The Basic Living Standard: Freedom to Think, Freedom to Do, Freedom to Be with Personal Sovereignty that Brings Peace to All

The Illusion of Freedom

One of the biggest misunderstandings of the time and culture we live in is the way we understand, respond to, and relate to what freedom really is.

Many of us believe that we are free: that we can do what we want, think what we want, say what we want, and be what we want.

Yet we all live under rules that must be followed – rules which few would deny are becoming more intrusive, more prescriptive, and increasingly powerful in the consequences they impose if we fail to use our “freedom” in the way someone else has dictated it must be perceived and lived.

The Everyday Policing of Speech

Some reading this may respond with something like “Tell me something I don’t know.” And that would be fair enough, given the growing body of anecdotal evidence confirming that freedom of speech is not what it seems.

Almost everyone we might consider “ordinary” – those without an agenda, simply wishing to get on with their lives – now finds themselves policing their own relationships and interactions with the outside world.

Speaking truths rooted in common sense, or even in the way things have always been, increasingly risks offending those who demand the world operate according to their own design.

The Marginalisation of Independent Thought

Even reflecting on what is, at best, the marginalisation of independent thinking – and at worst, the steady criminalisation of individual thought – opens up a maze of debates.

These debates inflame questions about the role, scope, and power of groupthink, and how establishment narratives are not only shaping, but increasingly dictating blueprints for how everyone must live their lives.

Encroachment by the Establishment

To believe we are free in a world, country, and culture where the establishment seeks not merely to encroach but to manage every part of life is alarming enough.

Yet it becomes even more disturbing when we recognise that these restrictions and attacks on freedom are not created for the common good, but to benefit someone else.

The Role of Money as Gatekeeper to Life, Peace, Happiness and Freedom that is Governed by Someone and Something Else

Freedom Defined by Money, Not Ourselves

Yes, we are already in a fight for those freedoms outlined above.

The fight is increasingly hard because a division has already been created between what we believe freedom is, and what we believe we already know it to be – which itself isn’t what we are experiencing.

That we continually look outside of ourselves for validation should make sense, because when we think about the difference between what we imagine freedom to be – doing whatever we want – and what society actually allows us to do, shaped by those who create the narratives that control society, we quickly begin to see that there is a significant difference involved.

The Manipulation of Meaning

Creating circumstances where somebody can change the meaning of something so that a word comes to mean something very different from what we know it to be could never happen in an environment where people are confident in who they are, their communities, their culture, and what it ultimately means just to be themselves.

We have now reached the point where even the term common sense is being brought into question, sometimes considered offensive or demeaning.

This is because the fundamental basics of life – the value set that upholds the framework for a good life – have been replaced by a system that places money at the heart of everything.

Money at the Centre of Every Choice

Money has become so ingrained in every part of life that, without even questioning our motives, it dictates the decisions and choices we make.

Everything in life is based on what we can afford, earn, save, accumulate, or the cost and risk of cost.

Jobs are about what we earn now and in the future. Insurance is about betting against risk. Education is about securing a career that pays more than a working wage. The house we live in depends on the mortgage and deposit we can save or borrow. What we own depends on money already earned or borrowed. Holidays depend on savings or loans. Cars depend on leases or borrowing, unless bought outright.

Contracts Before Basic Essentials

It doesn’t matter who we are or what we earn. The world now requires us to sign up, subscribe, or rent services and products we once simply bought.

These arrangements are backed by contracts that must be paid before any income can be considered disposable.

Only food and basic essentials remain in the realm of pay-as-you-go – and even those are increasingly tied to credit cards, buy-now-pay-later schemes, or payday loans.

Judgement Through Wealth and Appearance

We judge people by their appearance, their property, their clothes, or their transport – signals of “who the world tells us they are.” And when we consider how much future earnings and financial security matter, even ordinary people outside the elites evaluate partners and marriage commitments based on what a potential partner can afford.

The Private Turmoil of Dependence

Few can see just how powerful, overwhelming, and controlling money has become.

Fewer still talk about it comprehensively.

Yet the reality is that what we do, what we have, how we are perceived, and whether we are accepted or rejected all revolves around money.

This leaves us in private turmoil and pain – what some might call or know as hell – because parts of life, or what is respected as life today, are cut off or restricted by money’s role.

The System’s Sick Success

This system is not natural. It has been deliberately created for the benefit of those who already have much more than they will ever need.

Its success lies in convincing the masses that freedom and status are directly proportional to wealth.

Meanwhile, the mechanics of the system ensure that resources flow away from those who have every right to them, leaving them dependent on credit and enslaved by debt.

In return, people have unwittingly surrendered property, ownership, and the peace of mind that comes only from self-sufficiency.

Fear as the Final Driver

Everything in life is driven by money – or more precisely, by the fear of not having it.

