just a few minor injuries. The 40-year-old Londoner had been on the doomed Boeing jet when it crashed shortly after taking off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in western India. It was initially assumed that all 242 people onboard had perished, but then, Vishwash emerged from the wreckage, revealing how the section of the plane he had been seated in landed on the ground, rather than hitting the roof of a building. ‌ Tragically, it's believed Vishwash, who had been travelling with his brother Ajay Kumar Ramesh, 45, is the sole survivor of a disaster which has sent shockwaves across the world. A total of 270 bodies were recovered from the crash site over the weekend, 241 of which had been on the plane when it nosedived into a medical college in a residential area of Ahmedabad. The other victims would have been on the ground when the terror unfolded. ‌ As remarkable as Vishwash's story undoubtedly is, he isn't the only person to have survived when all hope appeared to have been lost. Here, the Mirror takes a look at five instances when individuals appeared to cheat death itself under extraordinary circumstances. Shannon Malloy On January 25, 2007, a Nebraska resident by the name of Shannon Malloy suffered 'internal decapitation' after a car crash sent her slamming into the dashboard. The then 30-year-old woman was left without control over her own head after her skull became separated from her spine, but amazingly survived the horror incident without paralysis. In an interview with Denver station KMGH-TV, Dr. Gary Ghiselli, an orthopaedic spine surgeon from the Denver Spine Centre, revealed that he had never seen such an injury in a person still living. Shannon's loved ones were advised that they should prepare for the worst, but, to the wonder of medics, she stayed alive long enough for screws to be inserted in her head and neck, while a halo was attached to minimise movement. Shannon recalled: "My skull slipped off my neck about five times. Every time they tried to screw this to my head, I would slip.' As well as her neck injury, Shannon suffered a fractured skull, a bleed to the brain, and nerve damage, which left her cross-eyed. Medics view the fact that she was able to survive at all as a "miracle". Dr Ghiselli remarked: "It really is a miracle. I've seen this type of injury once before. Unfortunately, the patient didn't make it. It's a miracle that Shannon survived the actual accident. It's a miracle that she's made the progress she has." ‌ Vesna Vulovic On January 26, 1972, the doomed JAT Yugoslav Airlines Flight 367, which had been travelling between Stockholm in Sweden and Belgrade in Serbia, exploded above the mountains of the Czech Republic, breaking into three pieces. The Czechoslovak Civil Aviation Authority later determined that this was caused by a briefcase bomb which had been placed in the baggage compartment; however, no arrests were ever made. ‌ Almost all of those who'd been onboard that day, some 27 passengers and crew, died in the catastrophe. To the astonishment of all those who read about the story at the time, however, one young woman managed to survive against all odds - a 23-year-old flight attendant by the name of Vesna Vulovic. Vesna plunged 33,333 feet (10,160 metres; 6.31 miles) to the snowy ground below, a feat that would later earn her a Guinness World Record for the highest fall she had ever survived without a parachute. Her terrified screams thankfully reached the ears of heroic woodsman Bruno Honke, who rescued her from the debris field. The stewardess was taken to the hospital, where she slipped into a coma for 10 days. It was found that she'd suffered a fractured skull, two crushed vertebrae, and breaks to her pelvis, ribs and both legs. Her survival naturally left doctors baffled, and it was concluded that her being pinned down by a food cart at the tail end of the fuselage had ultimately offered her some protection. ‌ Although initially paralysed from the waist down, Vesna went on to make a near-full recovery and became something of a celebrity and symbol of resilience in Serbia. Many, understandably, also viewed her as extremely lucky. She once told The New York Times: "People always want to sit next to me on the plane." Ludger Sylbaris On May 7, 1902, labourer Ludger Sylbaris was thrown into a solitary cell in a prison in the vibrant port city of Saint-Pierre, Martinique, then referred to as the 'Paris of the West Indies', after getting himself into a brawl. Although at the time, it was no doubt vexing to be trapped in a half-underground cell, this positioning ultimately proved fortuitous, with the events that transpired next ultimately earning him the nickname "the man who lived through Doomsday". ‌ As Ludger languished in his dungeon-like cell, with a narrow slit in the door offering the only view out, the Mt. Pelée volcano, which loomed over the cosmopolitan city, exploded, killing almost 30,000 residents. There was no escape for those caught in the 1,075-degree pressure wave, which destroyed every building, ship, and human being in its path. Even those who sought refuge in shelters were not safe, with their lungs burned from the inside out as oxygen was replaced with lethal gases. In his isolated stone cell, Ludger was afforded a degree of protection that those walking free sadly didn't have. As detailed by Historic Mysteries, Ludger did suffer horrific burns after the inside of his cell rapidly heated up to 1000 degrees. However, he was able to avoid breathing in the toxic air by urinating on his clothes and using them to plug up the door grating. ‌ It would be four long days before rescuers came to his