Fifth series, episode 9
All five series are available here on the HebWeb.
In this episode, George receives a father’s day card, considers roadside pollution and the things we say in cars, contrasts the fortunes of two local clubs, receives differing opinions on assisted dying, goes roaming in the gloaming and shares a cautionary tale.
Dad’s day
On Father’s Day, my family had a toast to dead dads and live ones. Darling daughter gave me her home made card. Her only mistake was forgetting that my watery tales are about Nymphs and Sirens, not mermaids. At a conference in the late 80s, Betty Rosen asked my group to rewrite The Fisherman and the Selkie. I’ve toyed with writing a new mermaid tale for the last thirty years but one day …
Dirty old town
I haven’t seen pollution being considered by local road lobbyists, and now they’ve blocked me, which is a shame. I think you can’t really explain your own arguments if you ignore opposing ones. But I admit that we’re drivers and, although we live near Hebden Bridge station, we rarely use public transport.
We live in a narrow sided valley and surveys have shown that in parts of the town, where the main roads pass between tall buildings, pollution by nitrogen dioxide is dangerously high. The motivation behind the air quality management schemes in Calderdale is an attempt to make our roads and modes of transport safer and healthier.
The Royal College of Physicians estimate that air pollution contributes to around 40,000 premature deaths each year in the UK. This figure includes deaths from heart disease, strokes, respiratory diseases, and cancer, all of which can be exacerbated or triggered by poor air quality, much of which comes from cars. Public Health England calculate that air pollution costs the NHS and social care provision £1.5 billion per year. So the local road lobby should factor that into their thinking.
What’s in a name?
Upstairs at the Golden Lion I stumbled onto the stage from my front row seat, turned round and was shocked: the place was packed. Funny that. I told the organiser, my friend Theresa Sowerby, that her new GOBSH!TE title would turn people off; however, it seems that people are more scatologically minded than I am. Theresa said she was channelling her Irish ancestry. It’s a well known saying over there.
Everyone seemed to be on form. If I had to choose my favourite performer on the night, I’d probably opt for the whimsical songs of Miss Airedale, aka Pip Fowler. Oh, and I sold copies of Murphy’s Lore to performers from Clitheroe.
The Assisted Dying Bill
The bill was passed in the Commons by a narrow majority. It offers a route for those whose suffering cannot be alleviated, enabling them to die peacefully on their own terms rather than endure protracted agony. Opinion polls have shown support for the bill is at 70%.
The bill seems to ensure that the process is overseen by qualified healthcare professionals, minimising the risk of coercion or abuse. Only adults with sound mind and a terminal diagnosis can access the option. With assessment by multiple independent doctors, including psychological checks and opportunities to withdraw requests, I hope people are given control over the process allowing them to die with dignity.
Readers Write
Several readers agreed, but were worried about how it will work in practice. My responses are in italics.
Frances Robinson (Mytholmroyd), “I think there are still some areas that will need more scrutiny, but for myself, I think I agree.”
Liz Dykes (HB): “In principle, yes. I think it's the future. People suffering difficult health conditions that are very hard to live with should have the right to choose when to call it a day but it's fraught with difficulties and potential abuse and could feed into a horrible culture about the value of unproductive life especially in the current climate.”If passed, the law only applies to people who are judged to be terminally ill.
Susanna Meese (Bretton Hall College) wrote, “I hope there are enough safeguards in place. Watching my mum’s decline with, 'I know I don't want to go through that.' I want to choose but I don't think this is covered by this bill.”
Kevin Hibbs (Old Town): “Yes, with safeguards to ensure that it is the absolute free will and wish of the person concerned.”
Glenda George (Scotland), “There is such a thing as making a sworn statement – “when in sound mind” … beforehand, to the effect that one would not wish to linger long with advanced dementia. But you may require some detailed description of what advanced means. And then there is no way of guaranteeing that one's wishes would be followed once one is no longer compos mentis … On the whole though, most countries that have already passed a similar law, have not seen vast numbers of abuse of it by impatient inheritors or the like. As it stands already, even with all the hoops that doctors have to jump through before they can administer palliative end of life care … I fully expect the cases of malpractice in end of life choice will also be rare.”
Debbie Rolls (Freelance writer): “I think it means we have to fight even harder for disability rights and support. Even under the previous system I had to keep getting Do not Resuscitate removed from my brother's medical notes as doctors presumed that is what someone with a complex disability would want.
Glenda George: “The sad thing about this tale of Debbie Rolls is that the reasons for the DNR notice reappearing can easily be maladministration rather than assumptions. My dad had to keep getting the DNR notice put on after Mum’s stroke because she had always indicated she didn't want to linger if she was completely incapacitated. But several doctors thought it was wrong that she couldn't articulate this herself so kept taking it off … in the end she personally faught physically like a tiger to prevent the nurses and doctors from sucking the fluid out of her lungs and died of pneumonia, primarily. As she would have wanted. This was 2001 and she was just 70 years old.
Jo Nunn (Bradford): I think we have to be very careful, especially with the sort of politicians who seem to be on the rise worldwide at the moment. Decency, in any meaning of the word, cannot be assumed. I very much hope that this hospice movement is not undermined or weakened anyway by this.
Greg Nickson, (Ratcliffe): I definitely agree in principle. I've always thought it strange that people could be in trouble for animal cruelty for keeping ill pets alive who suffer less than some people do. I do however have some concerns about what safeguards are in place to guarantee people can't be coerced into making that decision.
Vic Allen: Broadly in favour, but I think it's ironic that parliament is less troubled by the assisted dying bill than it is by the existing procedures for assisted living!
Tom Murphy, (North Wales): “I agree that a person with a terminal diagnosis can choose assisted dying to maintain some dignity in death instead of spending their last days suffering. Where it worries me, and I think this happened in Canada, is when a very young person went to the doctor with depression, and the doctor said, “Have you considered just ending things?” Now, having suffered from depression myself, that seems like the worst thing you can possibly say to people with depression when there are so many options to try and treat it. So I guess that's where my limit would be. For terminal hopeless cases yes, for anything else absolutely not.”
Freda Mary Davis, (Triangle): “As far as I have understood the objections they are not in principle. They are that not enough safeguards are in place, that professionals will be asked to make a 5 minute assessment and confirm a decision without same to find out what the person's reasons are. That every medical body is against it and do not wish to make life decisions in brief encounters that those under coercion are not protected. Kim Leadbetter is financially supported by some strange organisations which I found really creepy. As a society, we are not in favour of killing people because they say life isn't worth living, without addressing the reasons why, it's all very weird.”
The bill is strict in meeting the needs of those who are diagnosed as being near death.
An extract from a post by Charissa Elizabeth (Haworth): “Seeing the contempt the current government seems to have for disabled people, it worries me that people living with chronic illnesses, could be bullied into assisted dying, especially if health care is rationed or withdrawn.”
Kate Mellor: “Seeing as it's only people who have six months to live anyway I agree with it. I understand that people can be bullied into it, or feel so hopeless that they want to die. Then there's the other idea about not wanting to be a burden. I really hope it doesn't impact on palliative care but on the whole I agree. There's nothing worse than being made to linger on when you're ready to go. It's a great relief to me anyway.
Retired nurse, Steve Tomlinson (Settle|): I support the bill.
We’ll go once more a roving
For the last few years, we’ve gone for a stroll round Mayroyd on Midsummer Night. This year we met our neighbour Becky on the lane. Professor Rebecca was the subject of a fascinating HebWeb Interview.
Judi Dench said that she and her first husband loved the famous Byron poem, but these days it makes her cry. PW remembers her dad Tommy, a coalminer in County Durham, who met us one balmy evening when we returned from the local and commanded us to go back out and breathe in the perfumes of the night air - in the local park. So we did - and this year the longest day coincided with wafts of delightful fragrances from local gardens. Cheers Tommy, we’ll keep going a roving for as long as we can.
So We’ll Go No More a Roving
So, we’ll go no more a roving
So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving,
And the moon be still as bright.For the sword outwears its sheath,
And the soul wears out its breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And love itself have rest.Though the night was made for loving,
And the day returns too soon,
Yet we’ll go no more a-roving
By the light of the moon.
The handmade parade
I don’t mind admitting that my Editor made a damn fine job of capturing the magic of this magnificent community event. So, I’ll let him choose one of his own snaps for this item. This is partly because in my role as your roving reporter, I forgot to take my phone.
Welfare reform
Our MP was on the radio and posted his reasons for joining fellow MPs in opposing the welfare reform proposals. PW had written to him on the issue and we’d received a supportive letter in response.
The government must curb the spiralling costs of the welfare budget, but the proposed legislation seemed heartless, ill drafted and politically inept. After their climbdown, the Labour leadership faces a test to cut the huge costs ‘in a Labour way.’
Not all U Turns cost votes. Since promising to adapt the proposals, Labour has halved the Reform lead in the Opinion Polls. This won’t all be out of sympathy for people with disabilities. As George Osborne discovered, many voters think there are too many people claiming benefits. The surge in numbers in recent years might have arisen because new applicants were interviewed online rather than face to face during lockdown. Now, a thousand people are applying for benefits every day.