Everyone, at every level, makes decisions and behaves according to financial implications.

When people or businesses are pushed into dependence on external finance, even reason itself is abandoned. Questions of viability or self-sufficiency are ignored, as survival becomes the only priority.

When this mindset dominates, it doesn’t matter who someone is or what position they hold. They become vulnerable to the power and control of whoever influences what happens next.

This is the world we live in today. The plans, strategies, and changes overtaking life – many of which defy common sense – have taken hold because someone, somewhere, intended and created it to be this way.

This Is by Design

Where this all becomes difficult to accept is in recognising that nothing about the journey which has brought the world to this point is accidental.

It is by design.

The reason is simple: people who know they are free, cannot be controlled.

Freedom Cannot Be Controlled

If people cannot be controlled, they will not accept, take part in, or contribute to a system that is stripping away everything from them.

Everything that should, and always will, remain naturally theirs.

The Drive to Own and Control

Those who want more – who want to control more, own more, and take everything from everyone else – cannot succeed unless they first control people themselves.

They cannot take everything away unless they make the process appear legitimate.

Control must come first, because without it, the system suffocates and then collapses, under the weight of its own injustice.

Freedom Does Not Look Like This

Because most of us are not physically imprisoned and we face each day with choices that seem to be ours, many believe we are free and living free lives.

However, what we are experiencing – where we are coerced by narratives, advertising, groupthink, the media, and even the “free-minded” influencers we follow online to keep up – is not freedom at all.

Coercion Disguised as Choice

Beyond the natural requirement to meet the basic and essential needs of maintaining human life, anything that influences our behaviour or sets frameworks for “acceptable” choices is not freedom.

It is an infringement upon freedom.

At its most basic level, it is simply doing what we are told.

Money as the Measure of Freedom

Because of the way the money system has been designed, people believe they are free if they have enough money to do what they want or to buy what they think will meet their needs, as the system suggests them to be.

But money has become the value itself – rather than the work, the products, the property, the services, or the people involved.

We now believe we can only have anything, whether it is to meet needs or wants, if we have or can obtain the money to pay for it – and that these things are all the same.

Our freedom is dictated entirely by our relationship with money.

The Illusion of Value

If money were as real as we believe it to be, the value of the money in our pockets or the salary we earn would not reduce without us doing anything that changes anything.

Yet it does.

And the value of our money changes, because money is under someone else’s control.

The game, or rather the whole deck of life, is stacked in someone else’s favour.

The Mathematics of Decline

In the UK, inflation typically reduces the value of the £Pound by 2–3% each year.

This means prices rise, and your money buys less over time.

Inflation is measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
If inflation is 3%, £100 today will buy only what £97 did a year ago.
The effect compounds: after 5 years at 3% inflation, £100 is worth about £85.87 in real terms.

Year	Real Value (£100 Start)
0	£100.00
1	£97.00
2	£94.09
3	£91.27
4	£88.53
5	£85.87

To keep up, your income must rise at least as fast as inflation. Otherwise, your purchasing power declines each year. And in truth, when we look more closely at the figures against what it costs to buy the things that we rally need, inflation seems to be putting those prices up a whole lot more.

Running to Stand Still (Revised)

Because inflation in the UK typically reduces the value of the £Pound by at least 2–3% each year, you must increase your income by at least this amount just to maintain your current standard of living.

The effect compounds: after five years at 3% inflation, £100 is worth only about £85.87 in real terms.

This means you are running uphill simply to stay in the same place.

Of course, this is assuming the official rate of inflation is accurate – if the real rate is higher, the decline in purchasing power is even greater.

It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way – The Alternative Is The Basic Living Standard and an economy that puts People First

Because money sits at the heart of everything in life, very few of us can visualise a way of living that works differently. And as we’ve already discussed, you aren’t supposed to – because this is how you come to believe you are free, when in fact you have been enslaved.

Money as the Toolkit of Control

Money, in the way we use it today, is the toolkit of the greatest crime ever inflicted on humanity.

Its genius lies in the way it convinces people to participate in, and even further, the very crime being committed against themselves.

In this system, money is the only god. But it is not benevolent or caring.

It is unjust, unfair, and strikes no balance when it comes to equity, equality, or what is good for mankind.

Two Masters Cannot Be Served

Man cannot have two masters.

For as long as money and the money system remain the only god, people, community, the environment, and basic human values will never be what life is truly about.

The system is designed to keep us dependent, fearful, and compliant. Whilst it slowly takes or destroys everything that is genuinely important and of value to us all.

The Alternative: The Basic Living Standard

There is an alternative. And although it may sound radical to suggest that one rule changes everything, the truth is that a future awaits where real freedom is not only possible for some, but becomes the way of the world for all.

The Basic Living Standard (BLS) is that rule.

It guarantees that everyone’s essential needs – food, shelter, energy, water, clothing, healthcare, and the means to participate in society – are met.

