If you were thinking that, after spending your entire life paying tax, National Insurance, council tax, fuel duty, VAT and every other entrance fee Britain can invent, you might at least be allowed to decide when you’ve finally had enough — think again.
Andy Burnham has refused to back the assisted dying bill, announcing that he will abstain when MPs vote on it next month.
Welcome to the Hotel California.
You can check out any time you like.
But apparently, you can never leave.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill would give certain terminally ill people — those expected to have fewer than six months to live — the legal right to request assistance to end their lives, subject to safeguards.
It returns to Parliament on 11 September.
Burnham says he does not want to influence the debate and believes MPs should make up their own minds.
Fair enough.
But there is something wonderfully British about the whole situation.
The State spends your entire life telling you what you can do, where you can drive, what you must pay, when you can retire, what you may smoke, what you may drink, how much energy you may use and occasionally where you may park your own car.
Then, when you are terminally ill and facing the final few months of your life, you discover there is one last department still holding the clipboard.
“Leaving, sir?”
“Eventually.”
“Excellent. But not without the appropriate parliamentary authorisation.”
So if you thought you were getting out of this shithole early…
Think again.
WELCOME TO THE HOTEL CALIFORNIA.
Chameleon Magazine 
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