As plans for 'assisted dying' advance through Holyrood and Westminster, columnist Kevin McKenna looks into his crystal ball - and doesn't like what he sees

No one would have believed in the first half of the 21st century that the older generation was being watched keenly and closely by far lesser intelligences.

A few years had elapsed since the introduction of the Assisted Dying legislation and, initially at least, all the previous suspicions about it had seemed unfounded. Only a few poor, chronically ill souls had taken the decision to end their lives and then only after the requisite checks and balances had been conducted.

It was only after the 2029 financial crash that the problems began. This was when the global markets had staked everything on crypto-currency futures only to find they’d all been hoodwinked by a giant Ponzi scam that made Sam Bankman-Fried’s 2022 FDX grift look like a case of double-dipping at the Bingo.

As affluent western democracies began to make tough cost-cutting decisions, healthcare provision came under the gimlet-eyed scrutiny of the civil servants and policy-makers. Across the UK, mandatory annual health MOTs for people over the age of 40 were introduced. Those with ailments found to have been caused by cigarettes, alcohol, pot noodles and Monster Munch were given six months to sort themselves out or be given lifetime bans from receiving treatment for future maladies.

Actress Liz Carr (left) takes part in a demonstration at Old Palace Yard in Westminster, London, to oppose the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. A proposed law to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales has cleared its first parliamentary hurdle after MPs voted 330 to 275, majority 55, to approve it at second reading (Image: free) By a process of three-strikes-and-you’re-out, the........

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