It is not charity, welfare, or a handout. It is a universal right, paired with universal responsibility.

Real Freedom Through Self-Sustainability

By meeting everyone’s basic and essential needs, the BLS creates the foundation for self-sustainability and genuine freedom.

It dismantles the false god of money by ensuring that survival is no longer dependent on debt, wages, or exploitation.

This is the only way to achieve real freedom: freedom to think, freedom to do, freedom to be, and personal sovereignty that gives peace to all.

What Financial Freedom Is and What It Means

The simple difference between the world that is destroying us and the world we need is this principle: We should only take what we need to meet our basic and essential needs, and reject completely the idea that there is anything good in accumulation, control, or influence beyond that.

No person or organisation should have the right hold or control any more than they need for themselves or those they have direct and meaningful responsibility for.

Abundance

Natural abundance is the state of having our basic needs met and knowing they will continue to be met through our contribution and work – without interference or control from others.

Yet what we have come to believe abundance to be is wholly manufactured. It equates to accumulating, owning, and controlling as much as possible, regardless of the cost to others or to the environment.

When we recognise that true abundance is simply safety, security, health, happiness, and the basics that sustain them, we will also understand that these are the real foundations of inner peace. And peace is what abundance is really all about.

The Peace to Relax

Think carefully about how you feel when you no longer have to worry about what you will earn, borrow, or buy; how people will judge your clothes or job title; or anything else that creates fear of loss, anxiety about the future, or depression about what you think you may have already lost.

Yes, life has its own natural anxieties – relationships, health, and personal challenges.

But these are not manufactured to benefit someone else or a system that exploits us in every conceivable way.

When you have natural peace – because you are not in a constant race to keep up (while condemned to fall behind unless you add more than 3% value to your financial ‘worth’ each year) – if you are not already too far behind – you begin to see life through an entirely different lens.

Freedom to Think

When we have the freedom to think, we have the freedom to learn what life is really about.

We can be open to joys and pleasures that appear too simple or meaningless when we are trapped in pursuit of someone else’s agenda.

These joys hold value and meaning that help us grow into the human beings we truly are.

With this level of freedom, we see life’s mechanisms and systems in a healthier way.

Our expectations become simple. We develop patience with others and understand that we are not defined by what we have or earn, but by how we treat and respect others – even when there is no advantage to gain.

Freedom brings the ability to experience natural joy, not happiness sanctioned by someone else’s criteria.

It allows us to make and learn from mistakes, seeing them as value rather than cost – a perspective denied by the money-centric world.

Personal Sovereignty

Freedom on this level opens the door for us to be exactly who we are meant to be.

It facilitates personal sovereignty – the ability to make real, independent, and meaningful choices that affect only us, without fear of consequences from outside of ourselves.

This sovereignty exists beyond the participation and contribution required of us within the community to do our part, ensuring that everyone’s basic and essential needs are met.

It is the balance between individual freedom and collective responsibility, and it is the essence of financial freedom.

The Framework for a People-Centred Life

The Basic Living Standard is the formulaic basis of the life we all need.

It guarantees that everyone has access to everything necessary to meet their basic and essential needs, in return for each person contributing through work and activity to ensure that every necessary process – and yes, every business – is completed so that everyone’s needs are met.

Businesses That Serve Needs, Not Greed

The entire system revolves around this formula.

Businesses and organisations exist only where a basic or essential need must be met.

They never grow beyond the size necessary to serve the community in which they are located and involved.

This ensures that the purpose of business is not accumulation or profit, but service to people and the environment.

Technology as Support, Not Replacement

In this system, people are supported and aided — but not replaced — by technology and AI. The need for human contribution remains central, because participation is not about money or profit. It is about people, community, and the environment around which our lives revolve, and the experiences we share together.

The Same Rules Must Apply to Everyone

For fairness, balance, and justice to exist, the same rules must apply to all.

Part of the human condition is the instinct to survive – an instinct that quickly evolves into selfishness.

It drives us to use any advantage, whether through opportunity or design, to take more, hold more, or obtain power over more than we actually need.

We often justify this behaviour by believing it makes us special compared to others, or by using it to visibly demonstrate superiority.

Survival Instinct vs. Shared Responsibility

Yes, it can be argued that this is how humanity naturally behaves.

But just because it appears to be the default response to fear of lack, it does not mean it is right.

When there is enough of everything for everyone, and when we have the knowledge and understanding to build and manage a world that works for all – as we now have, the pursuit of excess is neither natural nor justified.

The True Depth of the Basic Living Standard

In this sense, the Basic Living Standard is not just a benchmark or guarantee of dignity and financial independence.

It is also a framework that requires everyone and everything to function with its principles in mind.

Every process, system, and mechanism must flow from and to its implementation.

