Up Front And Personal
A Round-Up of the Latest News
with CTM founder, Phillip Day
ECLUB: The sky is bright red with bursting news.
PHILLIP DAY: It's quite something, isn't it?
ECLUB: So what's your take?
PHILLIP DAY: Australia is reeling under the massive recall by the Therapeutic Goods Association (TGA) of 1369 alternative health products produced by Pan Pharmaceuticals. To date, the TGA has issued no evidence whatsoever that these products qualify for a class 1 recall, which is reserved only for items likely to cause severe injury or death.
ECLUB: I didn't know Echinacea and Vitamin C were so lethal.
PHILLIP DAY: Hurrumph.
ECLUB: So what are Australians doing about it?
PHILLIP DAY: Well, the media, of course, devoid of the Iraq war, has gone for the story like a ferret up a trouser leg. Stories of mothers worried that they had poisoned their kiddies with Pan products. Hundreds of people indignantly returning their products to the local health store, demanding a refund as well as their taxi fares. Once again, we have the media-issued scare stories, the TGA stands by, provides no proof, and does nothing as the public crucifixion of Pan CEO Jim Selim proceeds apace to serve TGA aims. All the TGA has to do is say they're still investigating. Meanwhile, by the time the media weasels have gorged their fill of Selim, the public will have no more desire to stick natural health products in their mouth than in their ears. It's the classic lemming scenario, as I call it. The second front against the alternative health industry booms into life with the opening, deafening barrage.
ECLUB: Along with the nonsense we are being told about SARS?
PHILLIP DAY: Oh, don't get me started….
ECLUB: And all this hot on the heels of a previous report showing that Australians are spending $2.3 billion a year on alternative remedies - four times the amount they spend over the counter on pharmaceuticals. Is there a connection between the demonisation of nutritional and herbal medicine and its impending take-over by Big Pharma?
PHILLIP DAY: Please don't ask silly questions, Brian.
ECLUB: And on the EU front?
PHILLIP DAY: That's another story we have been covering for months that has now blown open. Fed up now with JDAM bombs and slippery Iraqi Ministers of Information, the western media has fixed its sites on the impending take-over of Great Britain by Valery Giscard D'Estaing, the chief drafter of the new EU Constitution. "Blueprint for Tyranny!" cries the Daily Mail. Even Britain's best selling newspaper, The Sun, is crying out for the traitors to be hauled up by their bootstraps, in between the usual pictures of female breasts, of course.
ECLUB: Some people thought you were mad when you started the Let's Fix Britain! Tour, along with the release of your new book, Ten Minutes to Midnight….
PHILLIP DAY: A few did. On the face of it, we were reporting a huge story; that within a two years, moves by the European Union to introduce and implement a new constitution would, in effect, compel member states into a new United States of Europe. We would lose complete control of our borders, our oil, our foreign policy, our police, our courts, what remains of our agriculture and fisheries, and our currency. People were just not prepared for how far advanced these plans for the take-over of our country actually were. Many reacted with blank disbelief.
ECLUB: And yet now, your position has been vindicated with all the massive coverage on the euro currency, the constitution and the truth behind the ultimate agenda of the EU for Britain.
PHILLIP DAY: I hope so, because the media, so often accused of doing harm, can do a tremendous amount of good in educating people on these massive moves against democracy and freedom currently under way.
ECLUB: It's almost as if some Leviathan has stirred itself from the deep, causing upheaval everywhere….
PHILLIP DAY: I think that this unholy alliance of big business and big government is getting edgy and wants to put the endgame into play as soon as possible.
ECLUB: What do you mean?
PHILLIP DAY: Take the EU's moves to create its superstate. Very few of the British, or indeed others on the continent, were either bothered or even believed this was going on. But that didn't pardon the fact that it was, and is. Author Peter Hitchens sums it up best: this ugly, scaly monster of global socialism had been lurking in the bushes, indistinct, shadowy, but making everyone subliminally and uncomfortably aware that something is afoot. Political correctness pollutes everything. Children are dissuaded from egg and spoon races for fear of losing and feeling mentally inadequate. Kiddies have to wear hard hats when riding donkeys on Bogner Beach. Stupid, ridiculous laws are passed as if the public doesn't exist. There are things we can no longer talk about.
Award-winning authors have been increasingly writing some very well annotated works on this New World Order and its eccentric but efficient forms of control. The public has begun to wake up to the danger, albeit lethargically. But still, the monster lurked in the bushes. Benumbed by wealth and a comfortable lifestyle, many simply did not want to contemplate something as ghastly as this was going on.
ECLUB: But now the monster has broken cover….
PHILLIP DAY: It had to.
ECLUB: Why?
PHILLIP DAY: Because the final 300-yard dash towards this European state has to be done in the open, and that's what everyone is now seeing. The British government is of course denying the British the right to vote for their own future and engage in a referendum on the constitution.
ECLUB: Because they know they will lose it?
PHILLIP DAY: Precisely.
ECLUB: Will the people stand for it?
PHILLIP DAY: Probably not. My prediction is, that if the EU constitution is forced upon the British people without their full consent, they'll be civil disorder. If the EU constitution is such a great idea for Britain, why not let the British people make up their own minds, especially over changes to our way of life that will be so extreme and fundamental?
ECLUB: You've often said that if the constitution is put through in anything like its present form, it will guarantee war in Europe in 10 years.
PHILLIP DAY: Yes, it's a shocking prediction, but many share it. For instance, the economic system devised by the EU for Europe is incredibly inflexible and already proving a disaster. You simply cannot tie 25 states into a 'one-size-fits-all' economic policy with no movement of labour in the hope that everything will smooth itself out. Ireland's economy is now overheating, while Germany is in a squall of recession. There's nothing those nations can do now to adjust their own interest rates or other economic levers to remedy the situation. EU economic policy must henceforth be decided on the basis of what's good for Europe - and decided by people, for the first time, that you cannot sack. If the currency in Europe fails, they'll be an economic seizure. Civil disorder and hyperinflation have historically always followed such events.
