DNA Sequencing On The NHS
This is due to be announced soon and it’s already here on the Downing Street web-site.
Sadly, it’s too late for my wife and son, who died of cancer in 2007 2010 respectively.
My wife had a squamous cell carcinoma of the heart, which is so rare and deadly, that I don’t think any new technique would have helped. The doctors at Papworth Hospital, where she was treated had never seen such a vicious cancer. Short of a transplant or an unexpected miracle nothing could have saved her.
In my son’s case of pancreatic cancer, his lifestyle hadn’t helped and he might have stood a chance, if Trafford General Hospital where he was first treated in Manchester had picked it up earlier. As it is, they didn’t and Addenbrooke’s took their time too, as it was unexpected. Knowing what I know now, I would have got him to Cambridge earlier or taken him to Liverpool, where treatment of pancreatic cancer is a specialty.
So although the sequencing of cancer sufferers DNA will help in many cases, it wouldn’t have helped in their two cases, which were so tragic for my family.
What would have helped my son, would have been better diagnosis of his problem at an earlier date.
My wife went to the hospital fairly soon after she started running out of puff. She also led an exemplary life with regard to food, drink, not smoking and keeping very fit. Although that couldn’t be said for my son, who smoked heavily. And not just tobacco!
As an aside here, I am a coeliac.
This disease can be picked up by looking at the DNA. So if DNA sequencing becomes commonplace, looking for hereditary diseases like this may be a sensible and worthwhile use of the technique.
U and Non-U Coaches
I took this picture yesterday coming back from Manchester.
U and Non-U Coaches
There used to be a lot of humour based on U and non-U English, but I haven’t heard any for some time.
It’s all about how class defines the words you use.
I suspect the coach labeled U, is one of the new ones added to lengthen the train.
Manchester Piccadilly To Horwich Parkway And Return
Going from Manchester Piccadilly station to Horwich Parkway station for the Reebok Stadium is a journey that should be easy.
For a start, the platforms are at the back of the station and not logically on the concourse.
Walkway To Platform 14
As the picture shows there is a moving walkway, but I do wonder how many people get lost trying to find it. I know the station fairly well, so when I see Platform 13 or 14, I know where they are. There is also a bridge to Platform 13-14.
Bridge To Platforms 13-14
But then unless you know your connection, you probably wouldn’t use it. I did use it, when I returned after the match and the signage on the bridge is very poor. The arrangements at Birmingham New Street station are much better.
When you get to Platform 13 or 14, things don’t get better, as there is just a small waiting area. The actual platforms are usually teeming with passengers waiting to get on the trains.
Manchester Piccadilly is a classic case of bad design. And bad design probably fifty years too late. It did have a big makeover in 2002, but they are really dealing with the immense problems that date from the 1960s, when the station was built out of the old London Road station. To say British Rail did a bad job, would have been giving them more credit than they deserve.
The station probably needs a decking built over the platforms to give access to the trains. This is the sort of thing that is happening at many stations around the world. The alternative as at St. Pancras of a large space underneath is probably not possible.
In spite of all this, Wikipedia says this about the station.
According to an independent poll carried out in 2007, Manchester Piccadilly has the highest customer satisfaction level of any UK station, with 92% of passengers satisfied compared with the national average of 60%
I would assume that they interviewed passengers going to Euston. Now that and its Underground station is a total disgrace! But Manchester deserves a station to the same standard as Leeds or Liverpool.
The train when it arrived to go to Horwich was the usual totally inadequate Transpennine Express three-coach Class 185 diesel multiple unit. If ever there was a train designed by civil servants it is this one. They do their best, but they are just too small. Wikipedia says this.
The loss of seats relative to an equivalent three-coach 158 means that more passengers have to stand at peak times. An increase in passenger numbers since the trains were brought in to operation has meant that some passengers are unable to board 185s at peak times due to them being seriously overcrowded.
They also have a serious lack of handholds for those who have to stand.
The route between the two stations is the Manchester to Preston line, which is slated to be electrified. So hopefully as many of the other lines in the area will also be electrified, this will solve the train problems as new electric ones will be needed and hopefully the Class 185s will be lengthened.
