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Matt Hancock said his attitudes towards assisted suicide had been affected by speaking to Sir Paul Cosford, the medical director of Public Health England, who suffered from cancer and died aged 57
Matt Hancock said his attitudes towards assisted suicide had been affected by speaking to Sir Paul Cosford, the medical director of Public Health England, who suffered from cancer and died aged 57
Back in 1957, the BBC's flagship current affairs programme Panorama (well, it was then) showed a short three-minute film of a family in Switzerland harvesting spaghetti from a family 'spaghetti tree.' People rang up the BBC switchboard afterwards for advice on growing their own spaghetti. They should have paid closer attention to the date of the broadcast. The first of April. Yes, it was an 'April Fool.' One of the best in history.
The first of April is also the date that the UK's new 'Health Security Agency' is being established but this time it really is no laughing matter. If only Matt Hancock was joking when he said he was setting up a "dedicated, mission-driven national institution for health security." But, unlike his namesake, the great comedian Tony Hancock, Matt isn't remotely funny. The establishment of the UKHSA should give us all sleepless nights. It's actually more terrifying than the scariest Hammer horror movie. Well, Hancock's video announcing the news was, at any rate.
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