The Issues in this Issues

Bse and Hiv-Aids

In the 1980s two deadly diseases emerged in brutland - one imported and the other indigenous. These two diseases are similar in many ways and yet public reactions to them could hardly be more different. Hiv-aids was blamed on gays and their allegedly immoral lifestyles and this led to a wave of violent assaults against gay people. The homophobia prevalent in society before the arrival of the disease was multiplied by the fear provoked by the new disease. The disease was deemed to be so contagious and deadly that people were frightened of any proximity to, let alone the most superficial contact with, gay people. The revulsion felt towards gays heightened the fear of the disease and the fear of hiv-aids heightened the revulsion towards gays thereby setting in motion a self-reinforcing spiral of fear and hatred. On the other hand, bse was deemed to be an accident of nature. The public did not blame pharmers for bse - despite the fact that pharmers helped to spread the disease. On the contrary, the public was highly sympathetic to pharmers because of the disease was ravaging their livelihood (or, more accurately, was interrupting their supplies of state subsidies). Even more amazingly, bse (and bse-cjd) was dismissed as if it was nothing more threatening than a flu bug. Indeed most people were adamant about continuing to consume slabs of meat even though they might contain the disease. Most people saw no reason for changing their dietary habits - as if they could protect their health by ignoring the disease's existence. These starkly different perceptions of similar diseases are easy to demonstrate: imagine you are about to have an operation and the surgeon states that you have a choice about which implements s/he uses in the operation. One set was previously used on someone suffering from aids whilst the other was used on someone with bse-cjd. Most would choose the latter even though whilst the implements with aids can be effectively sterilized this is not the case with bse. Many people starting up a new relationship might consider the risk that their partner might infect them with hiv-aids and yet few of them would consider the risk of their new partner infecting them with bse-cjd. And yet bse-cjd is not merely as contagious as hiv-aids, it is more lethal, and more prevalent throughout the population, than hiv-aids. So why is it that in the public's perception, one disease strikes terror whilst the other provokes indifference? It is transparent that whatever the objective nature of a disease might be, its characterization is overwhelmingly a political construct. Indeed, the political construction with which successive tory governments have surrounded these diseases is so marked it runs counter to the objective nature of these diseases so that whilst the public deems hiv-aids to be highly contagious, it regards the consumption of bse infected beef as a basic human right or a patriotic duty to help support brutish pharmers. The huge chasm in the public's perception of these two diseases accurately symbolizes the huge chasm in class, status, and power, between various groups in society despite the smarmy rhetoric of a classless society. The day isn't long in coming when gays might be entitled to regard meat eaters with the same horror, revulsion and fear that the beef-eating homophobes once regarded gays - except they are probably much too civilized to indulge in such behaviour.

The more people that pharmers murder by spreading bse, the more subsidies the government gives pharmers to murder even more carnivores.

The wellcome trust may have exacerbated the spread of bse-cjd in brutland by using bse-cjd infected Cattle to produce vaccines. It also funds the oxford statisticians evaluating the scale of the bse and bse-cjd epidemics. These epidemiologists have consistently underplayed the scale of both epidemics. In effect they have contributed significantly to the public's disinterest in the threat posed by bse-cjd and thus increased the likelihood of people contracting this highly contagious disease.

Throughout the bse and bse-cjd epidemics, the government, the maffia, the nfu, and the pharming industry, have used Animal experiments not to ascertain the risks of eating meat but to prevent action being taken which damages pharmers' interests. To put this issue in terms which those on the left of the political spectrum, who are notoriously indifferent to Animal rights issues, might understand - Animal experiments play exactly the same role as royal commissions - politicians use them solely as a means of delaying action which threatens vested interests.

Bse is the product of brutland's diseased political culture and to that extent it deserves the diseases it creates.

There is no scientific evidence that beef, or any other meat, is free from bse - one of the most lethal and contagious diseases currently in circulation.

Rumour has it that nick brown is being kept in a dark cupboard at the ministry of agriculture, food, and fisheries, and is constantly being fed an assortment of beef meals not in order to prevent him from defending pharmers' interests but to prevent the public from realizing this fat faced, fat arsed, git knows absolutely nothing about the two diseases his ministry is spreading around the world.

