Another barrier has been broken by Baroness Bakewell, who entered her eighties last week. The peeress has persuaded the Serjeant at Arms to allow a play to be performed in the Palace of Westminster for the first time.
Home Death by Nell Dunn, best known for Up the Junction and Poor Cow, was inspired by the death at their home of her long-time partner Dan Oestreicher. Bakewell believes the play, to be read by actors in the Jubilee Room tonight rather than staged with props, would help the debate about the right to die.
In May, the former Lord Chancellor, Charles Falconer, will table a Bill in the Lords to decriminalise assisted suicide under certain circumstances. “I thought the reading would be a good introduction for MPs and peers to know a bit more about the issue,” said Bakewell, who has in the past given money to Dignity in Dying, one of whose aims is assisted death for the terminally ill.
