The Rights Of Man

GOVERNMENT DENIES PROSTATE CANCER SCREENING - A SINISTER SIGN OF THIS GOVERNMENT'S INSTITUTIONALISED SEXISM

When any decent history books look back on this government-in-meltdown, they may well want to look at the institutionalised sexism that infests it.

Whether it is the Minister for Women (no Minister for Men), a widening gap in boy's education results or the wilful neglect of male domestic violence victims, nothing is as sinister as the government's decision this week not to invest in prostate cancer screening.

To much brouhaha, the government announced this week a five-year Cancer Reform Strategy which sets out a blueprint for cancer services in England for the next five years, £370 million of extra funds will be invested by 2010 on top of the present annual spending of £4.35 billion. This includes extending screening for women at risk of breast cancer, which of course is good news.

What was missed was the the Department of Health have ruled out a prostate cancer screening programme stating that there is not enough proof that it would be effective. This despite the fact 10,000 of the 35,000 men who contract it die.

As stated in the Daily Mail, The Prostate Cancer Charity attacked ministers for not funding trials of new tests to spot the cancer.

As ever, men are pushed to bottom of the pile. The extension of breast cancer screening is welcome and appeals to women (and their male partners) voters more than announcing a fight against prostate cancer, which is one way of cynically looking at it.

However, this isn't a matter of playing politics, it is matter of life and death and this government do not seemed interested in the lives of men. This is institutional sexism.

EQUAL RIGHTS CHARITY, PARITY, REVAMP WEB-SITE

Britain's only genuinely equal rights campaigning group, Parity, have revamped their web-site (link). It is first rate.

PARITY have been a trailblazing organisation fighting for equality. PARITY was first formed in 1986 as the Campaign for Equal State Pension Ages, a wholly voluntary organisation concerned with the equal rights of men and women. 

It has led where other supposedly equal rights groups like the now defunct Equal Opportunities Commission and other feminist organisations have hid away because they did not want to support genuine equality. They only support women's causes and nothing will change under the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights.

Through litigation in the courts applying European Union or European Convention law binding (by statute or treaty) in the UK, PARITY has instigated cases resulting in:

• equal qualifying ages for men and women - for exemption from NHS prescription charges (1995), for winter fuel payments (2000), and for local bus travel concessions (2003), and
• equal treatment for widowers and widows in survivors social security benefits and bereavement tax allowances (2000).

Their new web-site also includes sections on men's health, boy's education, sex discrimination, equal parenting and also male victims of domestic abuse.

ONE DAY CONFERENCE ON BATTERED MEN 'SUFFERING IN SILENCE': 5TH OCTOBER (SHEFFIELD)

The Sheffield based Sheaf Domestic Violence project is holding an invaluable one-day conference on 5th October entitled SUFFERING IN SILENCE which is looking at the hidden side of domestic abuse : Battered Men.

For the last eleven years Sheaf Domestic Abuse Project has supported men who suffer domestic abuse. Men from all walks of life suffer, there is no class or social distinction; factory workers, police. Social workers, military etc. Forget the macho image men are supposed to portray, they suffer too…...

The conference is between 9.30 and 4.30 on 5th October at:-

The Centre in the Park, Norfolk Heritage Park, Sheffield.

The cost is free for voluntary agencies and £10 for statutory agencies.

For more information, please contact SHEAF DOMESTIC ABUSE PROJECT on 0114 249 8881 or see here Download Conference.ppt

Speakers include Mark Scratchard and Andy Duncan from Families Need Fathers and Britain's leading expert on domestic violence against men, Dr Malcolm George FRS from Queen Mary and Westfield College, London University.

CANCER SURVIVAL RATES FOR MEN : BELOW EUROPEAN AVERAGE

Despite the massive increase in NHS spending (£62bn in 02/03 to £105bn in 07/08), the cancer survival rates are a disgrace for both men and women. Whre is the money going?

Survival rates for cancer for both sexes are below the European average.

From a report featured in the Lancet Oncology, out of 21 countries (link), survival rates for men in the UK are

• Wales (13th) - 47.9%
• England (15th) - 44.8%
• Northern Ireland (17th) - 42%
• Scotland (18th) - 40.2%

As written in the Daily Telegraph  " England is on a par with Poland despite the NHS spending three times more on health care.Survival rates are based on the number of patients who are alive five years after diagnosis. Cancer experts blamed late diagnosis and long waiting lists."

The Daily Mail said "Experts blamed NHS waste, drug rationing and a lack of cancer specialists for the shameful showing."

The prostate cancer survival rate for UK men is 75.7% and this is lower than the average in Europe.

BROCCOLI AND CAULIFLOWER HELPS FEND OFF PROSTATE CANCER

Men shouldn't just wait endlessly for the NHS, NICE and the government to get its finger out and start treating prostate cancer research and medicine in the same way it rightly does for breast cancer, they can turn to broccoli and cauliflower. See (BBC - link).

SELECT COMMITTEE ANNOUNCES DOMESTIC VIOLENCE INQUIRY : BEST OPPORTUNITY FOR YEARS

The Home Affairs Select Committee has announced an inquiry into Domestic Violence for late 2007/2008 (see below and link).