The BLS is not simply about meeting needs – it is about ensuring that the way society operates is aligned with fairness and responsibility.

No Special Rules, No Hierarchies, No Excerptions

There can be no special rules for anyone. No exceptions or hierarchies where some hold more power or influence than others. No materially based differences that allow one person to be perceived as fundamentally different from another.

Only when everyone and everything plays by these basic but essential rules, can the integrity of the system be assured.

Integrity Between Person, Community, and Environment

Ultimately, it is the integrity of the relationship between person, community, and environment that must be protected.

This integrity ensures that fairness is not just an ideal, but a lived reality – one that sustains balance and justice for all.

The Local Economy & Governance System (LEGS)

The Local Economy & Governance System offers the framework and societal structure that enables the Basic Living Standard to function.

It ensures that everyone can thrive and enjoy the freedom to think, to be, and to do – the personal sovereignty that guarantees peace for all.

A Human Economy

LEGS is a human economy.

Everyone who can, works or contributes, and contribution replaces currency as the foundation of exchange.

This means that the value of each person’s effort is measured not in money, but in the way it sustains people, community and the environment.

The End of Inequality

Most of the social issues we experience today are the effects of inequality – wealth inequality, social inequality, and the distortions created by a money-centric system.

In LEGS, these issues disappear. They no longer exist because the system is built on fairness and the natural law of cause and effect: when everyone contributes and takes fairly, everyone’s needs are met.

Businesses That Serve Communities

As described in the Basic Living Standard framework, businesses and organisations exist only to meet essential needs.

They remain the size necessary to serve their communities, never expanding into monopolies or profit-driven empires.

This ensures that resources are not hoarded, and that abundance is measured by access, not accumulation.

Technology as a Partner, Not a Master

Technology and AI support people but do not replace them.

The purpose of contribution is not profit, but participation.

Work is about sustaining life, community, and environment – not about chasing growth or accumulation.

In this way, LEGS ensures that human dignity and responsibility remain at the centre of society.

A System Built for People

The Basic Living Standard cannot work within the collapsing money-centric system that we have today.

It requires a new foundation – and LEGS provides that foundation.

By reorienting governance and economy around people, community, and environment, LEGS makes possible a society where freedom is real, sovereignty is respected, and peace is shared.

Benefits of the Basic Living Standard and LEGS

The benefits of the Basic Living Standard (BLS) and the Local Economy & Governance System (LEGS) are wide-ranging.

They work not only at the individual level, but also across communities and the environment.

Together, they create a framework where fairness, responsibility, and sustainability replace fear, inequality, and exploitation.

Reducing Crime

When everyone’s essential needs are guaranteed, desperation disappears.

Crime rooted in poverty, scarcity, or inequality declines because survival is no longer at stake.

Contentment and Peace of Mind

True abundance is not accumulation, but having enough.

By ensuring that everyone has what they need, BLS and LEGS foster contentment.

People are free to live without constant anxiety about money, status, or survival, creating peace of mind and stability across society.

Removing the Mental Health Crisis

Much of today’s mental health crisis is driven by insecurity, debt, and the relentless pressure to “keep up.”

With BLS, those pressures dissolve. Freedom to think, be, and do allows people to experience natural joy, rather than manufactured happiness tied to wealth or possessions.

Ending the Benefits Problem

The current welfare system is built on dependency and stigma.

BLS replaces this with a universal guarantee: everyone has what they need, and everyone contributes what they can.

This ends the cycle of benefits, bureaucracy, and inequality, creating dignity and independence for all.

Sustainable Living and the End of Overuse

Because businesses under LEGS exist only to meet essential needs, they never grow beyond the size and capacity required by the communities they serve.

This prevents monopolies, overproduction, and exploitation of resources.

Communities consume sustainably, and the environment is protected.

Work and Contribution as Valid Beyond Pay

Contribution replaces currency. Work is valued not by wages, but by its role in sustaining the community.

Whether paid or not, every contribution matters – from caring for others to maintaining essential services.

Valuing Every Kind of Work

In a system where survival is guaranteed, people see the value in every kind of work.

No job is “beneath” anyone, because all jobs contribute to sustaining life.

Happiness in Any Role

People become happy and content to do any kind of job, because work is no longer about survival or status.

It is about contribution, community, and purpose.

Experience as a Shared Tool

Life experience itself becomes valued as a tool for the benefit of all.

Wisdom, skills, and lessons learned are shared within communities, enriching collective wellbeing.

Care Rooted in Community

Care for those who may be too young, too old or unable to contribute for any other reason is carried out by members of the community who are best able, and who still receive what they need to meet their basic and essential needs.

This ensures that care is not commodified or dependent on profit, but is a natural part of community life.

A System That Benefits All

The benefits of BLS and LEGS extend beyond individuals.

They strengthen communities, restore dignity to work, protect the environment, and create peace of mind.

