@David_Cameron@RobertBuckland As we know, Prostate cancer kills thousands of men every year, yet ministers are still hiding behind process rather than acting on the needs of those most at risk. Patients deserve better than another missed opportunity.
Today’s decision from the Health Secretary on prostate cancer screening is a missed opportunity - too timid, too slow, and lacking the bold ambition that we so desperately wanted to see.
As I set out last week, I fundamentally disagree with the National Screening Committee’s advice on a future screening programme for prostate cancer, which is far too narrow. I strongly believe that if we are really to get on top of prostate cancer - the most common cancer in British men - then a proper, targeted screening programme for all those at higher risk is needed… and needed now.
I welcome expanded provision of focal therapy, which I benefited from last year with my own cancer; this must be an urgent priority to make available across the NHS. And the recognition that more work is needed to screen at risk groups, such as black men, is important.
But this was an opportunity for bold, decisive, life-saving action - action that would help save the heartache of too many families losing a loved-one to this disease. That, sadly, has been missed. We will continue the campaign to urge the Government to go further, faster and put in place a progressive policy that includes a proper screening programme for the most at-risk men.
Hello, we are Jonathan and Abigail - unashamed pedants who want to bring this affliction to bear on all things public policy and practice.
We believe that details matter, especially in public administration. This is why today we are founding quibble: a campaign to fix the small stuff.
Think, for example, about the cookie banner that we click on every webpage. Each instance is not a big deal, so we just put up with it. But its cumulative impact adds up - on average we press it 5 times per day. The European Commission estimates that it costs EU citizens 343 million hours per year.
And who is there to represent the impacts of seemingly minor issues like this in a systematic way? We want quibble to be the answer. In the case of the cookie banner, lots of advocacy has rightly focused on privacy, but has this meant that user experience has taken a backseat? We believe there are ways to improve user experience without compromising on privacy. We will share more about this soon.
Consider another example. Did you know that in some government-run car parks you can be fined for a minor keying error, such as accidentally typing a zero instead of an “o”? Again, we will come to the detail of this quibble in the coming weeks, but for now just consider again the question: who? Who is there currently to systematically represent the interests of the parker who is given an unfair ticket?
An inherent feature of consumer interests is that those who have them rarely have enough other things in common to make collective organisation and representation feasible. This is the gap that quibble seeks to fill. Now of course excellent consumer interest groups exist. But understandably quibbles might not be at the top of their lists. Our hope is that quibble will be complementary; picking up the bottom-of-the-list issues faced by various groups - the stuff they are almost too embarrassed to raise because they are too small.
We are not embarrassed about detail. If you’ve ever had a splinter, you know small things can have a big impact. This is what quibble is committed to tackling, and our wider hope is that by doing so we will also incentivise policy makers to be even more careful about detail.
Check out our website here, including our first four campaigns: https://t.co/gZiqqHbhIL
@MrHarryCole Nothing screams ‘taking voters for granted’ more than suggesting that because someone voted for you 20 years ago they’re now obliged to continue doing so for the rest of their natural days or be accused of hypocrisy.
@wesstreeting What an absolute load of tosh. The Iraqi people and the world are safer without Saddam. I am sorry, but you have done yourself a huge disservice with this.
I’m still immensely proud to have been apart of @AndyBurnhamGM’s campaign to be Labour leader in 2010.
We obviously didn’t win, but his campaign for “Aspirational Socialism” made me into the man I am today. Thank you, Andy.
Best thing @Nigel_Farage could do now is release the receipts (not that he should have too) showing he’s paying for his security. Security that should be funded by the state.
We’ve seen two members of parliament murdered in my lifetime, we don’t want to see another one.
I’ve seen firsthand the protection @reformparty_uk have to provide to their high profile team.
When I supported my friend @SimonDanczuk in Rochdale, we had to have a protection team for our own safety.
@Nigel_Farage should have his safety guaranteed by the state.