Euthanasia man: 'care system has a black soul'

He took gifts for the newly-elected MPs — two pieces of coal and a child's doll.

Bill (79) explained: "The coal symbolises the black soul of the country's social care system.

"The doll's name is Humanity Care, which is symbolic of the fact that you won't find a deal of care in the system."

Bill, of Maltby Close, Aspley, chose yesterday for the visit because it was five years to the day since his late wife, Maureen, 'stepped out of our front door into the living hell of the care system'.

Maureen, who died in December 2007 at the age of 64, was a resident of Lowmoor Home at Kirkby-in-Ashfield.

Bill hit the headlines in January of that year when the Dispatch exclusively reported that he went to Lowmoor with the aim of killing Maureen to end her suffering.

He was not allowed thereafter to visit his wife without supervision by a staff member.

As well as criticism of government policy, Bill has targeted his protests against Nottingham City Council and Notts County Council.

As part of his campaign during 2007, he symbolically burnt his council-tax bill outside the Dispatch Office.

A former Newstead Colliery miner, Bill was born in Bulwell and used to live on Curtis Street, Hucknall.

Bill points out that the specially-polished pieces of coal he took to the Commons can also count as symbols of a fight he spearheaded for retired miners suffering from the industrial disease, vibration white finger, to be properly compensated.

He claims: "The point I am making can be summed up in a nutshell. Over the last 40 years, the Parliamentarians of this country have set back the brotherhood of man for 1,000 years."