In the 1980s the thatcher government denounced the mining industry for being a lame duck (sic) and refused to give it further subsidies even whilst giving huge subsidies to the pharming industry - an industry so dependent on state subsidies it would never be able to export beef it it wasn't for the subsidies they were given. A few years later, when Cattle were stricken with bse, the tory government showered pharmers with generous compensation payments for the losses of their Animals. This didn't stop them from refusing to give the families of bse-cjd victims any compensation for their distress. In effect, the bereaved families of bse-cjd victims were subsidizing the pharmers who'd murdered their children. In the late 1990s the labour government also refuses to pay compensation to the families of bse-cjd victims and refuses to give miners dying from industrial diseases the compensation to which they are legally entitled. The labour government seems intent on perpetuating the vile class divisions which scar this country. The way in which successive governments have treated pharmers in comparison to miners and bse-cjd victims reveals the privileged position pharmers have in society leaving in its wake an intense social discrimination which blights this country.

There is one easy way of settling the fuel price dispute. David handley of 'farmers for action' denies he receives any state subsidies. Since pharmers are so contemptuous of these lavish subsidies then perhaps the subsidies should be abolished and the money used to reduce fuel prices. This would not only give pharmers a sense of personal dignity and self worth which they seem to lack because of their slavish addiction to the welfare benefit system, it would also reduce the size of the pending bse-cjd epidemic, and help to combat global burning. The dominance of pharmers' propaganda in society can be seen from the fact that most people believe that motorists contribute more to global burning than pharmers. Many find it a shock to be told that pharmers exacerbate global burning more than motorists. The same reaction occurs when people discover the lethality of bse-cjd. Pharmers' propaganda presents bse-cjd as a disease which is no more threatening than the common cold whereas it is as infectious as hiv-aids. Pharmers are the biggest recipients of state subsidies, they exacerbate global burning more than any other group in society, and they continue to deny that one of the world's deadliest diseases continues to be spread by the consumption of beef, and probably other meats. What are we arguing about?

The Animal exploitation industry in this country should be abandoned because it is irredemiably contaminated by bse.

Carnivores in this country are irredemiably contaminated by bse.The united nations should set up a blockade to prevent anyone from leaving the country and spreading the disease around the rest of the world.

The mundi club warned the blair government's capitulation to the pharming industry would lead to a disaster. The cringing, servile, simpering blair got what he deserved, you eco-nazis.

What a Mad, Demented, Society

In brutland pharmers dominate the house of lords and, in effect, have a veto over democratically elected governments. Brutish pharmers are given billions of pounds in subsidies every year. On top of this they have been given £4 billion in compensation for producing bse-contaminated feed. They have used these subsidies to continue producing bse-contaminated beef. Since the start of the bse epidemic Cattle pharmers have denied they have any bse-infected Cattle but refuse to allow any tests to find out whether this is true. The Sheep industry is no different - even though bse is rife in both industries. The bse-cjd victims murdered by pharmers are given no special hospital treatment. The relatives of these victims are refused compensation but are expected to subsidize the pharmers who have murdered their children. They have to contribute to the general subsidies given to pharmers; they have to contribute to the compensation given to pharmers for bse-infected Cattle; and now Pharmers have the gall to expect them to pay for further reductions in their fuel costs. Many people were amazed by the story of the government which sent bills to the families of the people it had executed to pay for the costs of the bullets used in the executions. This is no different from what is happening in brutland. THIS IS MODERN BRUTISH JUSTICE THIS ISSUE ALSO CONTAINS AN ANALYSIS OF THE RECENT PHARMERS' INSURRECTION

The pharmers have hijacked public discontent over fuel prices and used it to promote their own interests for yet more subsidies to be given to the pharming industry. They've already had £4 billion for the bse crisis. The Sheep industry is 10 times biger than the beef industry so when the government declares that bse is rife in the Sheep industry the bill will becolossal In 1997 pharmers blockaded holyhead port, hijacked and ransacked a lorry and then started blockading ports around the country. In 1999 pharmers nearly drove the country into a suicidal trade war with europe over the right to export of bse-contaminated brutish beef. Throughout this yearpharmers have been blockading industries around the country before getting involved in the fuel crisis. The pharmers are using the fuel crisis to mount a right wing, rural insurrection against the blair government How is it going to be possible for the government to spend more money on health, education, pensions, compensation to sick miners, and relatives of the bse-cjd victims murdered by pharmers as well as reducing petrol tax for motorists, diesel tax for hauliers, and forking out billions of pounds in subsidies for Cattle, and Sheep, pharmers so that they can go on producing bse-contaminated meat which will kill even more people?