With more people dying each year and many spending their final days in institutions, researchers argue that wider access to palliative care could offer a more humane and cost-effective alternative, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
Frosty’s festive stocking fillers
A miscellany of seasonal countryside stories from PETER FROST
I AM firmly of the opinion that mistletoe should become the symbol plant of the Tories, rather like Labour’s red rose.
Why mistletoe, I hear you ask. Well, it is of course a total parasite. It contributes nothing at all to the trees or orchards it hangs about in, merely sucking the goodness from its host trees. Totally Tory.
It has a scruffy growth habit like uncombed blond hair. But most importantly, it is always there as an essential ingredient of the atmosphere of cheeky adulterous fun at secret Westminster parties — sorry, cheese and wine business meetings.
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