Gale's View - 28/02/2018

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February 28th 2018

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Two Private Members` Bills received their Second Readings in the House of Commons last Friday.

 

The first to be discussed was the Organ Donations Bill introduced by the Labour Member of Parliament Geoffrey Robinson. The measure, if successful, would make organ donation following (usually) premature death subject to an `-opt out` rather than at present to an `opt in` procedure. The debate was dignified and moving, the House at its best. Compelling references to personal experiences led, eventually, to the Second Reading being granted without opposition or a division and the bill now goes forward to its Committee stage, Report and Third Reading before going to the House of Lords for further examination and, possibly, the Royal Assent.

 

That the bill is on its way does not, though, mean that there do not remain difficult matters of detail that the bill`s Standing  Committee will have to address   Experience in Wales, where a similar measure is already on the statute book, has revealed a less-than-dramatic rise in the availability of organs available for transplant purposes because people have either chosen to opt out or families, when consulted, have denied consent. That latter point is not surprising and, as I said during an intervention in the debate, will have to be resolved if the eventual Act is to have the desired effect and to save many more lives through transplants than is currently the case.  Families are frequently asked to exercise decisions at the moment of maximum distress through, for example, the sudden and unexpected loss of a son or daughter as the result of a motor accident. If a new act is not to be brought into disrepute and if, as a result, scores of people are not to deny life-saving access to the availability of vital and life-saving organs, then a very great deal of sensitivity is going to have to be built into the legislation, insofar as it is possible to legislate at all  for such an attribute.

 

I wish “Max`s Law” as it has been named after a young heart transplant recipient, well. I want it to reach the statute book and I want it to succeed but there is already a facility available to take appallingly difficult decisions out of the hands of bereaved families. By opting now, while alive and fit, to donate organs after death  and I would urge all of those who have made contact with me about this bill to register, if healthy enough, for the organ donation scheme immediately and without waiting for the bill to become law.

 

The second bill will, I trust, become known as `Shindler`s Law`.

 

Harry Shindler is a ninety-seven year old veteran of the Italian campaign who fought at Anzio and, on retirement, returned to Italy to live. He could become an Italian citizen and vote in Italy but Harry, who I am proud to call my friend, is fiercely and proudly British and he wants to be allowed, as an ex-pat UK citizen, to vote in UK General Elections.  He could register at a family address and vote illegally, of course, but that is not his style. In addition to his work identifying, recording  and commemorating British servicemen who fell in Italy Harry Shindler, the oldest living member of the Labour Party, has striven tirelessly to regain the right to vote which, after more than fifteen years` residence overseas, is denied to ex-pats.

 

This, in contrast to the Organ Donation bill, was a scratchy, irritable and undignified debate. The Labour Member for Ipswich made a ham-fisted attempt at a filibuster and spoke much nonsense over forty-five minutes, presumably on Whips` instructions to talk out the Overseas Voters Bill.  There was then a division on a closure which was abandoned in disarray when, it would appear, the Opposition woke up to the fact that the bill, introduced by the Conservative member Glyn Davies, has the support of :Labour International and, perhaps more significantly, of Momentum!

 

A second Reading does not make an Act of Parliament and the ex-pat community should be aware that attempts will be made, in the Commons Committee and in the House of Lords, to water down the bill or, possibly, to kill it off completely. Nevertheless, one small step has been taken towards restoring the voting rights of many who have lived, worked, paid taxes and in many cases are still paying those taxes in a United Kingdom that they will always  regard as their Motherland

 

Sadly, “Finn`s Law”, the bill that seeks to afford protection to service animals such as police dogs and horses was defeated on objection. That is another Private Members Bill that ought to make it through to the statute book and no doubt my colleague and former Minister Oliver Heald, will continue to press a cause that many of us, inside and outside of parliament, support.

 

 

Sir Roger Gale MP

Herne Bay, North Thanet & the Villages

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