English Yokel

And now you don't need this any more ... ...

In late 2005 the NuLabour government called for an "informed national debate" about their perceived need for new nuclear power stations. At the same time they made it perfectly clear that they were in favour of them. And guess what? In January 2008 the government (figurehead changed but all else intact) announced that they would be going ahead. The likelihood is that they have a deal to let the French government (through their 70% owned subsidiary Electricite de France, or EDF) to build the next set of nuclear power generation plants in the UK. Yokel is not here to debate nuclear power today. This is just an example of the government view of "consultation".

1. Announce a policy change as a consultation.
2. Let it fester for a while without putting in any debating points or listening to any made by others.
3. Announce your conclusion.

The strategy was given away by one of "Blair's Babes" when she said that the purpose of consultation was to explain the government's policies to the people. Quite clearly she learnt English language from a teacher with a view of usage very different from that of the teacher who taught Yokel. [Alas Yokel cannot find the reference to that comment and would be grateful to any reader who can help]

So now it is with some trepidation that Yokel hears today (13 Jan 08) of the launch of a major government campaign national debate about changing the law on organ donation and transplant to make it similar to the Spanish system. The decision has probably already been made, given the backing of the BMA and "the public". So, here we have the Ministry of Propaganda impartial British Broadcasting Corporation posting a very high number of background articles all supporting change. A number of questions and comments arise in Yokel's mind:

1. Is this actually a UK provincial government initiative (one of the few left that it does indeed have freedom of decision on?) or is it one of those strange "voluntary" things where mysteriously all the EU provinces agree to make changes in line with EU national (Brussels) government wishes in the face of threats of EU legislation? The "harmonisation" of provincial drink driving limits is the first to spring to mind
2. What a wonderful, altuistic, topic to distract the media from the task of letting the public know how widely the government break their own laws on party funding! Their own laws, that appear to an outsider to have been specifically framed to make it difficult for their political opponents to raise funds, and to give NuLabour an advantage. As they might say in France "Quelle surprise!". Or they might not. They seem to be much more tolerant of sleaze across the English Channel.
3. When will the change to the law take place? Just before the election is Yokel's guess. It will probably be a three line whip on Labour, so that they can portray any opponents as uncaring etc during what will probably be an even more vicious campaign than the last.
4. Is organ transplant right?

And it is this latter point, the ethics of the matter, that Yokel wants to dwell on for a moment.

For Yokel has been struggling with this issue ever since Christian Barnard became a TV celebrity for doing the first relatively successful heart transplant on a human. And he did it in Britain. At first, it seemed like a brilliant idea. After all, the donors in those days were usually car crash victims. They were very clearly dead at the scene of the crash. Honestly, nothing more could be done for them, and equally obviously they had no further need for any earthly parts. In those days Yokel would be saddened by the loss of life, mitigated by the fact that some benefit had yet been seen.

Then stories began to surface of pressure on relatives of the dying as well as the very recently bereaved to give consent to organ donation. An industry had begun. An industry that was dependant on a steady stream of donor organs in fresh, implantable condition. There were stories of life support machines being switched off before the relatives had accepted the fact of the death of their loved one. This gave rise to a need for a new definition of death, brain dead. Heart still beating, but brain dead. Just what the transplant industry wanted, "life fresh" organs ready for harvesting.

And with that came the opt-in donor card system. But like all aspects of the NHS in Britain today, demand exceeds supply. So there is a "shortage" that must be addressed. And, rather than have a debate about the ethics of the whole enterprise, our leaders are taking the next necessary Stalinist step. Compulsion. [As an aside, Yokel was a student when many of this lot were. He can remember Jack Straw as President of the National Union of Students. Straw's grouping was the "Broad Left", a bunch that left the Communist Party of Great Britain looking rather like capitalist lackeys and running dogs!]

Compulsion is the "presumed consent" idea. Something that the Patients Association has already condemned. Yokel fears that it will be yet another reason for not touching the state medical provision. Yokel supposes that to continue the student analogy would see references to "parties" and "breweries" all in the same sentence as "organise" and "couldn't". No, this is NOT a swipe at those hard working souls who try to make a bad system work. It is, however, a go at those (politicians and power brokers) who see the bad system, and make it worse to suit their own agendas, be they the "need" to introduce ID cards or whatever else. For more on the state of the NHS go read some of the medical blogs. But we know

• there are too many chiefs and not enough indians
• hospital acquired infections are real, and treating them a drain on NHS resources
• demand for treatment exceeds supply, so rationing is imposed
• is the doctor actually caring for you, or for another patient who would benefit from your death
• who is reading your medical record
• what will the civil servants and the spooks do with that knowledge
• the government is incompetent in data security and we await the placing of this information on CDs for transmission by contract couriers
• etc

The campaign to permit Euthanasia has gone quiet recently. You know, the campaign to permit medics to kill people. Yes, Yokel is aware of the fine print in the current campaign about die with dignity, no hope of a life without pain, etc. But Hitler said that during the early stages of his campaigns. Once we get the presumed consent to organ donation, what is the betting on a "resurgence" of "public opinion" about introducing euthanasia? Gossip from the Netherlands, where they have such a law, seems to indicate that the elderly are these days under some pressure to "not be a burden any more on the young" and to choose to die for the benefit of others. Whatever happened to the idea that you left this life when the Lord Almighty called you, and not a moment before? Who gave these people the right to play God?

You might by now have concluded that Yokel no longer believes organ transplants to be ethical, and you would be right. The knock out blow in his gruelling journey came with this nice shiny new vehicle with red and blue lights on top. Toyota chassis and coachbuilding, interior modified by Jinguan Automobile of China for the Chinese Ministry of Justice. In the Chinese system of summary justice, there appears to be no chance of appeal, not even against a sentence of death. As soon as sentence is passed, the newly convicted prisoner is taken to the van, strapped onto the bed in the back, and given his lethal injection specially formulated in Bejing. Doctors stand by to harvest such organs as they have orders for. You will not be surprised to learn that in a Communist society, where everything is driven by government targets, there are conviction rate targets set for the legal system when they are having a crack down on something. And a Japanese businessman is surprised at how swift and slick the whole business is.

Yes, it has become a worldwide industrial process.

And what have we had to say in the past about those who would industrialise the death of their fellow human beings? 1939-45. Never Again.

There is no room for levity here.

The whole process is thoroughly evil, and must be stopped.

Dead in its tracks.

Update 16 Jan 08: In the 08:10 spot on the BBC Radio4 Today programme normally reserved for "important" politicians and the like, today we have the pro transplant BMA (presumably as the "balance") and a pro transplant Organ Donation Task Force person. One moment particularly horrified Yokel, and that was when the Organ Donor Task Force person thought that "Organ Retrieval Teams should be on 24 hour standby". The only role of the programme presenter was to ensure that they said all their pro transplant bits. That it will become legal does not make it right.