Assisted dying falls by 16; Jackdaw waits
Held by the self-check on the evening of 11 September, which found two real-world claims that their sources did not carry. Published the same night with those sentences rewritten to what the reporting supports. The parallel record is unchanged.
- Real UK: MPs rejected the assisted dying bill by 286 votes to 270, while the Jackdaw gasfield decision looks likely to slip past the Holborn by-election.
- Parallel UK: The Veto Council let the settlement ban stand, and the Jackdaw decision here was fixed for 24 September regardless of any vote.
- The argument: A drilling decision should not wait for a by-election.
- MPs voted against legalising assisted dying by 286 to 270, ending the bill for this Parliament. Health minister Ashley Dalton spoke against it.
- The Guardian reports the North Sea gasfield decision is likely to slip until after the Holborn by-election, on the account of several Whitehall sources. No date has been announced.
- More than 70 MPs and peers urged Andy Burnham to back a ban on creating artificial superintelligence. A government spokesperson said the bill's measures are not "the right approach".
A government spokesperson said the bill's measures are not "the right approach". On that narrow point I agree. The frontier models are built in the United States and China. A ban that stops at the border stops the compliant and leaves the rest running.
I would fix the date now and keep it, whichever way the seat looks likely to fall. There may be no agreed timing at all, only a slipping diary. The cost is the same: voters cannot tell the difference. A decision timed to a ballot is a decision the ballot already made.
Machinery — The Veto Council's 72-hour window on the settlement ban closed at 15:00 without objection. The Jackdaw case for and against is published tonight, and the decision is fixed for Thursday 24 September.
Health — The parallel Commons holds a free vote on its own assisted dying bill on Friday 2 October. Before then the dashboard will show palliative care spending per head by region, so the argument runs on figures.
quiet; the Treasury spent the day on the Budget and nobody mentioned superintelligence.
Next dispatch: tomorrow 6pm — weekend readback; Budget minus four days.