But like Picadilly station, which is totally inadequate, this line should have been electrified in the 1960s as a follow on to the electrification of the West Coast Main Line. After all, when linked to the electrified Manchester to Crewe line, it serves as a diversion for trains when the West Coast Main Line has to be closed.
The whole area, shows how when you don’t invest in infrastructure, it all comes back and bites you a few years later.
BT Will Setup BT Sport On The Olympic Park
There was good news today for Hackney, when BT said that they will run their BT Sport operation from the Broadcast Centre on the Olympic Park. It’s all here on the BBC.
As BSkyB is also London-based, does it not look to have been a bad decision to move BBC Sport to Manchester?
Political Asylum Should Come With Responsibilities
This tragic tale of a young woman killed by a drunk driver illustrates one thing that is wrong with the political asylum system. Here’s an extract.
Wilfred Museka, 31, from Clayton, had previously pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court.
He also admitted fraud by false representation, driving without insurance and driving other than in accordance with a driving licence.
The court heard that Museka, a Zimbabwean national who gained political asylum after arriving in the UK in 2000, had been to a family party in Manchester.
He drank so much alcohol that he could not recall how or why he had later travelled to the border of West Yorkshire, where the crash took place.
It turned out he’d had eleven previous motoring convictions including driving under excess alcohol.
He was just taking the Michael in a big way.
He should have been sent back to Zimbabwe, when it became obvious that he wasn’t a fit and proper person to claim asylum. As it is he’ll now be locked up for eight years before he is deported. So all the British justice system has done is delayed the inevitable and got a young woman killed.
A Bank Robber Stuck In A Groove
Apparently, the same bank robber has robbed the same bank twice in five days. It’s here in the Manchester Evening News. this is a paragraph.
Detective Constable Jeanette Lamb, of Stockport CID, said: “The offender has struck at almost the same time of the morning, using a strikingly similar method and wearing an identical outfit so obviously we believe the same person to be responsible for both robberies.
He certainly seems to have found a modus operandi that works.
Are The BBC’s Troubles Down To Manchester?
The BBC has now lost their Director General as reported here.
I do wonder how much the troubles at the BBC are down to the ill-thought-out move of much of the Corporation to Manchester. How many of their better managers and journalists have left, because they didn’t want or were unable to leave London?
I know that Newsnight is a London-based program, but even so just the threat of a possible move to the North was a reason to jump ship. Especially as this year, London was the media centre of the world, with this years events in the capital, like the Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee.
It is one thing to decentralise drama and factual programming, but news and probably sport should be in the capital.
It was a daft decision to move so much to Manchester.
Should The UK Reinstate The Death Penalty?
Today in Manchester, two young female police officers, were shot dead by a man wanted for murder.
It is the worst murder of members of the police since 1966. At that time, when Harry Roberts and two others, shot dead three policemen, I was serving in a pub in North London.
The mood in the pub that evening was sombre and one of horror. Few suggested that the recent abolishment of capital punishment the year before was to blame. Although a couple did get shouted down, for proposing thoughts about dead policemen.
Remember too, that it was soon after the Hanratty case, which did a lot to discredit the death penalty in the UK, as many believed Hanratty to be innocent.
I suspect that like in 1966, there will be a lot of discussion tonight and generally despite the sex and age of the victims, I suspect there will not be a large groundswell of support for the return of the death penalty.
There does appear to be one big difference between the murders today and that of those in 1966. Harry Roberts went and hid from the police, whereas Dale Cregan today, just walked into a police station and gave himself up. Perhaps he understood the horror, of what he had done, whereas Roberts didn’t! If Cregan did, we’ve moved on in the forty plus years.
Why Do They Try To Play Cricket In Manchester?
Everybody knows that it always rains in Manchester. There’s even an old phrase beloved of cricket commentators.
If you can’t see the Pennines it’s already raining, if you can it’s just about to.
So why did they try to play a Twenty20 cricket match last night? Guess what? It rained, as is reported here.
The Anonymous Widower 