KEY ISSUES - What Would Yours Be?

[Beaaware]

Mine would have to be "Safe Blood", I would like to see all Blood Donors tested individually and anonymously for the Human Form Of Mad Cows Disease (vCJD), presently we do not screen any blood donors nor do we test blood at any stage for vCJD. I feel that this should be a key issue for our new coalition government, after all we do not expect to go into hospital and be given unsafe blood or blood products and then to find out that we may have been exposed to a man-made lethal brain wasting incurable disease.
Unfortunately for us the general public the new government are unable to make any commitment regarding future policy on this issue at this stage. Lets hope they make it a key issue very soon and prevent further needless deaths from vCJD.

Blood donors ARE screened and so is the blood they donate.

Cutting what we pay to the EU and getting ourselves out of some of the legislation that does not benefit the UK at all.

Getting rid of C.Diff and MRSA from hospitals - more likely to die from one of those than from vCJD.

Restoration of the military covenant.

Nancy66,
Correct me if I am wrong but as far as I am aware we do not screen blood donors for vCJD?

Another key issue for me is the £24 million that we pay each year in Child Benefit to Polish children living in Poland, just can't understand this.

Contolling immigration.

sorry Beaaware - misunderstood. I thought you were suggesting that donors and their blood were not screened at all.

If they're not screened for VCJD then I would imagine it's because the risk is minimal, surely?

Anyhow my key issue would be education. Stop the dumbing down, stop with the useless degrees, not everyone has to go to uni, smaller classes.

Hi Nancy66,
Although the risk may be minimal at least 5 recipients that we know of have gone onto die from contaminated donor blood, these poor people were put at risk without knowing what was in the blood, also haemophiliacs are at risk all of the time from this, and many have been exposed as some of their blood donors have died from vCJD, I think that it is a serious health issue, one death from vCJD is one death too many ,I dread to think of the dilemma people are faced with if they have to have a blood transfusion in this country, we should not have to be exposed to this lethal disease, there is no cure. But not a key issue for our coalition government. Most likely a cost issue.

Agree that we need smaller class sizes

That's being in the EU - I live in Belgium, could claim CB here for ds even if he was at boarding school in UK. I get UK benefit though (yes, dh Forces so entitled).

For me, the key issue is really economic competence, without a shadow of a doubt. After that, social liberalism comes a close second. Perhaps Europe would be my third issue but frankly the first two are my most important by a mile.

My main issue is education.
What is all this parent choice bollocks?
Someone said on another thread that all parents wasnt is for schools to be decent and local. To that I would add safe. It seems to me that the last government spent all the cash on frills without thinking about basics. So, thanks for the overpackaged Bookstart stuff but instead I'd like a local, safe, appropriate, free (well, paid for out of my taxes) education for my DD, please.

I'd vote for anyone who promised to do away with faith schools, too.

From what I understand, blood can't be screened for vCJD. It's something that can only be diagnosed post mortem.

memory.ucsf.edu/cjd/overview/intro/contagious/single

Hi atomicsnowflake,
www.prometic.com/docs/misc/2009-08-21DoH_goes_for_do_nothing_option.pdf
We are led to believe that blood can't be screened for vCJD.
The technology for testing vCJD is available but the UK government approach to safeguarding our blood is "a do nothing approach" who knows how many infectious donors are out there. Those at most risk from vCJD are of course the haempohiliacs.