BNP and pandemics

It was very sad to read today of the first real victim of swine flu in Norfolk. This was not only a tragedy for the family but also a reminder of the dangers everyone faces from this disease.

I began to wonder what the BNP had to advise about swine flu, and found this article from the Mirror published in May:

The BNP has been accused of using the flu to push its far-right views.

It is calling for half-hour medicals on foreigners arriving in Britain with "coughs or sneezes", schools to shut for two weeks and councils to turn off air-conditioning.

The alarming measures to tackle swine flu were suggested by BNP London Assembly member Richard Barnbrook, 48, (pictured right), who claimed the illness could come from "the countries of Africa", not Mexico.

A spokesman for anti- racist group Searchlight said:

Only the BNP would try to hijack a global pandemic in an effort to promote their agenda of division and hate.

Richard Barnbrook, as usual, gave great glee to the merciless anti-fascist site, Lancaster Unity:

Doctor Dicky blames Africa for swine flu

Doctor Dicky has made it his business to investigate the origins of the current swine flu pandemic - no doubt using the well-equipped laboratories and highly-qualified medical personnel at the BNP's disposal - and has come to the conclusion that the illness could well originate from 'the countries of Africa', not Mexico as all other medical experts around the world have stated after examining all the evidence.

This is not the first time that Doctor Dicky has taken on the medical establishment. A couple of years ago, he claimed that his bout of tuberculosis, contracted on a visit to Turkey, was actually caused by immigrants, backing up this claim by stating that TB had been eradicated in the UK 'donkey's years ago'.

This insane (and completely untrue) claim was pooh-poohed by Paul Sommerfeld of the charity TB Alert, who pointed out that tuberculosis had more to do with poverty and living conditions than country of origin.

He said:

It is clear TB is endemic to the UK...one of the biggest issues is the distinction between infection and active disease - many more people are infected than develop it because it is dealt with by their immune system. When their immune system is lowered they get the active disease - and that could be 50 years later. They could have actually become infected in the 40s or 50s when the disease was very, very common. The majority of recent immigrants who get TB tend to have been here upwards of two years. That suggests they did not have raging TB when they arrived but it is the conditions in Britain which led them to develop it. They could be living in poor, overcrowded conditions where their chances of catching TB are much higher. It is a disease of the poor rather than a disease of immigrants.

There are two key facts that Dicky chose to ignore when attempting to attack immigrants for TB;

- tuberculosis was NEVER wiped out in Britain, despite doctors finding an antibiotics cure more than 50 years ago.

- cases here have NEVER fallen below 5,000 a year. Half of all TB diagnosed is in British people that were born in the UK.

Whether the Dicky and the BNP like it or not, swine flu appears to have originated in Mexico and its spread to other countries appears to have been via those returning from Mexico, not 'the countries of Africa'.

Which all goes to show that dumbass Dicky is perfect for the BNP - he'll never let the facts get in the way of passing the buck on to immigrants. Or as a spokesman for Searchlight put it;

Only the BNP would try to hijack a global pandemic in an effort to promote their agenda of division and hate.

That's what racism does to a person. It is an unnatural point of view that skews the mind.