A Win For A Community Organiser & How Bacterial War Against The Viruses Will Change The Human Race

Five years ago, a domestic abuse survivor told me that to get a non-molestation order on her violent partner, the court demanded medical evidence of abuse. She dropped the case because she couldn't afford to pay her GP the £90 he charged to write letters to courts.

I was gobsmacked. I was visiting 'Safe Spots' in Wythenshawe on the invitation from Mike Kane MP. When there, in a conversation with members of the group, Councillor Sarah Judge told me that GPs regularly charged women for letters to confirm they had suffered physical and mental abuse from their violent partners. The women I sat down with had become skilled community organisers. They were not going to let me leave without extracting a promise that I would do everything I could to get the fee scrapped.

So I launched a campaign to scrap the fee. I worked with police and crime commissioners who supported the campaign. In subsequent years, successive ministers agreed the charge was unfair but found it challenging to reach an agreement with the British Medical Association, which represents GPs. Though the BMA agreed to advise GPs not to charge a fee, they didn't want to prohibit doctors from doing so if they chose to.

I'm so proud of my friend and former colleague, Lord Roy Kennedy, who continues to lead the campaign. Last week, after the Lords threatened to vote on the matter, the government agreed to bring an amendment to the Domestic Abuse Bill to prohibit any medical professional in England from charging a fee in domestic abuse cases. I understand that the Welsh Government has also agreed to extend the measure to Wales.
This is a great victory for the power of community organising. I'm immensely proud to know Sarah Judge and the team of Safe Spots in Wythenshawe. And good old Roy Kennedy proves that even in opposition, you make a difference.

Reading

Walter Isaacson's latest biography is unusual in that his subject, Jennifer Doudna, is only a principal character in a much broader story. The real subject is clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats of deoxyribonucleic acid. To translate: they're tiny fragments of DNA with the acronym CRISPR.

In "The Code Breaker. Jennifer Doudna, gene editing and the future of the human race" The author explains how Jennifer Doudna overcame scientific misogyny and professional rivalry to be the first to propose and prove that CRISPR could be used to edit our genes. According to Issacson, the gene is as significant to human progress as the atom or the bit. Though bacteria have been editing genes for billions of years in their unrelenting war against viruses, it took humans until 2012 to work it out.
Rather than referring to the digital age, CRISPR is such a profound discovery that perhaps we should begin to talk about the age of genetic engineering.
We have already changed the genetic code in humans, very controversially, and without any attempt to use a framework of ethics to inform the decision to do so. Let me just repeat that: We have changed the genetic code of humans! Is it just me, or is that as noteworthy as parachuting a vehicle on Mars? Yet until I read this book, I didn't know about it.
Isaacson spends time outlining the moral framework we'll need to construct around genetic engineering. You'd probably agree that gene editing is a good thing if it eliminates diseases like sickle cell anaemia and cystic fibrosis. But what about if it made us all taller or enhanced our muscle range? And for policymakers, Isaacson shares his fear of a genetic divide between those that can afford genetic enhancement and those that can't.

The Code Breakers is a fascinating book and a must-read for policymakers.

Persons of Interest

Persons of Interest returns Thursday, 18th March with Series Two. We kick off with Gail Porter, who first came to my attention when a giant naked image of her was cast onto the outside of the House of Commons - without her permission. Listen to Persons of Interest