q.  Taking into account the recent fiasco centred around "Donorgate": Should the state funding of political parties be raised to £25m/year?

Gordon Brown is said to be considering a system of "presumed consent" in which everyone is a potential donor unless they opt out.  Mr Brown said: 

"A system of this kind seems to have the potential to close the aching gap between the potential benefits of transplant surgery in the UK and the limits imposed by our current system of consent."

Lib Dem MP Dr Evan Harris, chair of All-Party Kidney Group and member of the BMA Medical Ethics Committee said:

"Under an opt-out scheme donor's real wishes will be more often respected, more lives would be saved and grieving relatives will be spared the experience of making the wrong decision at the worst time."

However, Joyce Robins from Patient Concern is not so optimistic, saying that presumed consent turned volunteers into conscripts:

"Presumed consent is no consent at all. We've worked for years to get a system of proper, informed consent in the health service in this country and Gordon Brown is willing to throw it all out of the window."

Health Secretary Alan Johnson said:

"Last year around 2,400 people in the UK benefited from an organ transplant, but more than 1,000 people die every year waiting for a transplant."

q.  Should the UK enter into a system of presumed consent for organ donation?

Gordon Brown's plan to "deep clean" our Hospitals has come under attack from both NHS managers and cleaning companies.  £50m has been set aside to deep clean 1,500 hospitals in England, and they have until the end of March to complete the programme.

Andrew Large, the director general of the Cleaning and Support Services Association said:

"What we have seen over the last few years is hospitals squeezing the cleaning budgets.  "When they are up for renegotiation we are being offered less and being told to clean things less frequently.  "For example, where we would perhaps have cleaned the tiles every week, it may be every two weeks from then on. "It sounds like only a little thing, but when it is applied to everything it makes a difference. If this had not happened I think infection rates would be lower.  "So it now seems strange to us that we are being given contracts to carry out these deep cleans.  "You have to wonder, if the cleaning budgets had not been cut would this be necessary? There is disruption to patients as wards have to be emptied.  "In my view, it would be a better use of money - and I think our members would prefer it - if the day-to-day cleaning was funded properly."

Nigel Edwards, director of policy at the NHS Confederation, said:

"We would like policy to be based on evidence and we have picked up a degree of scepticism from a number of our members about this.  "We would not want to see relatively new hospitals being deep cleaned; it would be a waste of money."

q.  Should the £50m put aside for "deep cleaning" be used to improve day to day cleaning instead?