Thursday, November 14, 2024

Wind yer neck in Wes


There's an interesting debate going on within political circles at the moment regarding the upcomming vote on assisted dying. Obviously there are differing views on this highly emotive subject, it's an ethical minefield and unfortunately I fear that emotion (and magical thinking) may get the upper hand on reason, again! 

The Health Secretary Wes Streeting has been running around doing media spots and making his views very clear, he's a Christian (not sure what flavour?) and is against the bill. While Wes is perfectly entitled to his view, secular leaning people (like me!) are also entitled to be a) suspicious of his motivations and b) not keen on the idea that a cabinet member of the Government (who are supposed to be neutral on this issue) is running around offering his strident (and narrow) view to anyone that will listen (without any counter). 

I see that today the Cabinet Secretary (Simon Case) has spoken to ministers and told them that they should "exercise discretion and should not take part in the public debate". On a free vote like this, that's the way it should be, so my view would be that perhaps Wes should wind his neck in!

No comments: