Reported back

The Justice Committee has reported back on the End of Life Choice Bill. As expected, they were unable to agree on a contentious piece of legislation, so they have recommended a few minor technical amendments, while leaving major policy questions untouched. The latter will be decided in the bill's committee stage.

The bill will now go to its second reading. It will be a conscience vote, and it passed its first reading by a wide margin (though with 20 chickenshit MPs not even turning up to show where they stood). I think its a reasonable bet that it will get to its committee stage. Whether it gets further than that will likely depend on the exact amendments that are put forward. But this is an issue that parliament has been working on for over twenty years; hopefully this time they'll get it right, and get it passed.