A man who was virtually paralysed by a stroke has won the first step in his legal bid to pursue his right-to-die.

Known only as Martin, he would require professionals to help as his wife has said she will not assist him.

But current guidance suggests they may be prosecuted, where loved ones would not, and Martin’s case is this discriminates against him.

This High Court judgement means lawyers and doctors can discuss assisted dying with him, but only to prepare his case.

Third parties

In the High Court, two senior judges – Lord Justice Toulson and Mr Justice Charles – said it was a “tragic case” which raised legal and ethical issues.

They said that, in order to prepare his case properly, his team needed to be able to talk to individuals or organisations – including Dignitas in Switzerland – which might be able to assist Martin, 47, in ending his life and to take statements from him.

They permit those discussions for the “broad purpose” of “stating that the solicitors may obtain information from third parties and from appropriate experts for the purpose of placing material before the court and that third parties may co-operate in so doing with out the people involved acting in any way unlawfully”.

Rosa Curling, from solicitors Leigh Day & Co who are representing Martin, said: “We are grateful for the court’s judgment handed down today, which confirms that we can press ahead with the preparation of our client’s case without fear of criminal and/or disciplinary action being taken against us.

“Martin has made clear to us that he wishes to end his life and, thanks to the judgment handed down today in the High Court, we can now proceed with preparing his legal claim.

“We can instruct doctors to advise him on his options regarding his wish to die and also take steps to identify an individual who might be willing to assist him in taking his life.”

However, Martin’s lawyers made it clear the ruling was specific to this case.

Full-time care

Before Martin’s stroke in 2008 , he was a keen rugby player and cyclist. But he is now immobile, only able to move his head and his arms, toes and throat slightly and relies on full-time carers.

He cannot speak and relies on a computer to communicate.

Martin wants to go to the Dignitas centre in Switzerland in order to die, but would need help from others to do so.

Assisting suicide is against the law but in 2010 the Director of Public Prosecutions published guidance for use by prosecutors in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The guidelines have been interpreted as providing some reassurance to family members who help relatives to die.

But there is a fear that prosecution could be more likely if the person involved is “acting in his or her capacity as a medical doctor, nurse, other healthcare professional, a professional carer (whether for payment or not), or as a person in authority”.

Since Martin does not have a close family member willing to assist him, he decided to challenge the guidelines.

Rod Liddle has just incurred the wrath of the disability lobby by having a go in his Sun column at “pretend disabled” people. Included in this category, Rod decided, were people with fibromyalgia and ME. Lots of people queued up Twitter to say how horrid they thought he was, wishing he would succumb to some kind of disability himself, etc.

I suppose, having recently suffered from an ME-like illness I should be one of them. But unlike Rod’s Twitter critics I took the trouble to read the full article and I think Rod’s point is well made. There really are far, far too many people sponging off the taxpayer right now with their fake or exaggerated disabilities and they’re one of the reasons we’re in the financial mess we’re in.

One of.

Disability; anti-racism; diversity; anti-homophobia; anti sex-discrimination; etc: every one of these has its specialist lobby group which considers it its bounden duty to screw the economy for as much as it possibly can. Sometimes it does so directly, through entirely unnecessary government offshoots like the Equality and Human Rights Commission; sometimes it does so indirectly, via all the various forms of swingeing anti-discrimination legislation and regulation and inconvenience imposed on private business.

And amazingly the government actually pays these lobbyists to grumble and campaign for even more stringent, costly legislation and regulation. A report last year from the Taxpayers’ Alliance showed that in 2007/8 over £37 million of our money was spent on our behalf, so that hard-left organisations like Friends Of The Earth and the New Economics Foundation can campaign for more encroachment in our lives by the overweening state.

This isn’t going to last. It cannot last. Future historians are going to look back in astonishment at the lunacy of an age when, according to one government definition from the New Labour era, fully 11 million people – that’s a quarter of the adult population – qualified as disabled. Where does the money come from?

Three places: taxation; inflationary money-printing; borrowing.

Every time the disability lobby squeals for more another few jobs are lost, another few basis points are lost from GDP growth. But these people don’t care; they know better than that: the government owns a magic money tree and its ability to distribute the fruits thereof is boundless.

Thousands of coders are taking part in a global game development challenge, and many are being encouraged to consider a specific audience: gamers with disabilities

Behavioural symptoms of autism typically develop between a child’s first and second birthdays.

Autism charities said identifying the disorder at an earlier stage could help with treatment.

It is thought that one in every 100 children has an autism spectrum disorder in the UK. It affects more boys than girls. While there is no “cure”, education and behavioural programmes can help.

One of the researchers, Prof Mark Johnson from Birkbeck College, University of London, told the BBC: “The prevailing view is that if we are able to intervene before the onset of full symptoms, such as a training programme, at least in some cases we can maybe alleviate full symptoms.”