ECLUB: What other time bombs are there?
PHILLIP DAY: Within 15 years, the first of the baby-boomers will hit retirement age. Europe has written pensions of some $1.3 trillion for which it has no underpinning assets. The UK is due to inherit its share of this debt. We are, in effect, lashing ourselves to an economic time-bomb in the pensions sector alone, which has set an ominous date with destiny in the short-term future of Europe.
ECLUB: Presumably, the euro-federalists see that they have a small window of opportunity with which to usher in their new state.
PHILLIP DAY: I think that some rash decisions have been made to advance their agendas, not just on the statist side, but also corporately, as we are seeing in the pharmaceutical industry. I believe that many feel that the time has now come to get it done, and done quickly.
ECLUB: This edition of the EClub bulletin has some fascinating information about these current events.
PHILLIP DAY: These really are exciting times, and there is much each citizen can do to help thwart these devastating changes to our way of life. Whether it is on the political front, economics, social issues or the medical side, inaction and apathy are really no longer an option if we want to remain in control of those checks and balances which have traditionally stood sentinel over the safety of our peoples.
RESOURCES:
Ten Minutes to Midnight
Vigilance
Available through www.credence.org
Britain and the EU
The Newspapers Seem to be Waking Up At Last
WITH scarcely a word of debate, the biggest change to our way of life
since the Normans landed in 1066 is planned. The European Constitution,
drawn up by a former French President with the full support of Tony Blair,
will DESTROY our democracy; LOSE US our liberty; and SACRIFICE our sovereignty.
To refuse us a free, fair and binding vote on the future of our nation
would be a cynical denial of our democratic rights.
Full story at http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,31-2003221298,00.html
The Sun, 19th May 2003
RESOURCES:
Ten Minutes to Midnight
Vigilance
Available from www.credence.org
Europe: Who's Telling The Truth?
by Simon Heffer
Yesterday, Mr Blair's Mr Fixit described the EU constitution as a mere 'tidying up' exercise. Here, a Mail writer offers his own vision of what life will be like as a citizen in the United States of Europe….
Even now, I still can't get used to the fact that my postal address ends 'Eastern Region, Province of England, United States of Europe'. It symbolises nicely what we have lost since that ghastly day just before the 2005 General Election when Tony Blair used the Parliament Acts to overturn the House of Lords' rejection of the European constitution.
The peers, like many MPs in the Commons, were appalled that Britain's independence and centuries of history should be signed away using Labour's massive majority.
There was no referendum: Blair knew he could never win one. Even though the final surrender of sovereignty had not figured in Labour's election manifesto, it was steam-rollered through and 1,000 years of self-determination were at an end.
The change of name to 'Province of England, United States of Europe' was just the first sign. Almost as soon, we were all instructed to attend local identification centers to be photographed and be issued with our new United States of Europe (U.S.E.) identity cards - visible proof that Brussels law took precedence over our own.
The new Europol, whose officers roamed throughout the 25 former states, now have formidable powers. They can stop people at random and ask them to produce an ID card. In the early days, when a few criminals chose to fight back, there were unpleasant scenes. As a result, Europol agents now only ever try to stop those who look middle-class and respectable.
All of us know someone who has fallen foul of the new criminal code. Inevitably, those who have are not remotely the type of person that anyone would think of as criminals. It is especially dangerous to go abroad - or to what we must now call another 'province' of the U.S.E.
There are many tales of people who had just returned from a happy holiday in the Algarve having the early morning knock from Europol, and being carted off to Faro to be dumped in a sweaty cell for an offence they swore they had not committed.
'The trouble with the English on holiday,' the U.S.E. High Representative for Foreign Affairs had quipped in a celebrated aside, "is that they all look the same."
However, it could take months or years for a case of mistaken identity to be proven. And in any case, since the U.S.E. criminal code has no habeas corpus, you could not only be removed from Britain to face charges without a right of appeal, you could spend two years in jail before any charges were preferred.
It wasn't that much better, of course, if you committed an offence at home. Trial by jury was abolished, not least because it was dangerously democratic, but also because it interfered with the new Europe-wide code of guilt until proved innocent.
With travels across the Channel so perilous, we started instead to go to the English seaside for our holidays again, only to find that once genteel resorts like Rock, Lyme Regis or Brancaster were under a dusk till dawn curfew because of their new role as official reception centers for the U.S.E.'s illegal immigrants.
Reserving the right to interfere in member states social policies, the U.S.E Politburo had decided that, given England's massive experience at welcoming illegals, it would be used to process all those who came into the new superstate.
By the 2009 General Election, feelings were running high about this.
However, once it was made clear that the purpose of the 'provincial' British Government would now be merely to execute orders given by the Politburo, rather than to initiate any laws the people of Britain might want, turnout slumped.
Since what now passes for the British parliament in Westminster was allowed only to pass laws approved by the Politburo, it could not even debate repealing the various Acts of Parliament that had got us into this mess.
The General Election turnout was 19 per cent and was taken by Brussels as proof that the people of Britain were so happy with the new order that they saw no need to vote.
Incidentally, the new laws which allow anyone from any part of the U.S.E. to stand in elections anywhere in the superstate also led to some confusion. For example, voters in one constituency faced a choice between a Finn, a German, a Maltese and a Slovenian.
With each month that passed, the loss of power was brought ever more cruelly home to us. First, with the European law now overriding British law, the U.S.E. forced the people of the 'British regions' to start using the euro, in view of the Politburo's call for 'ever closer economic co-operation'.
Since we had already lost control over so much else, we accepted this with sullen resignation. It was, though, only the beginning of our economic horrors.
