Demo two

This being notice of the second of my two mornings demonstrating for 'Dignity in Dying' of reference 1. Notice of the first day is to be found at reference 2.

Shortly after leaving home, bright and early that Friday morning, I came across the lorry snapped above. At the time I thought a high-end removals lorry. Then this afternoon, the only Acumen known to Google or Bing was the one at reference 3, which did not look quite right. And Google Images, while sound on the make and likely purpose of the lorry, could not get past Acumen Waste Services. But luckily for me, customer services there are very brisk and efficient and in no time at all I had an email pointing me at Acumen Distribution at reference 4. A transporter for fancy cars. Perhaps it doubles as a display room at country fairs, for which purpose one takes down the side panels?

A trolley is just about visible to the left of the road sign. Will it be there later?

Catching the 07:08, noticed, not for the first time, chunks of what looked like chalk falling out of the embankment at Stoneleigh. Presumably the chalk is quite close to the surface there.

Following up the bus body construction business noticed at reference 5, I then turned my attention to the construction of the coach that I was travelling in. Making very little progress: modern coach design is like kitchen cupboard design in that all details of construction are to be hidden from the customer eye. Although kitchen designers have not quite made up their mind about pipes: some think that they should be hidden away, with the downside of maintenance access being harder than it would otherwise be. While others think that pipes are all part of the décor and should be made a feature. Perhaps it is a sex thing with the ladies liking their pipes invisible, gentlemen liking them on show? Certainly my mother burst into tears when she discovered that the kitchen pipework in her new house (this being in 1955 or so) had not been buried or otherwise hidden away.

Waterloo Station was made surprisingly noisy by the presence of a number of parties of young people, some of them school children.

On station in Parliament Square by around 08:00. At which time there were more opponents to the bill than supporters. But our numbers grew, although by nothing like as much as I was expecting, and we soon outnumbered them.

Parliament Square was being patrolled by some people who looked like a cross between policemen and traffic wardens. Flat black hats with red trim. One of them told me that they were employed to look after particularly hot tourist spots like Parliament Square. This afternoon I asked Gemini who they might be, and after a bit of dialogue we got to Heritage Wardens, working for Acumen, security services people under contract to the Greater London Authority to look after Parliament and Trafalgar Squares. We are not told why these particular squares. And such people would once have been in one of the public services, but we won't go there today.

But noting in the meantime that you get a lot more out of Gemini with a bit of dialogue. Just like a person as far as that goes.

On this occasion, I went for one of the pink shirts, but not as far as the matching cap. Snapped above a bit later on, when it was doing well as a weather vane.

Our leader was not in pink, but she was very smartly turned out for her big day. Perhaps some kind of a beano was planned for later. We also had one of the Dimblebys, Prue Leith , Andrew Copson (of the humanists, an outfit of which my parents were long serving members) and sundry others on hand to give us pep talks from time to time. Plus a low flying Chinook, no doubt on some official business or other.

Having remembered to bring everything except my water bottle, I took a time out at the Central Hall cafeteria, still downstairs, where I had a quality sausage bap. On my way out, I passed a large group of young people from the US coming in. One of them told me that they were roughly at the middle of their time in High School and had come across to learn about Europe: three days in each of London, Paris and Rome. From various eastern states south of Washington. Very cheerful and very diverse.

Back to pass a couple of the anti-people getting dressed up in a pastiche of Victorian funeral clothes. I think they had a coffin to play with as well. Plus some Jesus people. Plus a conspiracy person who thought that dignity in dying was all some monstrous plot by some gang or other (aliens?) to do something dreadful to us. Strange the sort of rubbish that a perfectly respectable looking, middle-aged lady can believe in.

I hung in there until noon, at which point I decided I was not going to make it until mid-afternoon when the vote was likely to be held. A vote, which, as previously noticed, we won by a rather slender margin.

[Supporters of the assisted dying bill celebrate after MPs vote to legalise it in England and Wales. Photograph: Lucy North/PA]

Some of those who went the distance, this image from the Guardian. All ladies, no longer particularly young, although mostly younger than me.

The trolley at the station was gone by the time I got back to Epsom. And a bit heat-addled, I forget that I was supposed to be going to the garage to see about our car and jumped into a taxi instead.

Out again later to draw a blank on the trolley front, but drew a pint of Shere Drop at Wetherspoon's instead. Good stuff.

PS 1: after a long haul, it finally looks as if dignified dying has made it. So while the bill is far more narrowly cast than many - including me - would like, Sarah Wootton and her collaborators have clearly judged it very nicely. They got the bill through that would get through. We might not be very happy with the line taken by nearly half our members of Parliament, but they are the members we have got.

PS 2: the memory blockage on the leader's name continues, with my failing to bring it to mind this morning. Look her up, and it stays accessible for a day or so, then drifts away again.

PS 3: I was having trouble with autocorrect on my telephone, with 'Bill' with a capital 'B' seeming to give it trouble. After a while I managed to turn it off, but now it seems to be sulking and only gives me hints below - as opposed to just making what it thinks is the right correction - from time to time. I dare say an Apple telephone is rather better at this sort of thing.

References

Reference 1: https://www.dignityindying.org.uk/.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/06/demo-one.html.

Reference 3: https://acumenwaste.co.uk/.

Reference 4: https://www.acumen-dist.com/. 'Established in 1982, Acumen Logistics Group – which comprises Acumen Automotive Logistics and Acumen Distribution – has become synonymous with the provision of automotive logistics’ excellence. Working with some of the biggest names in the industry, including Adient, BMW, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Lear Corporation and Toyota, our team provides solutions to help customers increase productivity, efficiency and market competitiveness'.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/06/investigating-buses.html.

Reference 6a: https://www.amulet.co.uk/case-studies/greater-london-authority-2/.

Reference 6b: https://www.amulet.co.uk/.

Reference 7: https://surreyhills.co.uk/products/shere-drop. For some reason I have always associated the name with hanging people, the proper way with a trap-door that is. But with Shere being a tourist hot spot in Surrey, that does not seem to be the intention at all.