His team looked for the earliest signs of autism in 104 children aged between six and 10 months. Half were known to be at risk of the disorder because they had on older sibling who had been diagnosed with autism. The rest were low risk.

Older children with autism can show a lack of eye contact, so the babies were shown pictures of people’s faces that switched between looking at or away from the baby.

Sensors attached to the scalp looked for differences in brain activity.

In low-risk babies, or high-risk babies that did not develop autism, there was a large difference in the brainwaves when looking at each type of image.

There was a much smaller difference in the brainwaves of babies who developed autism.

‘Very effective’Prof Johnson said: “It is important to note it is not a 100% predictor. We had babies who flagged up warning signs who did not develop autism.”

There were also babies who did develop autism who had low-risk brainwaves. The test would need to be more accurate before it was used routinely.

Prof Tony Charman, Centre for Research in Autism and Education at the Institute of Education, said: “Differences in the use of eye gaze to regulate social interaction are already a well-recognised early feature in many children with autism from the second year of life.

“Future studies will be required to determine whether measurements of brain function such as those used in our study might one day play a role in helping to identify children at an even earlier age.”

Christine Swabey from the charity Autistica said: “The hope is that this important research will lead to improved identification and access to services for future generations.

“Ultimately, the earlier we can identify autism and provide early intervention, the better the outcomes will be.”

Dr Georgina Gomez-de-la-Cuesta from the National Autistic Society said: “Further research to investigate these differences will eventually lead to earlier recognition of the condition.

“Early intervention is very effective in supporting those with autism, so recognition in infancy can only be beneficial in helping individuals with autism reach their full potential.

“However, this important research is still in its early stages, and larger studies looking at several early markers of autism will be necessary before a robust clinical diagnosis could be possible at such a young age.”

A letter from more than 50 former Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidates in the 2010 election has been sent to Clegg urging him to respect party policy and vote to allow disabled people to retain employment support allowance for at least two years without being means tested.

The letter, passed to the Guardian, warns more than 800,000 people with disabilities will be hit by the reforms, and expresses deep concern that the employment minister, Chris Grayling, has said the government defeats in the Lords will be overturned.

Liberal Democrat MPs are also being called to a meeting with campaign groups and charities to hear the case for backing a Lords amendment that excludes child benefit from the planned £26,000 cap on benefits.

The government has vowed to overturn all six amendments passed by peers during the bill’s report stage and will be pushing the issue to a vote in the Commons next Wednesday. The co-ordinated pressure from Liberal Democrat grassroots is designed to force the government to make concessions that ministers have so far insisted will cost billions, and will only add to a dependency culture.

In another warning shot, the party’s federal policy committee will meet after next week’s Commons vote to discuss its response if Lib Dem MPs vote against agreed party policy.

Clegg has also been under private pressure from the party’s deputy leader, Simon Hughes, to either accept the Lords amendments or find some other way to prevent family break-ups.

Labour will be tabling its own proposals on the cap shortly, aware that a cap is highly popular with some of its core supporters.

One of those organising the pressure on Liberal Democrat MPs, Gareth Epps, a member of the party’s policy committee, said: “Underpinning the vote are a series of fault lines that have the potential, if mishandled, to make the fiasco over tuition fees look like a picnic.”

The letter from the 50 former parliamentary candidates to Clegg states: “Contributory employment and support allowance is a benefit given to people who have had to stop work due to ill health or disability, but who are well enough to return to work at some point. It is only given to those who have paid sufficient national insurance Contributions during their working life. Some disabled people will be able to return to work, but many will need more time and support to do so.

“The Department for Work and Pensions estimates that 94% of disabled people will take longer than a year to find work. This means that many who remain unemployed after these 12 months will lose all benefit support.

“That would mean that, by 2015/16, 700,000 people would be affected and 280,000 would lose their entire benefit payment – currently £94.25 per week.

“We are deeply concerned that the minister, Chris Grayling, has already indicated he intends the welfare reform bill to pass without the amendments on contributory ESA when the bill returns to the Commons.

“At federal conference we passed a motion which said we should not have an arbitrary time limit on cESA.”

It concludes: “We believe you and Lib Dem parliamentarians should uphold party policy and principle and only support the welfare reform bill with the amendments passed in the House of Lords.”

George Potter, the mover of the motion on ESA at the party’s autumn conference, described the voting of some Liberal Democrat peers over the past fortnight as “shameful, illiberal and flying in the face of democratic institutions of the party”.

In fact, fewer than half the Liberal Democrat peers voted with the whip on ESA and even more rebelled on charging single parents for the use of the CSA.

Epps also warns of a car crash if the MPs ignore the party’s own policy. He warns: “We did not vote overwhelmingly in September to oppose the ESA changes for cancer sufferers just so our elected representatives could do the opposite.