Suddenly our mortgage rate was set from Frankfurt, of course. Because of rampant inflation caused by a glut of money in the new, small Eastern European countries that were being heavily subsidized to join the U.S.E., it had to be set considerably higher than conditions in the regions of Britain required. The people, of course, could do nothing about it.
The need to finance 'cohesion' in the more economically backward countries proved expensive. VAT was harmonized first at 20, then at 25 per cent. The basic rate of income tax was harmonized at 30 per cent, with new50, 60 and 70 per cent bands for higher earners.
By now, the Second Cold War - -this one between Europe and America - is entering its fifth year. Britain is no longer allowed a foreign policy, and the U.S.E. has decidedly rocky diplomatic relations with the U.S.
Not a day passes without America's superior wealth, military power and freedoms being mocked by eurocrats - in truth because their universal superiority is so feared.
Many in Britain, recognizing that our traditional values are similar to those found in America, feel that we have ended up on the wrong side of this great divide.
Foreign policy in the U.S.E. exists largely to secure French commercial power in some of the world's more unsavoury regions - which is, of course, merely a formalisation of what already existed.
What remained of our historic ties with the Commonwealth has gone. Australia, New Zealand and Canada became republics. Such great nations felt they could not have a head of state who now solely rules over a 'Province'.
The Queen herself has been deeply troubled by the U.S.E. constitution, which she regarded as a breach of her Coronation Oath to rule her people in accordance with their laws and customs. A woman of impeccable honour, she felt that since her country's sovereignty had now ended, she could not be its sovereign - so she abdicated.
She had noted that Mr Blair ha gone more regularly for audiences at the presidential palace in Brussels than to her at Buckingham Palace. The Queen realized that she, like her Government, had become an irrelevance in the new order.
Our great military tradition has all but crumbled too. British soldiers disliked swearing an oath to the U.S.E. and being commanded by the French and Italian generals in the new Euro-army.
Then there are the minor irritations. People are still being killed in road accidents because motorists have not got used to the directive that everyone must drive on the right.
Since compulsory metrication, several shopkeepers have been in jail for three years, without trial, for daring to sell potatoes by the pound.
Had the British people had a say, of course we would not be in this position. Many have taken drastic action and left this country for America or Australia, or for the Costa de Sol. If you have to live under the European jackboot, they argue, it might as well be in a decent climate.
One individual, of course, has done well out of it: the current President.
They toyed with the idea of electing Tony Blair when the vacancy arose a couple of years back but, in consideration of his scant regard for democratic processes, decided that would set an awkward precedent: so he was simply appointed instead.
He always enjoyed hobnobbing with people who ran superpowers. Now, he thinks he has one of his own. But, as with America and the Soviet Union in the first Cold War, one draws its strength from the freedom and consent of its people, the other from the sheer might of the state machine. The second of those power bases is always unsustainable, for it suppresses the human spirit.
If Blair knew anything about history he might know
that sometimes it does repeat itself. Our only hope now is that it will.
Daily Mail, 14th May 2003
RESOURCES
Ten Minutes to Midnight
Vigilance
Available through www.credence.org
The Irates of Penzance
A salty old sea dog from Cornwall is planning a raid on the Tower of London - by boat. Penzance fisherman Mick Mahone intends to chug the whole way round the South Coast of England, up the Thames and under Tower Bridge to post a copy of the Maastricht and Nice Treaties through Traitors' Gate.
"We're just at the planning stage," roars the gloriously politically incorrect Mahone from the decks of his 29ft stern trawler, the J-Anne.
The trip will be done in the name of the UK Independence Party, which Mahone supports with all the might of his Captain Birdseye beard.
"We'll be coming via Brixham, Cowes, Portsmouth, Brighton and Dover," continues Mahone who has little in common with that other great sailor, Sir Edward Heath.
Indeed, if you mention Heath's name you get the most violent, timber-shivering crepitation.
"I've already had contact with Thames Boatmen and they are talking about escorting me up the river with a flotilla of small boats," Says Mahon, who will not yet disclose the exact date for his arrival at Traitors' Gate.
He must give the J-Anne a good swab down.
At present she smells rather strongly of sardines -
as fishy, you could say, as the European Commission.
'Peterborough', The Mail, 6th May 2003
It's Time to Put Up or Shut Up on the Euro
by Richard Littlejohn
What have you been talking about over the last few days - "I'm a Celebrity", whether the house needs decorating, where shall we go on holiday, shame about West Ham? It's a fair assumption that the one thing not on the tip of your tongue was the euro.
Yet until Clare Short spat the dummy yesterday, the political classes seem to have spoken about little else. It's like an illness with them. As far as The Guardian on Saturday was concerned, the most important thing which had happened anywhere in the world in the previous 24 hours was that an outfit called Britain in Europe might fold unless Tony Blair promises to scrap the Pound immediately.
Oh dear, how sad, never mind.
Ever since the war in Iraq finished, the pro-euro crowd has been on the rampage, cranking up the hysteria with the enthusiastic encouragement of the BBC. The truth of the matter is that nothing has changed. Whatever Gordon Brown says about his magic five tests, there is no great appetite for joining the single currency. If anything public opinion has hardened against it.
So where does Leader of the Commons John Reid get the idea that "the decision is not whether we will join the euro but when will we join the euro"? Oh, yeah? That decision isn't his to take. Or Blair's, or the Cabinet's.
The British people will decide in a referendum, not on when we join, but if we join. And all the indications are that we will overwhelmingly vote "no". The economic argument in favour of scrapping the Pound has been blown apart. All those dire warnings that millions of jobs would be lost and the economy would collapse if we didn't join have been exposed as the lies they always were.
Britain has prospered outside the euro, while unemployment on the Continent has rocketed. Germany, once the powerhouse of Europe, is a basket case, for the simple reason that it no longer has control over its own economic destiny. Most Germans want the deutschmark back.