As Kitty Donaldson in the iPaper points out, Labour “has done popular things by stealth and they’ve been drowned out by unpopular things.” Waiting lists are coming down, 300 new school based nurseries will open in September, the new Renters Rights Bill will ban no fault evictions, tackling sewage discharges into rivers and coastal waters is universally popular, the National Minimum wage is worth £1400 more for eligible workers. Starmer has performed a masterclass in gaining better trade deals, especially with the volatile Trump, even though he hasn’t persuaded him on not to bomb Iran or give support to Ukraine.
Two Michaels
On Facebook recently, Michael Rosen, deservedly a national treasure, did a skit in which he imagined the tangled way in which Keir Starmer must explain his political strategies to his inner circle. The point being, I suppose, that most politicians don’t hold fast to their principles. Well, I thought, most writers don’t need to be quite as careful with their language as top politicians.
In the 80s, Michael Foot was on a chat show where he surprised his host by saying how much he admired politicians who are pragmatic, who have to deal with the realities of the real world and not just the world as they would like it to be. He admitted he wasn’t very good at it.
More recently, I couldn’t comply with Michael Rosen’s emails urging writers to support George Galloway in a looming by-election. Writers aren’t always right!
Don’t forget Gaza
As Trump was busily blitzing Iran, there was a gap in the media coverage of the events in Palestine. The killing continues on the West Bank and in food queues in Gaza. But in Hebden Bridge, protestors held up a defiant banner in the Square. I bumped into our friends Chris and Joyce Bragg who told me that the local Palestine activist, Ron Taylor had died. There’s a fitting tribute to him on HebWeb.
A warm send off
On Friday, I trundled along the towpath to the Shaggy Dog Storytelling Club at Stubbing Wharf. The traditional tales were pithy, engagingly told and warmly received. Perhaps this was because word was out that the club will close at the end of August.
I told a true tale of a walk along the towpath towards Stubbing Wharf a few years back, which was rudely interrupted.
Damian cheeked his elders
but Damian ended up in t’ cut!
Damian had one great defect,
He showed his elders no respect.
At secondary school, it's sad to mention
How often he wor on detention.
He hoped to make more friends, alas,
By being t’ biggest clown in t’ class.
That whoopee cushion on a chair,
On Speech Day: Damian put it there!
And he thought himself quite smart
To cause Our Lady Mayor to fart!But imagine a poet, most August,
(I'll be your model if you must!)
Strolling along, taking his time,
Antennae tuned into t’ sublime,
Sucking upon a haliborange,
Whilst trying to find a rhyme for orange,
Enjoying a scene he loved so well,
T’ towpath on t’ Rochdale Canal,
When out of nowhere, you know who,
Damian leapt out, shouting WHOOOH!
Hoping to make his friends all laugh,
Poppy, Gaz and gorgeous Kath,
For he had thought this frightful din
Would make our bard jump out o’t skin!
Only to find, to his distress,
That poet wor once in t’ S.A.S!
And Damian’s plight wor quite precarious,
That poet wor strung like a Stradivarius!
He'd been a soldier and then a spy,
And that is the reason why,
Although he wor four decades older,
He threw young Damian over t’ shoulder,
And spiralling through t’ air he fell,
Wit’ giant SPLASH! into t’ canal!
But after a few moments pause,
Our poet’s ears filled with applause!
For Damian’s mates, as youngsters can,
Felt great respect for that old man,
Who smiled at them and blew a kiss,
Then wandered off, in t’ state of bliss.
Could this be true? Who wor this feller?
Friends, it wor me, your storyteller!
So remember Damian, I think you'd better:
A little wiser, but so much wetter!
Things we say in cars
This came up on social media, a post from 7 years ago:
Rosie, aged 4, ‘I will have a baby when I’m 14. Is this song by Sting?’
PW (after we set off on a long journey): “I should have had a wee before we came out. That’s a nice house.”
Me: “A man killed his wife in that house.”
PW’s mum, last century as we drove through Wales: “Is that sign in Japanese?’
Jude: “Rosemary’s baby had the same birthday as me.” Which is true, 28th June.
This week, his sister gave him a Kathy Bates birthday card as he loves horror films and Kathy Bates was also born on 28th June. So was Elon Musk.
And finally …
This year’s Heptonstall Festival on Saturday, 5th June will have lots of treats, including, from one o’clock, a spoken word programme performed by entertaining versifiers at the historic Octagonal Chapel.
Murphy's Lore, the book, is available to order here
If you would like to send a message about this piece or suggest ideas, email George Murphy
More Murphy's Lore
See the Murphy's Lore home page for over 150 episodes.