More Irish matters

I have been reminded today that the Irish are a good deal further ahead with assisted dying than we are, being maybe halfway through the process of legislative scrutiny. So they while they may be some way off making a law (which, according to some Irish wrinkle, would also be available to the people of Northern Ireland), they a good deal further ahead than we are.

Which reminds me in turn of two other matters on which they seem to manage better than us. First, a sensible, a fairer sharing of the costs of care homes between the people being cared for and the state. Second, getting to sensible rules about how far one is allowed to travel for leisure & family purposes very early on in the present crisis. Rules which we have still not got to.

All this despite the much greater number of expensively trained brains that we pay to think about these problems than they can afford. Just think of all those clones of Cummings beavering away in various places in Whitehall.

PS 1: and to think that it was not so long ago that it was OK in England to talk of Ireland as a place full of bogs, priests and drunks.

PS 2: on the other hand, not much movement on the decriminalisation of recreational drugs. On that one they seem to be stuck in the same place as us.

Reference 1: https://www.dignityindying.org.uk/.

Reference 2: https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/physician-assisted-dying-complex-issue-that-requires-open-and-honest-debate-1.4397648. Beware the advertisement which bursts, unasked, into sound. Maybe set something to mute before you click on the link.