Mostly find me on Bluesky now. Why did it take me so long? bsky.app/profile/anjibennett…

"We've got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen." ~ D.H. Lawrence Spring, Crocuses in Bloom (1933) 🎨 Peder Mørk Mønsted

124 years old today is 'The Darkling Thrush' by Thomas Hardy.

Words for the Weekend Before Christmas 🎅🎄 Pick your winner 🌟 A B C D (Follow for more)

Come to this gig on 18th January at the @thetradesclub

✨️🙏✨️

Wonderful words of Jean Racine (b otd 1639): "I have everything, yet have nothing; and although I possess nothing, still of nothing am I in want." "Love is not a fire to be shut up in a soul. Everything betrays us: voice, silence, eyes; half-covered fires burn all the brighter."

As one of your constituents I'm disappointed in your decision. The argument that one innocent person killed by the death penalty was sufficient reason for it to be removed from use is pertinent here. We all know that there will be one, and likely many more, who will die against their will, under pressure however subtle, if this law changes. One person is enough for me. One person means the world to me. I played my concert tonight for everyone in my (quite elderly) audience who will be feeling afraid and vulnerable at this vote.

Just in case you were wondering who Trump has just put in charge of Health in the US, here are some of the views RFK has espoused: - Wi-Fi causes cancer and "leaky brain" - Antidepressants are to blame for school shootings…

“When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression”

I simply cannot believe that the time available to MPs to debate a decision that could led to thousands of people receiving state assistance in ending their lives prematurely is… 5 hours. Nor that an argument currently doing the rounds in parliament to win over uncertain MPs is that we “already have” outstanding palliative care in the UK, so nobody fails to receive the best care. We do not. We are so, so far from it. UK palliative care in 2024 is a desperately under-resourced Cinderella service and this is causing untold avoidable suffering for patients who sometimes long to end their lives because WE failed to fund the care that might make life still worth living. Fix that first - please - then talk about assisted dying. Please don’t ignore or disbelieve what those of us who work in palliative care witness daily.

Exactly this.

“But there is always a November space after the leaves have fallen when she felt it was almost indecent to intrude on the woods … for their glory terrestrial had departed and their glory celestial of spirit and purity and whiteness had not yet come upon them.” ~ L.M. Montgomery

What troubles me most about ⁦@kimleadbeater⁩’s bill is that it places a legal obligation on the Secretary of State to ensure that assisted dying is available to patients for whom he’s under no such duty to provide adequate palliative care. 🧵 bills.parliament.uk/bills/37…

GP practices were denied funding to cover the NI rise because they are private sector organisations according to the Treasury Yet they are not eligible to NI reimbursements that are open to small private sector companies because they are public sector according to the Treasury🤷🏻‍♂️

Here's Anne Garvey's review of yesterday afternoon's concert @jen_the_sop @dominicbev @harry_sever thecambridgecritique.com/hom…

After Assisted Dying is legalised: Doris, who is frail, and owns her 4 bedroom house, starts to be visited by her nephew, Sam, who hadn't taken much interest in her before. She likes his visits as he is suddenly very kind to her. He praises her for living independently, and often mentions how awful it would be if she had to go into a care home. He never mentions that the cost of care concerns him. He always talks about the "indignity" of care homes and how he thinks people must suffer terribly there, looked after by strangers who don't love them. When she develops pneumonia and has a fall, she goes to hospital. Sam visits often and says how sad it is that she is so dependent on others now. The pneumonia is treated but the doctors think she is too frail to return home to live alone now. Sam asks Doris if she can bear the idea of living in a care home, he reminds her of the awful stories he has heard of how badly people are treated in care homes. "I just worry about your quality of life Aunty Dot. If only there was a way you wouldn't have to go through that indignity after such an independent life." He never mentions Assisted Dying. Doris asks the doctors about it herself, and they agree that she is frail enough that her life expectancy might be less than a year. At her request, she is given a lethal cocktail of pills which she struggles to swallow, and Sam holds her hand supportively for the three hours it takes for her to die. The staff comment on what a devoted nephew he is. Sam pays off his mortgage and retires early with the inheritance from Doris's estate. Not a penny was wasted on care homes. He feels he earned it. No doctors and no judge could ever detect the way Sam had manipulated his Aunty Dot for months before her request for Assisted Death. The only effective safeguard against coercion of the vulnerable into Assisted Suicide is if Assisted Suicide remains illegal.

If you’re a doctor, somewhere there’s a patient who will remember you forever simply because you listened to them. The compassionate doctor listens, empathizes, and earns trust. These doctors make all the difference, keeping us strong.