the death of Hockney should make parliamentarians think again about their responsibilities

[00:00:00]David Hockney's death should not be dragged crudely into politics, but his final choice does help us think more clearly about politics. He was offered Westminster Abbey, the great theater of national memory, the resting place of monarchs, poets, actors, and statesmen. He declined. His heart, soul, and body belonged, he said, to Yorkshire. He wanted a small family funeral rooted in place, not ceremony inflated by the state. That is a profound final statement. Hockney spent his life looking. He looked at Bradford, Los Angeles, Bridlington, Normandy, swimming pools, trees, faces, friends, lovers, parents, dogs, iPads, windows, light. He painted what he loved.

[00:00:45]And the BBC notes his own rule, paint the things you love.

[00:00:49]In death, he seems to have chosen the same principle, rest where you belong, keep the thing human, keep the thing truthful. And this week, assisted dying returns to Parliament. The Labour MP, Lauren Edwards, is bringing back the terminally ill adults end of life bill after the previous bill passed the Commons, but ran out of time in the Lords. The bill concerns terminally ill adults in England and Wales aged over 18, expected to die within 6 months with safeguards.

[00:01:18]The phrase often used in the debate is Dignitas.

[00:01:21]Uh partly because British people have traveled to Switzerland to end their lives in a uh in a clinic called Dignitas, but perhaps the better word is not Dignitas.

[00:01:32]Perhaps the better word is dignity.

[00:01:34]Dignity is something that I think one can ascribe to people like David Hockney. Dignity is not a brand, is not a clinic abroad, is not an airline ticket purchased by frightened families.

[00:01:47]It's not an act carried out in secrecy because the law at home has failed to face reality. Dignity is the right to be treated as a moral person at the end of life. Dignity also means protection. It means patience. It means proper scrutiny.

[00:02:02]And it means listening both to those in unbearable suffering and to those who fear pressure, neglect, and quiet coercion. And this is where Parliament needs to grow up.

[00:02:12]Supporters of the bill are right to say that endless delay is cruel.

[00:02:16]The previous bill faced more than a thousand amendments in the Lords and its supporters accuse opponents of obstruction. Opponents are also right to insist that law made at the edge of life must be made with unusual care.

[00:02:29]The British Geriatrics Society has warned it is not confident safeguards would protect older people from harm and argues that palliative care needs improvement before any change. That is not a trivial objection. It goes to the heart of the matter. So, the answer is neither panic nor paralysis. It is more focus and less speed. If more debate is needed, find the time. Cancel some of the absurd parliamentary theater. Cancel some of the leadership gossip. Cancel the endless jostling over who might succeed whom. The country is not paying MPs to run a permanent Westminster talent show. It is paying them to legislate.

[00:03:07]And there is time in Parliament. There's always time for what politicians wish to prioritize. Time is found for factional maneuvers, urgent questions designed for clips, leadership whisperings, briefings, counter briefings, and the ritual destruction of colleagues. So, find time for dying people. Find time for hospices. Time Find time for safeguards. Find time for conscience. Sir David Hockney, I suspect, would have had little patience with political pomposity. He refused a knighthood. He accepted the Order of Merit because he saw it as a personal gift from the Queen and remained defiantly himself. He distrusted bossiness, whether cultural or political. He liked work. He liked looking. He liked making. He didn't like the full machinery of national grandeur at the end. And that is the lesson.

[00:03:54]Death is not only medical, it is personal, it is about family, it is spiritual, it is regional, it is cultural. It belongs to the dying person and to those who love them.

[00:04:05]The state has a role, but not at all an imperial role. That is absurd.

[00:04:12]The The The state must protect, it must regulate, it mustn't abandon, it must not bully. A good assisted dying law, if Britain is to have one, must begin with that humility. It must never become a substitute for care, it must never become a cheap answer to an underfunded hospice movement. It must never leave disabled people, elderly people, or poor people wondering whether society would rather they disappeared altogether.

[00:04:40]Equally, it must not force mentally competent terminally ill adults into agony because Parliament lacks the courage to do the right thing.

[00:04:50]The Commons has already shown support.

[00:04:52]The Lords raised concerns. Now, both houses must do their jobs. Not perform, not posture, not weaponize grief. If there isn't time within the current parliamentary legislative timetable, then make time.

[00:05:06]There's always There's always Westminster Hall. You can have debates in different places.

[00:05:11]Debates don't need to be tied to one particular location. Make time.

[00:05:16]Don't hide behind procedure. Do the work. One of the things that David Hockney teaches, uh particularly if you if if you look at his output, and his approach to life and to his um his craft is to put in the work, to put in the time. It's something that uh I admire about David Hockney, uh that he was always working, always looking, always trying new things, new techniques, uh trying to rethink trying to rethink an old approach with new materials or the other way around.

[00:06:00]Um and so often politicians are locked into an obsession with one particular way of approaching a problem. There are multiple ways to approach a problem. There are multiple ways to discuss a problem.

[00:06:20]And the will to create good legislation um begins with proper debate and proper procedure and proper um I'm I'm right I'm writing a proper structure, having I getting the structure right. I'm not sure the structure of the um assisted dying bill is right and I'm not sure the debate has been properly uh finished. So, make time for both.

[00:06:58]Make time because it's an important issue and it should be resolved rather than left dangling while people who are in despair and people who are anxious are equally left worrying. Is there something It it's it's it's like parking fines. In my own district, there's um we had a we we had a problem with with car parking which was resolved 3 years ago and now it's suddenly been revived again because the uh council leadership has changed.

[00:07:37]It it is absurd. I either a either an idea either an issue is finished or it's parked and is revived again later on. Um and if it's revived again and revived again and revived again, then it wasn't properly debated in the first place.

[00:07:54]Get this out of the way.

[00:07:57]Get it Get it finished. Get it sorted out. But get it properly debated um in the process.

[00:08:04]The Commons um appears to appears to show support for the bill.

[00:08:11]It's now a matter of the Lords ensuring that it that it works in the best possible way.

[00:08:18]The death of Hockney reminds us that the end of life is not an abstraction. It is where identity becomes clearest.

[00:08:24]Yorkshire mattered to him. Family mattered. Privacy mattered. The final arrangement was a footnote. He would be buried next to his sister. It was a self-portrait. Parliament should approach assisted dying in the same way.

[00:08:37]Look carefully. Paint honestly. Do not rush the canvas, but do not leave it unfinished either.