Inward investment has fallen in Britain, but that is largely as a result of American companies drawing in their horns since 9/11. It will recover as the American economy bounces back on the strength of President Bush's tax-cutting programme.
We were told that businesses would relocate to countries within the eurozone. So why has Vauxhall this week announced that it will build the new Astra in Britain? The pro-euro gang yesterday wheeled out a couple of dozen businessmen to bang their gong. It was an unrepresentative sample and nothing we haven't heard a hundred times before.
Polls regularly show that two thirds of British businesses want to keep the Pound. The euro has always been about politics, not economics, a central plank in the construction of the United States of Europe. Blair has been content to allow the argument to focus on the euro, hoping he could slip the new European Constitution - which would sound the death-knell for Britain as an independent nation - under the radar.
That's not going to happen either. He's been rumbled as people have woken up to the threat of being swallowed by the new superstate. If Blair thinks he's getting that through without the consent of the British people, he'd better prepare for a backlash which will make the squabble over the euro look like a mild disagreement at a church tea party.
Britain belongs to the British people. So does the
Pound. It does not belong to Blair or any other politician. If he wants
the euro, he should hold a vote on it now. It's time to put up or shut
up.
The Sun, 13th May 2003
RESOURCES
Ten Minutes to Midnight
Vigilance
Available through www.credence.org
The EU: Slow March Toward Constitution
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
When Tony Blair agreed to the European Convention at the Laeken Convention
in December 2001, it was billed as no more than a 'brain-storming' forum
to talk about reshaping Europe's machinery for an enlarged Union of 30
or more states.
It has mushroomed into something much more ambitious. Its president, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, kicked off 15 months ago by announcing that the 105 'Founding Fathers' would be drafting a 'constitutional treaty', a term that has now evolved, simply, into the 'constitution'.
The forum is supposed to deliver a final text in time for the Salonika summit on June 20th, though it is now becoming a frantic race to cope with more than 1,500 amendments.
In theory, the convention is a balance of Euro-MPs, MPs and national envoys from 28 current and future EU states, plus two European commissioners, but is in fact dominated by Brussels insiders who know the system. Federalist Euro-MPs have formed a coherent bloc, while the well-briefed commissioners have teams of lawyers. The MPs from national parliaments are mostly isolated and out of their depth.
The constitutional text is drafted by M Giscard's 13 man steering committee, known as the Praesidium, and is dominated by those pushing an integrationist agenda.
Britain's sole member, Gisela Stuart, is a Labour MP who grew up in Bavaria but is now a stalwart defender of British sovereignty. She can count on just one full ally, a Dane. In the New Year she warned Mr Blair that the convention was going badly wrong and could turn into a strategic disaster.
The first set of articles released in February stunned the Government. They stated that the EU should be run on a 'federal basis' with its own legal personality.
Article 9 stated that 'the Constitution, and law adopted by the Union Institutions in exercising competences conferred on it by the Constitution, shall have primacy over the law of member states'.
While the drafters contend that EU law already has primacy, this is highly controversial. The member states acquiesce as a matter of daily practice, but do not all accept the principle. Germany's highest court rejected the primacy claim in the Brunner case in 1993, stating that it reserved the right to review EU law.
In effect, the text forces Britain and other states to confront an issue of fundamental importance that has been left ambiguous until now.
Article 11 establishes EU competence over almost every area of national life, including public health, the environment, economics, social policy, energy, justice, farming and fishing.
Member states are forbidden from legislating in these areas unless Brussels agrees to waive its power.
Article 5 says the Charter of Fundamental Rights 'shall be an integral part of the Constitution', bringing a raft of economic and social rights that do not exist in British law under the full jurisdiction of the European Court.
Article 16 creates a catch-all 'Flexibility Clause' that allows the EU to circumvent Westminster and take 'appropriate measures' where 'necessary'.
When Peter Hain saw the text he exploded, saying the Praesidium had been hijacked by euro-fanatics and had a 'great deal of explaining to do'.
The Government supports many of the integrationist plans. It backs the idea of a full-time EU president elected by prime ministers, along with an EU foreign minister. It accepts that justice and home affairs should be 'Communitised' for the first time and made subject to majority voting.
As for the offending articles, Downing Street now dismisses them as nothing more than an opening bid, saying the worst excesses would be taken out before the full draft is released. If they are not, they will run into a British veto in the next phase of process, the 'inter-governmental' treaty talks likely to start in October and last until next Spring.
There, in the closed-door sessions, countries that have kept their misgivings to themselves so far are expected to tuck in quietly behind the British - as always.
"This is a match of two halves and we
haven't even begun the second half," said one British official.
Daily Telegraph Friday, 16th May 2003
The AIDS Debate:
The Most Controversial Story
You've Never Heard.
Liam Scheff, The Boston Dig, 3rd May 2003
What about AIDS in Africa?
Rasnick: "It's the same story, even worse. Fifty percent of Africans
have no sewage systems. Their drinking water mixes with animal and human
waste. They have constant TB and malaria infections, the symptoms of which
are diarrhoea and weight loss, the very same criteria UNAIDS and the World
Health Organization use to diagnose AIDS in Africa.
These people need clean drinking water and treated mosquito nets [mosquitoes carry malaria], not condoms and lectures and deadly pharmaceuticals forced on pregnant mothers. We've put 20 years and $118 billion into HIV. We've got no cure, no vaccine and no progress. Instead we have thousands of people made sick and even killed by toxic AIDS drugs. But we can't just treat them for the diseases we know they have because if we do, we're called 'AIDS denialists'.
