Fake 207

This one, from the second floor cafeteria of Epsom Hospital, had me fooled. It did not occur to me that these walls were fake, and I only found out that they were when I tapped them, having gone across to investigate what I had thought was a change of colour from something brown to white. While the counter hand assured me that they had been white all along. Maybe she had not been there at the time of my last visit, rather more than two years ago now.

I suppose the stuff comes in sheets, rather like sheets of plywood or plasterboard, but I am at a bit of a loss as to how they might be fixed to the substrate, whatever that might be.

This post to mark my return from a visit to the hospital: a couple of days in A&E followed by something over a week on a ward, in the course of which I acquired a pacemaker.

In the course of which I came across a lot of ill people, some very ill, all being looked after. But dignity in dying did come to mind, and nothing that I saw disturbed my firm belief that we should be able to call time, if we so choose, when we are very ill, when life is no longer worth living. So I was very disappointed to learn, while I was inside, as it were, that the Assisted Dying Bill had been narrowly been voted down in our House of Commons, having been blocked by some troublesome Lords, after having been passed by the House of Commons, last year. All noticed in these pages from time to time, for example at reference 2. 

At least our MP, a Liberal Democrat, was an 'aye', even if only an aye by proxy. So I made the right call in not bothering to write to her office again about this. A record of her vote is snapped above.

Gemini explains about proxy votes. In response to a supplementary, he goes on to explain the mechanics of a proxy voting twice, once for himself and then again as a proxy.

At least some relatively minor, but still sensible, reforms we do manage to get through, this one in 2019.

In the hospital, I did not have access to Gemini in my usual way, through my laptop, but I thought I would ask him what the Chinese did about all this, on my telephone. After all, they are a very big country and must face similar issues.

I was surprised, nevertheless, to find that the position there sounded very much like that here. The powers that be are dragging their feet, while the population at large wants some change. With one of the powers in their case being their traditional values with regard to care for the old; roughly speaking taking the role of the Church in our case - with our new Prime Minister (brought up a Catholic) and our new Archbishop (the head of the Anglican Church) both being opposed to change.

Being on my telephone meant that my conversation with Gemini was not as well supported as it is on my laptop, but I did discover that I could export chunks of it to email, resulting in the snap above.

A little later, I picked up the interesting piece at reference 4. Maybe Bush has a point: we need to move on from endlessly debating the small print and look at the bigger picture? Maybe the failure of the present bill will provide an opportunity to open up the debate in the way that Bush suggests.

On a lighter note, I thought that the catering at the hospital was pretty good. Once one had worked out how the menu worked and which things you liked and which you didn't, you could feed well enough, with a sample being snapped above. 

That said, it also helped to have someone who could provide top ups like grapes and plums from the outside. Such things might, of course, been a bit nearer to hand, had Sainsbury's been allowed to have a go in what had been in the White Horse, just outside the hospital gates - but that is another story. Finding notice of same is left as an exercise to the reader.

On another day, medical matters clashed with catering matters, and I think I got one of the meals offered to the private patients upstairs. I dare say in their case it would have been decanted onto a plate. I thought it was pretty good, even if the chick peas were not up to the standard of those which used to be sold in bars in the Canary Islands. There they were allowed to touch the chick peas up with a little pork! These ones from the people at reference 6, not previously heard of.

Noting that M&S had a go in a corner of the hospital proper a few years back - a go which did not seem to last very long at all. I don't know why they pulled out: was it part of the fallout from Covid? Also the W H Smith's inside serves very well as a convenience store, even if they do not run to fruit. They do, for example, run to the TLS, in which, as it happened, there was another end of life piece, reference 5, to which I may return in due course. For the moment, I only offer my rather cynical, off-the-cuff reaction, that it was written by a lawyer with fees to be earned. Got to keep the pot on the boil.

PS: I am getting rather lazy about checking output from Gemini. Must do better!

References.

Reference 1: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/08/fake-206.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/07/demo-two.html. Which reminds of the days when Central Hall in Westminster had a fine cafeteria in their basement. Sadly, there is now just a very inferior replacement in a ground floor corner.

Reference 3: https://www.dignityindying.org.uk/. The fight goes on!

Reference 4: Britain’s assisted dying debate was hobbled by a lack of candour: Legislation defeated in parliament last week was so narrowly defined as to be unworkable - Stephen Bush, Financial Times - 2026.

Reference 5: A matter of life and death: When doctors and families fall out over medical intervention - Charles Foster, TLS - 2026.

Reference 6: https://www.maplefinefoods.co.uk/. 'Quality Halal Meals Tailored for the NHS'. The source of the snap above.

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