aid. By then, Saint-Pierre was in ruins, with only a handful of survivors having weathered the destruction. With the city where he'd lived and worked now a ghost town, Ludger was forced to begin again. He went on to find celebrity status after joining up with the Barnum & Bailey circus, where punters were captivated by his incredible tale of survival. Martunis Little Martunis was just seven years old when he survived the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, which saw a 30 m (100 ft) high wave wreak devastation along coastal areas of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand. ‌ At least 225,000 people across 11 countries died in the tragedy, including Martunis' own mother and sisters. Recalling that terrible day in December 2024, 20 years on, Martunis remembered: 'I was playing football with my friends when suddenly an earthquake struck. "I rushed home and gathered with my mother, older sister, and younger sister, and we hugged each other. Then someone shouted that the sea water was rising and I ran together with my mother, my little sister and older sister." The family desperately attempted to escape in a pickup truck, but when it overturned, they got separated. Martunis, now 27, shared: "At that moment, I picked up my little sister and handed her to my mother. ‌ "I also picked up my older sister and helped her when she was drowning in the water. I tried to lift my sisters who were drowning, but we got separated. "I found myself on a mattress. As the mattress started to sink, I grabbed onto a school bench, but that also sank. "Then I saw a coconut. I hugged it like hugging a football until I climbed onto another mattress. I passed out several times... I was drowning. Suddenly, I found myself on a big tree and was carried towards the sea. "When I woke up, I didn't see a single person anymore. I couldn't find anyone who was alive. I just saw a lot of corpses around me. I was lost in the mangrove swamp for 21 days, trying to find food. ‌ "Sometimes I found biscuits and also some other food, like instant noodles, bottled water, as well as other drinks. On day 20, I ran out of food and had to drink rainwater." Eventually, Martunis was found on a beach by a Sky News TV crew, and taken to the hospital. By this point, he was dehydrated, malnourished and covered in mosquito bites, but miraculously, alive. He was thankfully reunited with his father, Sarbini, on the hospital wards, thanks to Save The Children through their Family Tracking and Reunification programme. ‌ The counterfeit Portugal football top Martunis had been wearing at the time of his rescue brought his story to the attention of professional footballers, including Cristiano Ronaldo, who reportedly paid for Martunis' education. Martunis even went on to enjoy significant footballing success in his own right and went on to sign an academy contract for Ronaldo's old club, Sporting Lisbon. Alcides Mareno ‌ On the morning of December 7, 2007, window cleaner Alcides Moreno and his younger brother Edgar took the lift to the top floor of the 47-storey Solow Tower building in Manhattan, New York City. Just as they stepped out onto the scaffold to wash the glass, the cables holding the 16ft wide (4.9m) washing platform in place "slipped from their attachment point", as per the United States Department of Labour accident report. Sadly, Edgar, 30, fell instantly to his death, striking the top of a wall at an estimated speed of 124 mph. Alcides, then 37, clung tightly to the aluminium platform, which acted almost like an airborne surfboard, slowing his descent. When emergency services went to rescue Alcides from a heap of twisted metal, he was still breathing and even made attempts to stand up, BBC News later reported. ‌ Alcides' injuries were severe, and he had to undergo 16 different operations to repair the extensive damage to his body, including his kidneys, brain, bones, and lungs. He also received 24 pints of blood and 19 pints of plasma, enough to replace all his blood twice over. Experts were left amazed that Alcides had lived to tell the tale. As reported by the New York Post, Dr. Sheldon Teperman, director of trauma and critical-care surgery at Jacobi Medical Centre in The Bronx, made the following comments at the time: 'Fifty per cent of people who fall four to five stories die. By the time you reach 10 or 11 stories, just about everyone dies. This guy absolutely should have died.'

NBC News

2 hours ago

• NBC News

Israel-Iran conflict: Fresh attacks as Trump sets two-week deadline for U.S. action

What we know NEW WAVE OF STRIKES: Israel and Iran continued to exchange strikes today, a week into their war. Israel's military said it targeted areas in western Iran, while a building was hit in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba. EUROPE-IRAN TALKS: Iranian Foreign MinisterAbbas Araghchi will be in the Swiss city of Geneva today for talks with his British, French, German and E.U. counterparts in an effort to end the conflict. The U.S. envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, will not attend. TRUMP CONSIDERS U.S. ACTION: President Donald Trump said he was still considering a U.S. military strike on Iran's nuclear sites. 'I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,' he said yesterday, according to the White House. HUNDREDS KILLED: Israeli strikes have killed at least 639 people in Iran since the conflict began a week ago, The Associated Press reported, citing a Washington-based human rights group. The Iranian health ministry says more than 2,500 people have been wounded. The death toll in Israel from Iran's retaliatory strikes remains at 24.