Treating them for the diseases they actually have would be more humane and effective than forcing toxic drugs down their throats, and it would also save billions of tax dollars. AIDS is a multi-billion dollar industry. There are 100,000 professional AIDS researchers in this country. It's as hard to challenge as Big Tobacco at this point". More at http://www.weeklydig.com/dig/content/3168.aspx
CTM COMMENT: The above article was posted to us by Christine Maggiore at AliveandWell.org. While not agreeing with the main content of this weekly online magazine, The Boston Dig resolutely takes on the AIDS industry in this series of ground-breaking articles on AIDS. Ground-breaking because so few publications actually dare go as far in exposing the corrupt nature of establishment AIDS theory. If you wish to write a letter to the editor encouraging the magazine to continue this coverage, write to: letters@weeklydig.com.
For the full story on AIDS and HIV, please refer to the Credence title World Without AIDS at www.credence.org
Erin Brockovich Battles for
School Cancer Victims of Beverly Hills
By Charles Laurence
ERIN BROCKOVICH, the "toxic tart" campaigner made famous
after being played by Julia Roberts in an Oscar-winning Hollywood performance,
is embarking on a new legal crusade.
She has taken up the cause of 216 graduates of Beverly Hills High School who claim that poisonous gases from oil wells beneath the school's playing fields gave them cancer.
Ms Brockovich, now the head of research at a Californian legal firm, says that she has identified a "cancer cluster" among former pupils of the elite school, whose alumni include the actors Nicolas Cage, Alicia Silverstone, Carrie Fisher and Richard Dreyfus, the conductor André Previn, and Monica Lewinsky, the former White House intern.
Ms Brockovich has filed personal injury lawsuits against the city of Beverly Hills, claiming that cases of Hodgkin's disease, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and thyroid cancer among former pupils are running at 20 times the national average. She says that the cancer has been caused by illegally high levels of toxins - including benzene, hexane and toluene - rising from the 18 wells, and has warned that the damages could run into hundreds of millions of dollars. Beverly Hills is an affluent enclave of Los Angeles, favoured by Hollywood's biggest names. The city authorities deny liability.
The wells produce $1 million a year in royalties for the school board and the city. Last week, however, the pumps were shut down after tests disclosed high levels of benzene.
Ms Brockovich told The Sunday Telegraph: "It's Beverly Hills, and I don't want to believe it either. You look at the glamour and beauty, the sunshine and happiness, and to think that something like cancer lurks underneath is a place we just don't want to go".
Nonetheless, she said, her research convinced her that the oil companies involved in running the wells, and the city and school officials, had been negligent.
It is no secret that the school's football fields, grandstands and a running track were built on top of an oil field. An old-fashioned derrick known as the Tower of Hope, decorated with wooden panels painted by sick children in Californian hospitals, rises behind the stands and has become a local landmark.
According to Ms Brockovich, however, many parents and pupils did not realise that the wells beneath the school, which opened in 1928, were still active. "Something deceitful happened here and I think that the parents and the teachers have a right to know", she said.
"It was only after we investigated that we found there were 18 wells pumping away at full speed. The city was making a million bucks a year, and they were not eager to publicise it."
Tests carried out by her law firm claim that the toxins were present at levels up to 400 times the legal limit. Los Angeles air quality officials and the oil companies have denied her claims, and question the links between the toxins and the cancer types.
Larry Meriage, a spokesman for Occidental Petroleum, said: "I have no idea what kind of fishing expedition these guys are on." Dr Gwen Cross, the area's superintendent of schools, refused to comment on the allegations in any detail but said: "The welfare and safety of our children has always been our prime concern."
In the case dramatised in the eponymous film, Erin Brockovich was a down-on-her-luck single mother of three who landed a lowly clerical job in a law firm run by Ed Masry (Albert Finney) and went on to win $300 million (£188 million) in damages for cancer victims.
Her crusade centered on the town of Hinkley, California, where 600 residents were struck down by cancer after the Pacific Gas and Electric Company polluted the water with an industrial solvent.
She took on her latest cause after Lori Moss, 28, who left Beverly Hills High in 1992, approached her at a book reading and told her how she had been diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease at the age of 22. She fought the cancer into remission but 18 months ago was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
"Erin immediately wanted to know if there had been anything in the environment where I grew up," said Ms Moss. "I thought it was just a tough hand from God."
Ms Brockovich, however, later came across three further victims of similar cancers, all of whom had attended Beverly Hills High. Ms Moss was also able to put her in touch with two other young graduates whom she had encountered at the oncologists' offices. "All of the pieces fit the puzzle," said Ms Moss. "When I was at school we did physical education every day on that track, and I was always getting headaches. My Mom joked that it was a brain tumour."
Mr Masry said that the lawsuits could target Chevron-Texaco and Occidental Petroleum, whose corporate ancestors developed the Beverly Hills fields. He said that 25 redundant wells under the grounds had been found to be "inadequately sealed", and could have been responsible for leaking toxins.
Michael Edwards, the vice-president of Venoco, a small
oil company that operates the pumps, said that his company had decided
to stop production last week after tests showed high toxin levels in a
piece of equipment designed to strip carbon dioxide from the natural gas.
He said that the equipment would be serviced and the company would reapply
for a drilling permit.
The Sunday Telegraph, 11th May 2003
Cough and Awe
SARS by Any Other Name
by CTM correspondent Steve Ransom
Bigger than Arnie & Sylvester for the moment; bigger than Catherine & Michael; bigger even than De Niro & Devito, SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, has been front-page news the world over. But does the evidence so far support the claims that SARS is a dangerous 'new' disease? Is there sufficient cause for such widespread panic? Could SARS conceivably just be Systematic And Ribald Scare-Mongering?
On the strength of a few very un-extraordinary deaths
related to breathing difficulties and wheezing problems, the World Health
Organisation has issued a global warning that some kind of pandemic could
be imminent. Undeniably, from the outset, the public's fears have being
fuelled to the max. Professor Andrew Burd, a surgeon in Hong Kong interviewed
by the BBC, has this to say:
"With this SARS, we have colleagues fighting for their lives. We
have an invisible killer in our midst. We are at war, but our enemy has
no name, no identity. We are professionals and we have a job to do. This
reality easily eclipses the nightmare fantasies of Bush and Saddam. Now,
as I sit at home with my young son quietly sleeping and my wife pottering
in the background, I wonder what tomorrow will bring?"