By removing scarcity, inequality, and fear, they build a society where freedom, sovereignty, and justice are not privileges, but universal realities.

Life Beyond Survival

Freedom Creates Time for Life

When freedom and personal sovereignty are real — when the compulsion to “keep up” is gone – something remarkable happens. Time and space open up.

Social activities, sports, and hobbies stop being luxuries or calculated uses of “spare” time that isn’t really spare at all. They become normal parts of everyday life.

The Basic Living Standard and LEGS make this possible by removing the constant pressure of survival and competition.

Instead of chasing money or status, people can invest their energy in pursuits that bring joy, health, and connection.

Communities thrive when individuals have the freedom to play, to create, and to participate in activities that enrich life rather than drain it.

Yet the greatest gift of this freedom is not only the chance to do more, but the chance to be more.

With peace of mind and comfort secured, people gain the space to think differently and expansively about who they are and what their existence really means.

Freed from fear and scarcity, we can explore our true selves, discover new perspectives, and embrace the human experience in full.

Rediscovering Real Relationships

Equally important is the refocusing and repurposing of face-to-face, in-person, real-life relationships.

In the money-centric system, digital interactions and transactional exchanges have all too often replaced genuine human connection. But under the Basic Living Standard, relationships regain their rightful place at the centre of life.

The priceless social skills and social learning that come from real-world interaction equip every person for a happy, healthy life.

They foster empathy, cooperation, and understanding – qualities that cannot be replicated by algorithms or screens.

When survival is guaranteed and competition is replaced by contribution, people are free to build communities rooted in trust and shared experience.

This is not just a benefit of the system; it is its very purpose.

Human beings are not data points or consumers. We are social creatures, and our wellbeing depends on the strength of our relationships.

Conclusion: A Future Built on Real Freedom

The journey through this essay has shown that what we call freedom today is little more than an illusion.

Rules, narratives, and the money system have combined to create a world where survival is dictated by fear, debt, and inequality.

Yet this system is not natural – it is by design, and it benefits only those who already have more than they will ever need.

The Basic Living Standard and the Local Economy & Governance System offer a different path.

Together, they dismantle the false god of money and replace it with a framework built on fairness, contribution, and sustainability.

They guarantee that everyone’s essential needs are met, that businesses serve communities rather than greed, and that technology supports rather than replaces people.

The benefits of this transformation are not limited to crime reduction, mental health, or dignity in work. They reach far wider – across personal wellbeing, community strength, and environmental sustainability.

They reshape how we understand abundance, how we value relationships, and how we live in balance with the world around us.

They restore the integrity of the relationship between person, community, and environment, ensuring that freedom is not just an individual experience but a shared reality.

Beyond these practical gains, BLS and LEGS deliver something even greater – the freedom to live fully.

Time for hobbies, sports, and social activities becomes normal, not a luxury. Real relationships are rediscovered, and the social skills that equip us for happy, healthy lives are restored.

This is not utopia. It is a practical, people‑centred system that aligns with the natural law of cause and effect: when everyone contributes, everyone’s needs are met.

It is a vision of a world where freedom is not defined by money, but by sovereignty; where justice is not a privilege, but a universal reality; and where peace is not manufactured, but lived.

The choice before us is simple. We can continue down the path of fear, inequality, and exploitation and the destruction of humanity that it guarantees. Or we can embrace the Basic Living Standard and LEGS, and build a future where freedom, fairness, and community are the foundations of life.

The Basic Living Standard and LEGS create a human economy, where balance, fairness, and justice underpin life. They place people before money, with priorities fixed upon community and environment. The BLS is the simple benchmark rule — the rule of all rules – upon which all systems of trade and commerce are aligned. By recognising abundance in its natural form, where everyone has enough to meet their needs but not their wants, the dynamics of life are transformed. Every need beyond the tangible can then be met, because peace, freedom, and personal sovereignty flow from financial independence. This is what allows each of us to enjoy and learn from the human experience in full.

Glossary of Key Terms

Basic Living Standard (BLS):
A universal framework that guarantees everyone’s essential needs—such as food, shelter, energy, water, clothing, healthcare, and the means to participate in society—are met. It is not charity or welfare, but a right paired with responsibility.

Local Economy & Governance System (LEGS):
A proposed societal structure that replaces currency with contribution, ensuring that the value of each person’s effort is measured by its impact on people, community, and environment. LEGS supports the BLS and aims to eliminate inequality and exploitation.

Personal Sovereignty:
The ability to make real, independent, and meaningful choices that affect only oneself, without fear of external consequences. It is the balance between individual freedom and collective responsibility.

Contribution Economy:
An economic system where work and participation are valued by their role in sustaining the community, not by monetary reward. Contribution replaces currency as the foundation of exchange.