This is the best opportunity for a long long time to put the case directly that the needs of male victims are ignored and largely unackowledged despite the wealth of evidence (link).

It is now imperitive for men's groups to make their case in a accessible fashion. 

COMMITTEE ANNOUNCES INQUIRY INTO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

The Home Affairs Committee today announced an inquiry entitled "Domestic Violence". The Committee will inquire into the effectiveness of government action following the coming into force of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 and other initiatives to raise awareness of and more effectively target domestic violence. The Committee's inquiry will seek to assess the implementation of these measures, in particular those in the Act and the effectiveness of existing legislation. It will look at their impact in terms of increased reporting and convictions, and whether greater support is being provided for victims.

In addition to the wider picture on domestic violence, the inquiry will encompass the specific issues of forced marriages and so-called 'honour killings'.

The Committee will consider the effectiveness of action across different areas, including:

• Public education and awareness-raising

• Police powers and legal protections for victims

• Criminal and civil justice processes, including the Specialist Domestic Violence Court Programme

• Support for victims, including finance and refuge services

• Perpetrator programmes

• Multi-agency approaches, and what barriers exist to their effective operation.

The Committee is seeking written submissions of no more than 2,500 words from interested parties, before it takes oral evidence on this inquiry. Organisations and individuals interested in making written submissions are invited to do so by Monday 1 October 2007. Further advice on making a submission can be found overleaf.

Oral evidence sessions will be held in late 2007/early 2008: further announcements will be made in due course.

SUFFOLK COUNTY COUNCIL : MORE MEN ARE BECOMING VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

In a report delivered to Suffolk County Council's Public Protection Scrutiny Committee, it is revealed that 20% of Domestic Violence victims are men, up from 17% the year before. This is broadly consistent with the national figure of 24%. Between April 2006 and March 2007, 1060 men were victims in the county.

The story is covered here (link) and the report to the committee here (link). Suffolk CC also have a small section on a domestic violence web-site for men (link).

The issues facing Suffolk CC are no different to any other county, however, at least Suffolk County Councillors recognise that men are victims and have at least acknowledged it. This is so unlike most other local authorities (see recent post on Bristol City Council).

Suffolk CC's response to the Men's Aid request for a list of services is here (link). The challenge is for Suffolk CC to now actively provide services to help men rather than gender neutral or for women. Whilst they make great play that their domestic violence literature is gender neutral and they have a web-site and use events, there is nothing on refuges for men or specialist support.

Still, Suffolk CC is far better than the majority.

ANOTHER GOVERNMENT PETITION ON PROSTATE SCREENING - PLEASE SIGN

A reader kindly sent over another petition on Prostate Screening. Please sign this as well as the one on yesterday's post.

Another prostate cancer petition is available here: (link)

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to introduce regular health screening for men over the age of 50 to detect early stages of prostate cancer.

30000 men each year are diagnosed with prostate cancer. Out of every 100 cancers diagnosed in men, 23 are prostate cancers. Often prostate cancer has no symptoms. Currently there are no regular checks available to men as there, rightly, are for breast and cervical cancer in women. Therefore 2 or 3 yearly blood tests would help to detect this killer in men aged 50 and above. I call upon the Prime Minister to introduce these tests immediately.

GOVERNMENT PETITION - PROSTATE TESTING : PLEASE SIGN

I have just discovered the following petitition on Prostate Cancer. Please sign it as soon as possible as it runs out in mid August. It had 1,500 signatures so far and was submitted by James Nicolson.

The petition is here (link)

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to begin regular testing for prostate cancer in men between the ages of 40 and 70.

Prostate cancer is the largest cause of male deaths. A blood test, known as PSA, can indicate that there is a problem that needs investigating. In the Tryol district of Austria this is being done and the mortality rates have fallen. Too many men are being diagnosed only when it is too late for treatment to be more than palliative."

Editors Note : More petitions can be found here:-

CSA Injustice (link) - 22 signatories ; Minister for Men (link) - 293 signatories; Male DV victims (link) - 212 signatories and Family Equality (link) - 126 signatories

IN PRAISE OF THE GIVE A FEW BOB CAMPAIGN - PLEASE MAKE A DONATION

One of the best advertisements of any kind recently has been the advert launched by the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation (link) featuring the late comedian Bob Monkhouse. The link to the campaign web-site is here (link) The campaign coincides with the 10th Everyman Male Cancer Awareness month (link).

Computer wizardry was used to show a warning by Monkhouse in Prostate Cancer Research's Give A Few Bob campaign.

Today almost 32,000 every year are diagnosed, and it has now overtaken lung cancer to become the most common cancer in men. The cancer kills 10,000 men per year abnd it receives ten times less funding per year than breast cancer

This increasing incidence is largely due to a higher number of cases being diagnosed, (through the greater use of PSA tests), and the influence of an ageing population.

Research into the disease was "10 years behind many other cancers" according to the Institute of Cancer Research. This proves it should be a higher health priority than it currently is and it is why men need a Minister for Men to make sure there is the government research funding that is sorely needed (link).