Aren't professors supposed to be level-headed?
CREATE THE NEED
AND MEET THE DEMAND
To more seasoned observers of this latest 'crisis', perhaps a rather familiar
scenario might be taking shape. Rather than a new and dangerous disease,
could the SARS pandemonium be part of a wider business plan? Create the
need and sell into the demand? This is a common practice in many spheres
of business, and the drug industry is no exception. The British Medical
Journal recently featured an article entitled 'Selling Sickness: the Pharmaceutical
Industry and Disease-Mongering'. The report, which readers are strongly
advised to read for themselves, reveals the calculated manner in which
unnecessary fear of disease is instilled into the public mind, in order
then to market equally unnecessary drugs and related pharmaceutical services.
In the introduction to their study, the BMJ authors state:
"Pharmaceutical companies are actively involved in sponsoring the definition of diseases and promoting them to both prescribers and consumers. The social construction of illness is being replaced by the corporate construction of disease. Although some sponsored professionals or consumers may act independently and all concerned may have honourable motives, in many cases the formula is the same: groups and/or campaigns are orchestrated, funded, and facilitated by corporate interests, often via their public relations and marketing infrastructure.
A key strategy of the alliances is to target the news media with stories designed to create fears about the condition or disease and draw attention to the latest treatment. Company sponsored advisory boards supply the 'independent experts' for these stories, consumer groups provide the 'victims' and public relations companies provide media outlets with the positive spin about the latest 'breakthrough' medications."
THE BUSINESS TEMPLATE
A SCENARIO TO CONSIDER
From 14th March 2003 onwards, global news agencies were telling us of
various health authorities struggling to contain some kind of 'lethal'
pneumonia, apparently spread by air travellers across three continents.
And then, on the 19th March 2003, after a much-hyped race to track down
the cause of this apparently 'new' illness, (which, naturally, had been
immediately blamed on some kind of virus), researchers named a virus from
the paramyxoviridae family, apparently also responsible for conditions
such as mumps and measles.
"Thank God!" we cried. "The virus has been identified!" Or had it? A few weeks later, the 'expert' diagnosis of paramyxoviridae was superseded by another 'expert' announcement from a different virus laboratory, now telling us that SARS was caused by a mutated form of the common cold virus, known as coronavirus. "OMIGOD! Not a mutated virus, PLEASE!"
ALL RATIONALE WENT THAT-A-WAY
At this stage in the global drama, the international coverage had reached
almost complete saturation point. Incessant images of masked orientals
at airports, restaurants and shopping centres were being flashed up on
our screens, many people genuinely afraid of catching this new disease.
The world over, the only news we were being treated to was the threat
of SARS, how people were fleeing the 'encroaching monster', and how nations
should prepare. Strangely however, none of the news reporters bringing
us these SARS epicentre scoops ever wore those protective masks. More
on that later.
Almost a lone voice in all the hype, in the 27th April 2003 UK Observer, Dr Peter Marsh, a social psychologist and director of the social issues research centre at Oxford, stated:
"Humans tend to worry more about the unfamiliar and the improbable. It's foreign, it's eastern. The virus has been described as a 'time bomb'. There has been talk of it 'mutating'. Once you have that kind of imagery, then rational consideration, rational decision-making really goes out of the window."
Throughout the crisis, various senior health officials had been stating that because the SARS virus was a new, mutated strain, the only obstacle in the way of thwarting this global threat was the current lack of up-to-date testing kits, new antibiotics and new vaccines. Permission to research and manufacture these items had to be granted to the relevant authorities as soon as possible. Could the legislative decrees and associated massive funding be rushed through in time? Without the funding, the vital vaccines to combat SARS would be a good while away yet.
JUST ANOTHER DAY AT FORWARD
PLANNING
Is SARS following the standard business template? Is it just another day
down at the Big Pharma 'forward planning' department? Michael Fumento
noted in a recent edition of The National Post: "There's fame,
fortune, and big budgets in sounding the 'emerging infection' alarm and
warning of our terrible folly in being unprepared."
The authors of the BMJ 'Selling Sickness' paper summarise their report as follows:
· Some forms of 'medicalisation' may now be
better described as 'disease-mongering' - extending the boundaries of
treatable illness to expand markets for new products.
· Alliances of pharmaceutical manufacturers, doctors, and patients
groups use the media to frame conditions as being widespread and severe.
· Disease-mongering can include turning ordinary ailments into
medical problems, seeing mild symptoms as serious, treating personal problems
as medical, seeing risks as diseases, and framing prevalence estimates
to maximise potential markets.
Taking stock of general panic in the SARS marketplace so far, the pharmaceutical industries have every reason to expect significant financial returns from this latest campaign. Following the Pharma Biz 'everybody panic' template almost to the letter, there have indeed been frantic requests in Beijing and Hong Kong for 'necessary' testing kits, antibiotics and other medicines to reach the 'stricken' areas as soon as possible. His 'n' hers matching facemasks, along with masks for the household pets are selling very well. In many parts of South-east Asia, facemasks and household disinfectants have tripled in price.
ABC News recently reported what is perhaps the first SARS murder - a fatal stabbing. The victim sneezed. The assailant's plea was that he was afraid his victim was spreading SARS. But even as this tragedy was unfolding, a fierce marketplace battle had already begun as major pharmaceutical companies submitted various patents on the rights to products associated with the SARS virus, such as exclusive rights to subsequent vaccines and associated SARS paraphernalia.
SOME UNSETTLING FACTS ON
THIS 'NEW' DISEASE
The experts have been telling us that we have a new virus. To date however,
the actual evidence that SARS is a 'new illness' is remarkably lacking.