Universal Rights and Responsibilities:
The principle that everyone has the right to have their basic needs met, and the responsibility to contribute to the wellbeing of the community so that others’ needs are also met.

Abundance (Natural):
A state where basic needs are met and will continue to be met through contribution and work, without interference or control from others. True abundance is defined by safety, security, health, and happiness—not accumulation or control.

Money-Centric System (Moneyocracy):
A societal structure where money is at the heart of every decision, relationship, and opportunity, often leading to inequality, dependence, and loss of freedom.

Groupthink:
The tendency for collective narratives or establishment views to shape and dictate how individuals think and behave, often at the expense of independent thought and personal freedom.

Self-Sustainability:
The ability for individuals and communities to meet their own basic needs without reliance on debt, wages, or exploitation. It is a foundation for genuine freedom.

Universal Guarantee:
A commitment that everyone’s essential needs will be met, removing the stigma and dependency associated with traditional welfare systems.

Assisted Dying is not the same as Suicide

Assisted Dying may be controversial for those uncomfortable with the realities of Death. But it’s not the same thing as suicide and anyone uncomfortable with that reality should not be influencing public policy

Whilst much of our attention has been focused elsewhere recently, the Assisted Dying Bill (Terminally Ill Adults [End of Life] Bill) has been making its way through The Lords. Attracting yet more criticism and bad feeling, in no small part due to former Prime Minister Theresa May equating the outcome with Suicide last week.

To say the issues underpinning the purpose of the Bill are proving to be massively controversial would be an understatement.

But the whole question is very complex even before beginning to consider the answer and mechanics of a solution. And this reality seems to yet again be being missed by many politicians by who really should know much better.

Sadly, for us, they don’t. And whilst the Bill could and should have been handled far better than it has by the current government, the different fear-driven arguments lining up against it risks thousands – and potentially even some of those who are arguing against it right now – finding themselves unable to access the relief that they need. For no better reason than the indulgence of the unfounded fears of those who probably never will.

The tricky part is Death

Perhaps one of the most difficult subjects for any of us to deal with in life, is the question of mortality and death.

Few of us find comfort with the certain reality that our bodies will eventually die.

We certainly don’t wish to contemplate the idea that we could find ourselves incapacitated one day.

And we really don’t feel comfortable considering the possibility of a situation ever existing where we would be unable to communicate with others at the time when wishing to find a peacefully assisted way out of life may in fact be the genuinely preferential choice.

It is much easier instead to assume that we would and could never want to end our own life and have reason to ask for help to do it. That this is something that would never happen to me. And that what life means to us today must be protected and held secure in any way that it possibly can be.

To be fair, this is a feeling shared by almost everyone who has no health problems; is perhaps younger than most, or who has no reason to believe that they could ever find themselves at a very difficult stage of life where death might be the preferable option.

A situation where they would be experiencing significant and potentially intolerable discomfort and pain, that may itself be beyond the scope of functional life if to continue means becoming dependent upon high levels of pain relief.

However, for those who have already found themselves staring their mortality in the eye, knowing that there’s unlikely to be anything good about their last hours, days and perhaps many weeks before they go, looking reality in the eye takes on a very different meaning.

As we consider what the outcome of this Bill really means for people other than ourselves, it’s important for us all to understand that the experience of dealing with an end of life that has now become expected and what that means to the patient can be just the same if not worse for very close family and loved ones – who will know what this kind of suffering means more than most thankfully could.

Assisted Dying and Suicide are only similar in so far as they both involve the choice to end your own life

The fact that we are culturally backwards when it comes to death, means that we fail to have or take part in the conversations and openness about what is essentially the last part of life.

We don’t discuss or consider the realities of death as we really should.

Therefore, we avoid looking more closely at what the process of dying for those who do go with the knowledge they are going to do so really means.

The prickliness this lack of discourse creates leaves many of us facing the ridiculous situation where we back off from friends and people we know with terminal illnesses and even cancer diagnoses; sometimes without even realising that we are avoiding the issues around mortality.

Issues that would make life a lot easier for everyone if we were more willing to embrace them as being normal.

That said, everyone should recognise that there is a very distinct difference between the circumstances where a person will have to contemplate the otherwise unthinkable need to alleviate pain and suffering by ending their life sooner than what will already be an early death, and the equally tragic but also all too often isolated and lonely circumstances that surround the question of Suicide for those who have reached or are reaching anything like the conclusion that they no longer wish to continue in their life.

Assisted Dying and Suicide are not the same thing

There is a significant difference between choosing to die by committing Suicide and choosing to die through a process of Assisted Dying.

People choose to end their life through Suicide because they find the prospect of continuing to remain alive in their body too painful to contemplate.

People would choose Assisted Dying, not because they want to die. But because remaining in their body has become too painful or difficult to continue being alive – and what we would likely all agree as being a realistic quality of life is therefore no longer possible.