“If we did, then why not tear up any pretence of being a democratic party, abolish conference and let Danny Alexander and a few unelected advisers write the manifesto on their own?”

Epps insists he supports the principles behind the welfare bill, and recognises the government has won concessions on other issues.

The text:

MY New Year’s resolution for 2012 was to become disabled.

Nothing too serious, maybe just a bit of a bad back or one of those newly invented illnesses which make you a bit peaky for decades — fibromyalgia, or M.E.

There’s lots of money to be made from being disabled — your money, taxpayers’ money, as it happens.

And it is far easier to be disabled these days than was ever the case.

Also, I am nothing if not a creature of fashion, a cool and with-it hipster, daddy-o, who is always up to date with the latest trends.

And being disabled is incredibly fashionable. The number of people who claim to be disabled has doubled in the past ten years.

And who can blame them? Not only do you get money from the Government and don’t have to go to work — but if you play your cards right you might get one of those badges which lets you park wherever you want.

Right in front of the cashpoint, for example. And you can use those enormous toilets with levers and handgrips and emergency buzzers they have in all public places, without feeling too guilty about it.

The latest figures regarding incapacity allowance came out this week. It is now estimated that 80 per cent of people who are claiming sickness benefit are actually fit to work. What’s more, almost a million people have been on Invalidity Benefit for more than a decade.

When you suggest that this is a public scandal, the disabled charities get very cross and accuse you of victimising the infirm.

But I’m not, I’m victimising the people who are pretending to be infirm in order to claim money from the state.

Or at least, I’m trying to: I don’t suppose it will have much effect. Just water off their supposedly bad backs.

Then the Left-wingers will say — hang on a minute, you fat old fascist, more money is lost to the country as a result of tax avoidance by the very rich than is wasted through sickness benefits.

Well, maybe it is. And the Government should deal with that with a bit more vigour than they do right now.

But it still doesn’t make fraudulently claiming sickness benefit OK, does it?

That’s like saying we shouldn’t get worked up about crimes such as rape because murder is far worse.

It’s a silly argument.

More than anything, though, the people fraudulently claiming sickness benefit are doing a disservice to those who really deserve it: The people who are truly disabled or ill. It has become easier to claim these benefits, partly as a consequence of the disablement charities who, out of their own self-interest, insist that an ever-greater proportion of the population is disabled.

I think we should all pretend to be disabled for a month or so, claim benefits and hope this persuades the authorities to sort out the mess.

Disabled bloggers and Tweeters  are getting their own back on him and having the last laugh. They are far stronger than me- I feel like screaming, then crying, but I know that won’t help which is why I have simply linked them instead.

The leader of Broxtowe Borough Council has been charged with benefit fraud of more than £45,000.

Milan Radulovic, 56, of Cross Street, Eastwood, is accused of failing to declare council allowances on an incapacity benefit claim form.

The Labour councillor is due to appear in court on 16 March.

Mr Radulovic, of Cross Street, Eastwood was council leader from 1995 until 2007 – the same year he received an MBE – and resumed the position last year.

In 2005, he won a six-figure payout from the Queen’s Medical Centre for suffering serious health problems after an operation.

The politician was left almost blind in one eye from keyhole surgery complications to remove a gallstone.

Medical staff went ahead with the procedure despite Mr Radulovic requesting open surgery.

A group of injured soldiers are training to climb Mount Everest for the charity Walking With The Wounded.

For some it is their second challenge, as they took part in a North Pole expedition last year with Prince Harry.

The BBC’s Alison Freeman met some of them in Cumbria.

A terminally-ill woman being prosecuted for failing to pay council tax says she has been told she would be better off if her husband quit work.

Debbie Purdy said she had been told by the benefits office five times that she would get more benefits if her music teacher husband stopped working.

Ms Purdy, from Bradford, said she had to choose between paying her council tax and buying food.

The government said it did not comment on individual cases.

Advice ‘ridiculous’

Right-to-die campaigner Ms Purdy receives disability living allowance and incapacity benefit. She said if her husband was unemployed they would get further benefits including free council tax, free prescriptions and help paying the interest on their mortgage.

Ms Purdy was summoned to Bradford Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday. Her case was deferred while she sought further advice from the Citizens’ Advice Bureau.

She said: “I haven’t got any money to pay a bit of the council tax. If we pay a bit of the council tax then we just don’t eat.

“I’m terrified of going to court but I’m excited that maybe somebody will listen. The welfare state is not doing what it was supposed to and maybe we have an opportunity to make our voices heard.

“Five different people in the benefits office have said he should stop working and that seems ridiculous. Surely everything that the government is telling us is that work should pay.”

The Department for Work and Pensions said it did not comment on individual cases but that planned reforms of the welfare system would benefit people such as Ms Purdy.