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The popular film has been nominated in 12 categories at this year's Oscars after success at the Golden Globes. It's about George VI becoming King after Edward VIII abdicated so he could marry the divorcee Mrs. Simpson.

George VI (Colin Firth) has a stammer and his wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham-Carter) - whose character we came to know as Queen Mother - tries to help by arranging for him to see a speech therapist.

Some may have been disappointed that a non-disabled actor plays the role of a disabled person, sometimes seen in the same light as white actors 'blacking up'. It has become a well-worn clich茅 that, if you 'crip up', you get an Oscar. But concerns about authenticity may be lessened by the knowledge that the screenwriter David Seidler has a stammer and that he worked very closely with Colin Firth to get it right.

Before you remind me that the disability element is obvious in the film rather than just below the surface as this column seems to dictate, I should explain why I am talking about it.

The Sunday Times ran a profile of Helena Bonham-Carter linked to the film's release. It looked at how her experiences may have prepared her for the role as George VI's Queen.

Her ancestry is not quite royalty but it is certainly privileged: her grandfather was the Liberal Prime Minister Herbert Asquith.

Reading on we discover that, as a child, the actress watched her mother try in vain to help her father Raymond overcome partial blindness and limited mobility caused as a result of him having an operation to remove a brain tumour.

Helena said she drew on these family experiences to inform her character who also supports her husband with a difficult, though different, health matter. George seemingly had a better outcome than Helena's father.

Sir Terence English was the first surgeon to carry out a successful heart transplant in Britain back in 1979, a pioneer in terms of saving people鈥檚 lives. It has now been widely reported that Sir Terence has joined fellow medical practitioners in a .

Assuming the person in question is sound of mind, is terminally ill and hasn't been "got at" by friends and relatives, he has said he would support assisted dying with the help of a doctor.

The Independent says he is the most eminent doctor to join the campaign so far. As well as being a surgical pioneer, he has also been President of the Royal College of Surgeons and the British Medical Association.

Previously, the Royal College of Nursing moved from being anti to 'neutral' on this issue after a vote by its council in July 2009; the RCN is the only medical organisation to be anything other than against.

The question being asked is... could impetus towards a 'pro' stance within the medical profession - one used to saving life, not ending it - gain ground as a result of English's support?

One of the key reforms of our current coalition is the option for parents and teachers to set up which would be independent of council control as well as education unions. With the sheer amount of chatter around this, it's been hard to follow the debate from start to finish - but I note there is much opposition from the National Union of Teachers. Unusually, they appear to have the sympathies of , the general secretary of the RMT transport union. He was a keynote speaker at a rally in Acton which opposed a naissant free school in west London. A curious link if ever there was one.

So, where does disability come in? Well it is the interesting method of how those against the policy are trying to disrupt the plans. Amongst a variety of tools, a Sunday Times investigation reports that the setting up of free schools is being delayed by tangling them in red tape with "... demands for equality impact assessments that analyse the effect on groups such as ... the disabled鈥�.

At the last Labour Party conference, Ed Balls - then the education shadow - about how this new wave of academies and parent run schools could be socially divisive and exclude disabled children.

It is inferred by several sources that the use of anti-discrimination legislation is being used, perhaps disingenuously, by left-wingers who want to halt the setting up of schools that they are ideologically against.

In my column in August last year, I spoke of the author Sebastian Faulks writing Bond novels. He now has a new book out entitled which is a return to his own writing. Set in London in late 2007, we follow seven individuals linked in some way despite their different backgrounds.

I'm enjoying the book, getting to understand the characters, particularly Gabriel Northwood, an out of work barrister.

His luck changes when he's asked to represent Jenni, a London Underground tube driver.

In one chapter, Jenni meets an RMT union representative called Barry and overhears a conversation with an irate passenger trapped in a lift. Barry suggests the cause is the 'raspberry' switch that has accidentally been leant against by "some bloke with a big arse." Raspberry, or raspberry ripple, is cockney rhyming slang for cripple.

Barry explains that they are not allowed to cover the button because of the Disability Discrimination Act, implying it's a bit of frustrating red tape.

Disability red tape is everywhere, isn't it.