Going almost completely unnoticed in the frantic fuss, the Hong Kong health
minister was interviewed at the beginning of the 'crisis' by the BBC News
Night team. He admitted there was no definitive test for SARS and that
this illness is identified by a particularly vague set of symptoms. He
also admitted that its description covers a multitude of existing syndromes.
Surprisingly, the following guidelines are the most up-to-date definition
of SARS illness, taken from advice given by the US Centers for Disease
Control and featured on the Star Tribune Health Science page:
Health officials have developed these guidelines for suspected and probable
cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
· Respiratory illness of unknown cause since 1st February 2003.
· Temperature greater than 100.4 degrees.
· One or more symptoms of respiratory illness such as cough, shortness
of breath, difficulty breathing.
· Within 10 days of symptoms, the patient travelled to a place
where SARS has spread in the community or had close contact with a suspected
SARS victim.
Not one defining symptom distinguishing SARS from any other flu-like illness,
except international travel? IS it beyond the bounds of possibility therefore
that SARS is indistinguishable from other common pneumonia illnesses and
is leading to multiple misdiagnoses?
"We have no clue as to how she was diagnosed to be suffering from SARS as she was admitted after suffering a heart attack," Kumari's husband M.D. Somabandu said. Mr. Somabandu, who is contemplating legal action, charged that the hospital was at fault for the misdiagnosis and was responsible for his wife's death. "There's one hundred per cent negligence on the part of the hospital staff," he said.
The Bangkok Post tells of a Ms Wachira Thaichon who was misdiagnosed with SARS after initially going to hospital with bladder problems. Once she was suspected of SARS, she received five injections which cost 17,000 baht each. Both her arms became badly bruised. The hospital said the cost was justified because it had saved her life. The hospital also said it had to seal off the entire 11th floor where Ms Thaichon was being treated. Upon being released from the hospital, Ms Thaichon was made to sign an agreement that she would continue to stay in quarantine for another 10 days and wear a mask and gloves.
A DISMALLY UNSHOCKING SCOOP
It is interesting to note that in the United States during 2002, more
than 26,000 people died of common flu, most of whom were elderly, infirm
or very young. Yet, on the 27th April 2003, the UK ITV Ten O'Clock News
announced, with all gravitas, that 23 people had died from SARS across
South East Asia in a single day, 12 in Hong Kong and 9 in China alone.
While these deaths will of course be upsetting for the families, as far
as any lead story on a genuine outbreak is concerned, it is the archetypal
media damp squib. A most dismally unshocking scoop.
Doing a few simple sums, the US death rate of 26,000 per annum from flu works out at 71 deaths per day - this in a country of 290 million. The news of 9 deaths in one day in China equates to 8 times less the number of deaths in a day in a country with a population roughly 6 times greater. That is hardly sensational. Where are all the headlines drawing attention to this particular computation? Why are these and other rational observations invariably omitted from the reports? Instead, we are awash with charged, emotional accounts of a 'new disease' that, at the time of writing, has claimed the lives of just under 300 people worldwide.
Dr Peter Marsh again: "The fact is that 260
people have died. But for every Chinese person who has died, 10 million
have not. In an ordinary rational world, that sounds like quite good odds,
but not in this context. In this country, every year, 1,500 people are
killed falling down the stairs. The implication would be that people should
only be allowed to build bungalows."
And there's another unsettling fact. Whenever a death is attributed to
SARS, no information is ever supplied on those all-important mitigating
circumstances, such as the victims' age, general health, drug load, and
accompanying environmental conditions at the time. Any medical journalist
worth his salt should know that omitting such statistics from his report
is not only a complete, professional no-no, but is also dangerously betraying
the trust the public maintains in those who give them the news.
SOUNDING THE GONG ON THE SARS VIRUS
The only evidence that has been put forward by the medical community to
categorise SARS as a new illness is the claim that a mutated virus has
been identified. Yet no evidence has been proffered to the wider scientific
community which actually confirms this statement. Who really questions
a virologist? When was the last time you did? Nicholas Regush is the editor
of RedFlagsWeekly - an internet health page. He worked regularly as a
TV producer with Peter Jennings on World News Tonight, producing the health
news items. Regush states:
"The media are not only befuddled when it comes to SARS, but many
reporters 'on the story' are either stone deaf, blind, or just scientifically
'challenged'. Why are media reports repeatedly referring to the 'SARS
Virus' when it is far from scientifically clear what SARS is? And never
mind the cause of it. When a Canadian National lab reveals that a small
percentage of people who apparently have SARS do not show signs of the
'new' coronavirus, or show very little sign of it, shouldn't that sound
a GONG? After all, the GONG was sounded by scientists after many people
dubbed 'SARS victims' in Toronto turned up negative in a test for the
'new' coronavirus. Who knows what the Toronto deaths are all about? Coronavirus?
Really?"
SUPPOSITION AND ARTISTIC
LICENCE
We are told the image on the right is supposed to be the new SARS virus.
Yet it is only a computer-created model. It is merely a representation
of what a virus 'expert' believes is causing SARS. This picture is one
of several on a virus image web site, which sells such images to the press.
Readers are encouraged to visit this site, if only to gain insight into
the world of 'virus science'. Not one actual photograph of a SARS virus
exists. All imagery available on this site, and all others for that matter,
is supposition only, and mixed in with a generous amount of artistic license.
An interesting report is also available on how Roger Highfield, science
writer for the 'respectable' UK Daily Telegraph, intentionally used a
fake picture of a virus in a full-page spread promoting AIDS theory: "We
supplied Highfield with a number of images, but he specified he wanted
a computer graphic." The picture editor agreed that Highfield
had done a dis-service to his readership, which in the case of the Daily
Telegraph approaches two million."
