Germany ponders family vote
New born babies in Germany are to be given the vote
if plans disclosed by an influential group of German
MPs get the go-ahead.
A controversial proposal to give children the
right to vote in national elections is drawing
support from a number of influential and powerful
politicians in Germany. The legislation, which
is slated for introduction to parliament in autumn,
would place a child’s vote in the trust of
parents until it is of an “able age.”
Under the plan, parents of children between the
ages of 0-12 would have the right to cast the
vote of their children in elections. Children
aged 12 and above would hold the right to refuse
their parents permission to vote on their behalf
by formally informing the state of their decision
to rescind the power.
Free Democratic Party (FDP) MP Klaus Haupt said, "If
it is written in the constitution that all power
goes to the people, then children must also be
given the right to vote." Haupt is among a
number of MPs to put forward a cross-party proposal
to introduce child voting.
Supporters of the bill say that allowing children
to vote would help Germany in the future by giving
the country’s youth a say in the policies
that will affect them in the future. The proposal
carries a statement in support of that idea: "We
can only secure the future of our society, when
the concept of the family is given the chance to
influence politics."
If the proposal is accepted it will immediately
increase the number of potential voters by 13.8
million. At the moment, Germans must wait until
their 18th birthday before being able to cast their
first vote, but the controversial new proposal
would mean even school-aged children could help
to choose the country’s next Chancellor.
However, a change in Article 38 of the constitution
is necessary for the voting system to be reformed,
which itself requires a two-thirds majority vote
in both the upper and lower houses of parliament.
Can food really prevent cancer?
Food is a major and underused anticancer weapon,
according to the All-Party Parliamentary Group
on Cancer. In collaboration with the Institute
of Food Research, the Group is calling for diet
to be better deployed in reducing cancer risk
in the UK.
“
With dietary interventions, we have the potential
to prevent around a third of all cancers”,
according to Dr Ian Gibson MP, Chair of the All-Party
Parliamentary Group on Cancer. “In the
long term, we could also save some of the £2.4-3.5
billion annual cost to the NHS of cancer”,
he adds.
Seventy per cent of cancer treatment
money is spent during the terminal stages, while
less
than ten
percent of total cancer research funding is focused
on prevention. This is at odds with the overwhelming
epidemiological evidence that many cancers are
preventable.
“
The biological mechanisms of cancer prevention
through diet can be discovered and exploited
in the same way as new curative drugs”,
says Professor Ian Johnson of the Institute of
Food
Research. “Scientific advances should be
as vigorously applied to prevention strategies
as they are to drug development”, he says.
This needs to be accompanied by an investment
in public awareness of the links between food
and
cancer prevention. Research has shown that they
are often poorly understood. For example, an
IFR study of beliefs amongst low-income women
found
that foods were not generally linked to cancer
prevention. What connections were made between
food and cancer revolved around beliefs that
food processing might cause cancer. However, “the
strongest association between diet and cancer
in the western world is the protective effect
of a
high intake of fruit and vegetables”, says
Professor Johnson.
“
In the next Cancer Plan, let’s try to get
it right for the sake of the economy, the long
term future of the NHS, and the health of the next
generation”, says Dr Ian Gibson MP.
1 million Euros for new technology
The European Union's priority for R&D in Information
Society Technologies (IST) aims to bring technologies
closer to people, ensuring that all Europe's citizens
and businesses can, and actually do benefit from
technological advance. As a result of the first
IST Call for Proposals under the sixth Framework
Programme, 236 new IST projects will be launched
to the tune of 1 billion Euros. This represents
the largest award of its kind in the history of
the Framework Programme.
These projects will build
on the foundations of today's Web, Internet and
mobile communications
technologies, transforming the delivery and performance
of services and adding to their variety. At the
heart of these services is information in all its
forms and formats: data from tiny sensors and receivers
embedded in the surrounding environment, packaged
content for education and for entertainment, and
organisations' knowledge assets that change dynamically
and unpredictably.
Erkki Liikanen, European Commissioner
for Enterprise and the Information Society said: “We
need to strengthen our commitment on research and
development
so that Europe's competitiveness, innovative capabilities
and leadership are ensured and so that Europe can
seize the huge opportunities that lie ahead”.
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