Local Radio: BBC Proposals
Debate between Nigel Evans and Lia Nici(1 year, 5 months ago)
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Lia Nici
My hon. Friend hits the nail on the head. Unless we are really good at working with digital, it is quite difficult to find our local radio station. Podcasts, BBC Sounds and all these things are really difficult for the exact people in BBC local radio’s target reach.
I would like to say a big thank you to my local presenters, in particular David Burns and Andy Comfort, who have been fantastic. We do not talk about this, but for people who do not get out much and want to listen to their local radio, hearing local voices is so important; there is a sense of familiarity and a feeling that they know that person. The BBC seems to be losing those presenters who are exactly the right demographic to talk to the people who are listening. Yes, we want to bring on young broadcasters, but they are not the right demographic for their target audience, so I would say to the BBC, “Please listen. This is vitally important. If we lose any more of local radio, it is going to be a desperate situation for our constituents.”
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
If Members do not take too many interventions, I think we can go to a time limit of five minutes.
Brain Tumour Research Funding
Debate between Nigel Evans and Lia Nici(1 year, 8 months ago)
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Lia Nici (Great Grimsby) (Con)
I have to admit that, until the last few days, I knew virtually nothing about brain tumours and brain cancer—after the last few days, I know just a tiny bit more. Often, members of the public are cynical about all-party parliamentary groups, but they do a huge amount of work, including to raise awareness for the public. One of our privileges in this place is that we can work with our constituents, who share their stories with us and tell us why we need to be aware of them so that we can do our jobs to, hopefully, raise awareness and have an impact on Government policy and different types of funding.
I am here because, as in many cases, a constituent, Julie Alison Grimble, wrote to me to ask whether I would attend the debate in order to help raise awareness about brain tumours. Her husband Neil went to the optician for an eye test, which revealed that he needed to be referred to hospital. When he went for his appointment, he was diagnosed with a stage 4 brain tumour. He was only 55 years old. He had two children, a son-in-law and one grandchild at that point. As we have heard with many colleagues’ cases in this debate, he was given a diagnosis of 12 to 18 months for how long he would be with us. Sadly, in 2021, at the age of 56—just in that year —he passed away.
This enables us to realise the amount of work that the APPG and Brain Tumour Research are doing to raise awareness, because if it had not been for Julie writing to me and telling her family story, I would not be able to try to help in a small way to raise awareness. The fact that Neil was diagnosed at stage 4 reveals that we need to make members of the public much more aware of the symptoms or signs to look for. I would like to thank the opticians and ophthalmologists out there, because it is quite often through an eye test that people learn that they need to have treatment. It is not just brain tumours; people can have a whole range of different health issues diagnosed from going to their optician. It is very important that people understand that.
As colleagues have said, the “Pathway to a Cure” report, commissioned by Brain Tumour Research and the APPG, has revealed that, astonishingly, there is an underspend in the funding for research. That also raises the point that it needs to be easier for researchers to apply, and for there not to be so many different types of funds, which makes it more complicated for people to access such research funds. On a more practical level, perhaps people studying medicine, those actually practising it and researchers may not actually be aware of what is available. I was talking to my hon. Friend the Member for Scunthorpe (Holly Mumby-Croft) about this situation, and we know that every treatment comes from a breakthrough, but if there is not enough research, it is highly unlikely that we will be able to have breakthroughs and make connections with other types of cancer as well.
I would just like to thank Julie very much for getting in touch with me. I will continue to work to raise awareness and, I hope, show that we can do some good, which is the value of debates such as this.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
We now come to the Front-Bench speeches. I call the shadow Minister.
Business without Debate
Debate between Nigel Evans and Lia Nici
Lia Nici (Great Grimsby) (Con)
On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. I wish to raise a serious constitutional concern on an issue of how Parliament works with the civil service. It has always been understood that Members of this House should be able to work with senior civil servants, and talk freely and openly with them, knowing that they are impartial and not linked to any political party.
It has been widely reported, and confirmed, that the Labour party has looked to employ a second permanent secretary to become the chief of staff for the Leader of His Majesty’s Opposition. It is the same second permanent secretary who carried out, on behalf of the then Prime Minister, an investigation into alleged gatherings on Government premises at a time of covid restrictions. There have been widespread concerns as to how this appointment by the right hon. and learned Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Keir Starmer) will interact with the current work of the Privileges Committee, which I understand is proposing to rely on the evidence of the Sue Gray report as its essential basis.
Mr Deputy Speaker, can you please guide us on how we can raise serious procedural concerns about this matter, given that the politics of the appointment have raised such significant concerns, and tell us whether the Chair has been given any notice of any statement forthcoming from Government on this serious and urgent matter?
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
I thank the hon. Lady for her point of order. I have received no notification that there will be any statements today and, as we are moving straight to the Adjournment, that is very unlikely. There is an ongoing inquiry, as she has intimated. If she goes to the Table Office and inquires there, I am sure that she will get proper advice on how she may pursue the matter further.