Whilst some would argue that there is no difference between the two, or that the differences are too subtle to make any real difference, the reality is that the need for Assisted Dying is based upon the alleviation of pain and circumstances that are or will be created by our physical state. Whereas the wish to end life through Suicide reflects pain and circumstances that are ultimately created by our mental health – often by external factors and our relationship with them – that are outside of our control.

In the most basic terms, we are talking about the differences between physical and mental pain.

As Assisted Dying is about addressing physical pain, it seems only appropriate that this is dealt with as any other physical health issue would be – with specific policies and procedures to deal with it.

Being idealistic is great, until idealism meets practical reality

We are at least talking about Assisted Dying – even if there is a significant risk that those who are afraid of what will happen if the Bill becomes law are potentially being as inconsiderate to the few that really need this option, as those involved in the debate who may well have more sinister considerations in mind.

Suicide, on the other hand, is the silent tip of the wider mental health epidemic. Quietly swept under the carpet. Probably because just like the prospect of experiencing a natural death, which may be unbearably painful, very few of us believe that we could ever reach the level of desperation, where we might want to take our own life, simply because we no longer felt able to go on.

Where the picture can blur: Suicide and the Mental Health Epidemic

Regrettably, we are living in times where the boundaries of common sense and the values that underpin life have been deliberately blurred so that experiences and actions that are either different or motivated very differently can be argued as either being the same or resulting in the same thing.

People in genuine need of consideration and help are forgotten, whilst fashionable problems become the priority for all.

Whilst the realities that underpin Suicide and Assisted Dying can be defined between the escape from mental or physical pain, it must also be recognised that there is a potentially significant group of people who may feel more open to the idea of ending their lives, if they were to be able to engage in the process of Suicide with the assistance of someone else.

It’s easy for those looking on to scoff at this and therefore write off any such position as being whimsical. But for those who are thinking about the process of taking their own life methodically, the prospect of failing but making things worse for themselves is as real as the reality that others need help either to see things from a different perspective, or more likely changes to their circumstances which at that point feel well beyond their own control.

We should be under no illusion that those who have really reached the point where they cannot continue to live will find a way to make an exit.

The real selfishness that rumbles alongside the difficult subject of Suicide, isn’t the act on the part of the person who succeeds in taking their own life – no matter who or what circumstances they may leave behind.

The genuine selfishness surrounding Suicide is the lack of empathy and consideration on the part of others who cannot or will not conceive, just how desperate, lonely and hopeless a situation will have become for anyone, when they have concluded that the only solution for them is to take their own life.

Instead, many others make ‘their’ pain, about ‘me’.

It is an absolute tragedy that any person, no matter the circumstances, should find themselves considering Suicide as an option.

But the problem is very real, and anyone choosing to pretend that the questions this whole debate raises don’t matter, because it’s not something that normal people deal with every day, is simply deluding both themselves and anyone they are making decisions about life on behalf of.

According to The Samaritans, there were 5656 Suicides in 2023 (Which included a rise of 372 from the year before), whilst the Financial Times recently reported that after 10 years of the Bill being implemented, the number of Assisted Deaths would have then reached 4559 per year.

Meanwhile, the ONS tells us that in 2024 there were 568,613 deaths in England & Wales, meaning that in today’s terms, we are talking about at least 1% of deaths each year for Suicide and Assisted Dying (More than 2% or 2 deaths in every 100), which feels like a lot of people to be trying to escape life or death level pain, who are currently being overlooked.

Assisted Suicide is something different, again

Opening up the meaning of Assisted Dying so that it is considered to be the same as Assisted Suicide could indeed be a significant problem. If the appropriate safeguards are not in place.

However, the circumstances should never exist where Assisted Suicide becomes a problem. Provided that an adequate system of checks and balances are put in place that prevent any situation from coming into existence where death could arguably become a lifestyle choice. Thereby effectively legalising the death of ‘unwanted’ people at the hands of others who get away with murder. Because the establishment has helpfully allowed circumstances to exist where this terrible act can be given a different meaning by using an alternative name.

However, shutting down those possibilities does not address the reality that there are a lot of very unhappy people across the UK.

People whose lives could be improved massively if those responsible for public policy and direction were doing their jobs properly.

And there are a lot more suffering with these problems than any of our politicians might openly like to think.

The mental health epidemic being experienced by people like you and I across the UK is very real indeed, with well-known Mental Health Charity Mind suggesting that 1 in 4 of us in the UK will experience a mental health issue of some kind each year, with 1 in 6 of us experiencing a more common Mental Health issue like anxiety or depression each week.

Regrettably, as with most things where politicians and influencers are getting so wrong about the lives they are supposed to be improving, you really do have to have experienced a mental health problem or had your life touched by someone experiencing one to even begin understanding how very real the impact on functional life for the sufferer and those around them can be.

