BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.

Order. Order.

Hello there, I'm Alicia McCarthy, and this is today in Parliament from BBC Radio 4 for Friday

the 27th of February, where peers argue that the Commissioner in charge of assisted dying must be

independent of political

interference or bias. I want to know, is there anything in the bill that guards against such

grubby behaviour? Because if anyone thinks there's no grubby behaviour in politics, they need to

get out more. Also, what is the point of the Chancellor's Spring statement on Tuesday?

Broadly, it's theatrical. Remember a lot of politics is theatre and the idea is to reassure investors

and give people the impression that things are very much on track.

And how kinship carers find bureaucracy gets in the way if the child they look after has a health

emergency. He was struggling to breathe,

his face white as a sheet and his chest heaving, while this person was calmly telling me that they

couldn't help. But first, a Labour peer has warned that the House of Lords risks becoming an

irrelevant talking shop if it doesn't make progress on the assisted

dying bill. Lord Faulkner, who steering the legislation through the Chamber, spoke out at the start

of the 10th day of detailed consideration of the proposals, which would allow terminally ill adults in

England and Wales with less than six months to live, the right to ask for help

to end their lives. He said peers had already spent more than 80 hours debating the bill.

1,253 amendments have been tabled in total, of which we have debated 354 so far. We have over 850 amendments left to be debated, which would suggest we need another

22 days of committee stage if we continue at this glacial pace. He urged peers to speed up.

Because otherwise we failed to do what we are so good at, which is scrutiny and improvement.

...