Extracts from Commons proceedings - Jul 4
Friday, 5 July 2019 07:48
Extract from Commons debate on Sale of New Petrol and Diesel
Cars and Vans Karl Turner (Kingston upon Hull East) (Lab):...We
must decarbonise road transport by transitioning to electric
vehicles and decarbonising the production of the electricity on
which those vehicles rely. Reducing vehicle miles travelled on
roads and switching to electric would also address poor air
quality, which is the largest environmental risk to public health
in the UK, as long-term exposure to air pollution...Request free trial
Extract from
Commons debate on Sale of New Petrol and Diesel Cars and
Vans
(Kingston upon Hull East)
(Lab):...We must decarbonise road transport by transitioning to
electric vehicles and decarbonising the production of the
electricity on which those vehicles rely. Reducing vehicle miles
travelled on roads and switching to electric would also address
poor air quality, which is the largest environmental risk to public
health in the UK, as long-term exposure to air pollution can cause
chronic conditions such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases
and lung
cancer, which lead to reduced life expectancy. We know
that poor air quality is responsible for between 30,000 and 50,000
premature deaths in the UK each year, and the Environmental Audit
Committee estimates that the total health cost of air pollution
ranges between £8.5 billion and £20.2 billion a year...
To read the whole debate, CLICK
HERE
Extract from
Commons debate on Assisted Dying
(Sheffield Central)
(Lab):...My father was 87. At that age, he had inevitably watched
many of his friends go, often miserably. He talked in particular of
one friend who had become confined to bed, doubly incontinent,
and—having become both deaf and blind—unable to communicate with
anybody. My father saw no point in that kind of life, and had
always said that he would rather end things than face a degrading
death. He was somebody who had made most of his life: he had a
tough east end upbringing in poverty, became an RAF pilot in the
war and built a successful business career. He had his share of
health problems, but faced them all positively. He was not afraid
of pain, but he could not face the indignity of a lingering death,
and I am sure that he made up his mind to take his life soon after
receiving a terminal diagnosis of inoperable lung cancer. But he still died prematurely, and
I am sure that what drove him to end his life at that point was the
fear that if he did not act when he could and was still able to do
so, he would lose the opportunity to act at all. He could not talk
to me or his partner about it, because he would have made us
complicit. The current law forced my father into a lonely decision
and a lonely death...
To read the whole debate, CLICK
HERE
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