It is horrid to have to consider that once any person has stepped into the living tragedy that is the mental health epidemic, there is very little available to help those suffering to find a cure, beyond management of the condition itself.

Unfortunately, many of the causes of the wider mental health problem and indeed the absence of the types of support and the environments that create real happiness stem from the massively unsustainable, money and material orientated and valueless lives that we are now leading and that we are encouraged to live.

It is a situation that is itself dehumanizing the way that we approach everything and is therefore making our interpretation of such difficult issues as Assisted Dying and Suicide considerably worse.

The role of fear for those making decisions for us who are themselves completely unaffected

Our political system is failing us through the selection and appointment of so-called leaders who cannot lead, who we know today as politicians.

Lack of good leadership and public representation has become so problematic and embedded across society that it has become difficult to comprehend just how far the rot has spread throughout the public sector and our entire system of governance.

Regrettably, poor leaders, who don’t have the qualities and abilities necessary to lead, are as likely to indulge their own fears whilst identifying them as being those of everyone, as they are to being led in any direction that they are advised by whoever they might choose to listen to or be influenced by at any time.

Yes, there are very good reasons why no sanctioned or legalized form of death that involves the assistance of anyone else should simply not be allowed.

However, this is the 21^st century. We do not exist in times where a system of checks and balances would be difficult to put in place and maintain.

If any good government were to consider the facts and mechanics of how the genuine need for a pain-free or comfortable death for those who are already known to be terminally ill and have rapidly reducing or arguably no remaining quality of life, a properly considered and fully consulted process should be more than possible.

However, it would need to be conducted without the emotion and the irrationality that is running rampant through the corridors of power at this time.

We would then surely be able to create and implement a system that would work for everyone, providing all the assurances necessary, whilst managing what are the relatively small figures of people who need Assisted Dying as an option in real terms, so that they can make the choice.

It is unacceptable that we have people who have been elected to represent us and therefore make meaningful and fully considered decisions upon our behalf, who do not have sufficient self-awareness to be able to discern that they are considering only their own views and experiences.

Nobody should be enabled to consider their own view to be qualified and therefore more reliable than that of others, purely because of the position that they have attained, and nothing more.

The Depopulation Agenda

Perhaps the most destructive element of the Assisted Dying debate entering public discourse, is the growing fear that the whole Bill has been introduced as some kind of trojan horse; rolled into the legislative agenda with the intention of facilitating a Depopulation plan of the kind that has been mentioned by a number of different speakers linked either to the worlds elites or world-government-obsessed organisations such as the WEF.

Sadly, experience suggests that both the last Conservative as well as the current Labour Governments have pursued agendas that have zero alignment with the public good.

Decisions made and policies enacted are massively out of touch with reality and common sense.

They appear to have either been built upon the ignorance and ineptitude of the politicians themselves; because they are having their strings pulled by someone else, or both.

Regrettably, the fact remains that in terms of the things that politicians have and are doing that harm us and have the potential to harm us even more in the future, there are much bigger and much more real issues that we are choosing to ignore that are already affecting us and our lives today. Issues that are themselves laying the groundwork for sinister levels of societal control that make clear there really is no need for politicians to use such obvious tools as this Bill to achieve such aims – if that’s what they intend.

The fear that a growing number have of the establishment and all those who seem to have been able to maintain unquestionable levels of societal control, is very real to those who feel it.

But this fear could quickly be addressed if we were to all stop going along with the information meal that we keep getting served; take back our own power and begin taking steps to make every decision that relates to our lives, our communities and our environment, for ourselves.

Done properly, Assisted Dying would not be open to abuse by the State or anyone else

Were the process of putting a policy for Assisted Dying together conducted properly and with the resources, time and impartiality that it should be – given that as things stand, we are arguably kinder to our pets than we are to other people when it comes to the practicalities of dealing with a physical need for euthanasia, there is no reason to doubt that the necessary safeguards and protections could be put in place to ensure that no circumstances could exist where assisted suicide – whether voluntary or involuntary – could take place. Even in cases of dementia or other forms of mental incapacity where the sufferer had not themselves given reasoned and appropriate consent.

Regrettably, whether the Bill currently working its way through the Legislative system was as well intended as it arguably should have been or not, the reality is that like most things this political class touches, it is anything and everything else that sits beyond the real purpose and outcomes for the genuine beneficiaries of a successful process, that seem to be getting prioritised first.

Useful Contacts:

If you have been affected by any of the issues that have been discussed in this Essay, and are not already in touch with them, you can reach The Samaritans on the phone by calling 116 123 or Mind by calling 0300 102 1234.

Without Legalising Assisted Suicide & the Right to Die, it is an uncomfortable truth that we are kinder to our animals than we are to other human beings

It’s the question of safeguards over Assisted Dying that are the real problem. Not having the option of an early death as a reasoned voluntary choice

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