AN INACCURATE TEST
Moreover, the Centers for Disease Control is currently using the Polymerase
Chain Reaction antibody detection test to determine the presence of this
'new SARS virus'. This highly complex technique is supposed to be able
to detect fragments of genetic material in the blood that allegedly indicate
the presence of certain viruses. It all sounds very grand until one actually
starts asking questions of the virus experts. In discussion with a Mr
John Parry, deputy head at the Colindale Virus Laboratory in the UK, he
admitted that PCR was not a precise tool for identifying any virus. Yet
the lab uses PCR every day for virus confirmation. Also, Mr Parry was
entirely unaware that Nobel Laureate Kary Mullis, the inventor of PCR,
had issued an official statement, spelling out his concerns that his invention
was being used by laboratories across the world to arrive at medical and
scientific conclusions for which his invention was not sanctioned, particularly
HIV testing. Colindale also uses PCR to 'determine' the presence of HIV
in blood samples every day.
NONSENSICAL TESTING
Confirming the paucity of so-called SARS testing, immunologist Frank Plummer,
the director of Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg,
stated recently: "Both Canadian and U.S. data show that only a
minority of people with SARS test positive for the coronavirus. It's puzzling.
We just need a lot more information."
The above phrase is surely worth repeating. Only a minority of people with SARS test positive for the coronavirus. Yet none of these failures in SARS theory have stopped these same experts racing ahead anyway to work out the gene sequence for SARS. Nicholas Regush again:
"And, oh what fun when two scientific teams
came up with the gene sequence (all the genetic material, supposedly)
for the 'SARS Virus'. So what? What does it mean to come up with the sequence
of something that may not even be a major player in a so-called major
killer epidemic? The problem is that some scientists have very big mouths.
They love going on TV, and telling the public about all their marvellous
discoveries. They are often not challenged because the 'interviewers'
are mindless about what to ask, or are afraid to upset the virus cart.
I mean, I'm impressed, okay, that the Canadian team in British Columbia
sequenced the 'SARS Virus' in just two weeks. But until someone tells
me in some detail what the net result of that sequencing truly means,
I'll refrain from referring to genetic material as the 'SARS Virus'. In
fact, I defy anyone in the scientific field to argue publicly on the basis
of available evidence that the cause of SARS has been adequately identified."
TRIPE FOR ALL
But these are all just 'trifling' matters to our health information outlets.
As far as SARS is concerned, none of these everyday, awkward realities
will bring any downward adjustment to official 'SARS death' statistics.
And of course, 'discovering' the gene sequence for SARS has paved the
way for the latest patents jamboree.
I was interviewed recently by BBC radio over the SARS 'crisis'. I was opposite a professor of bacteriology. It was obvious that he had never really been challenged about his work by somebody who could both critique viral theory and also remain relatively underwhelmed in the presence of a professor of bacteriology. During the interview, the professor must have repeated the phrase, "We have a new virus," about six or seven times. But once the all-important background to virus theory had been defined and contextualised for the listeners, the claims made by the professor sounded a good deal less impressive. As Regush stated, "They are often not challenged because the 'interviewers' are mindless about what to ask, or are afraid to upset the virus cart."
COGNITIVE POWERS PROFOUNDLY
CHANGED
For the TV and radio producers of those doom and gloom virus news reports,
tracking down qualified opinion in support of 'the threat of deadly disease'
is never difficult. And throughout this SARS campaign, there have been
plenty of 'qualified' medical experts available to comment on the 'frightening'
spread of SARS and the 'alarming' vaccine/antibiotics shortage'. Sadly
however, the unifying factor in almost all of these reports is the high
level of intellectual inconsistency in the debate.
This begs the question; what can happen to one's general powers of reasoning during the gruelling process of conventional medical training? In the seven or more years' training it takes to become medically qualified, even the sharpest of minds can apparently soon become bent out of shape. Dr Michael Greger, in his book Heart Failure, offers his own account of medical school, and quotes a number of doctors who describe the pressures to conform to the pharmaceutically-focussed curriculum the institutional party line. The inside front cover of Greger's book has the following quote: "Besides medical school, there is probably no other four-year experience - unless it be four years' service in a war - that can so change the cognitive content of one's mind and the nature of one's relationships with others." On the pressure to conform, one medical student in Greger's book contributed the following:
"Support from the rest of the student body, when present, often had to be obtained anonymously. One student told me, 'I agree with you, just not in public.' 'In public' meant in front of faculty or administrators. 'In public' meant in front of other students. The worry was that a student who spoke up about issues of conscience would have narrower career choices because of poor evaluations doled out by disapproving faculty."
In the midst of any so-called 'epidemic', many such cognitively-altered medical minds are available for interview, expounding their doom-laden beliefs with utmost sincerity. Dr Patrick Dixon is one such voice.
A DASH OF MEDICAL ERROR AND
A DASH OF
HOLLYWOOD IMAGERY - PRESCRIBED DAILY
Known for his seminars on 'global trends', Dr Dixon is pressing for stricter
controls to 'curb the threat' of SARS and believes this latest 'epidemic'
has the potential to become a real threat to global health. If allowed
to spread much further, warns Dr Dixon, SARS may become a wild-fire impossible
to put out. Interviewed on the 24th April 2003 BBC Breakfast News, Dr
Dixon stated that the British government should get properly prepared
for an inevitable epidemic. His 'Truth About SARS' website contains the
following: "We are in an urgent race against time, leading potentially
to many tens of millions of deaths over the next two years."
But haven't we all been here before with the AIDS scare-stories? Weren't
our screens filled with similar catastrophic Hollywood imagery? The truth
turned out differently. Unwarranted fear with a generous helping of medical
error was the AIDS and HIV prescription. Dr Dixon was at the forefront
of those early AIDS doom and gloom statistics. His book, The Truth About
AIDS, warned us of a pandemic of massive proportions on the horizon. The
opening chapter entitled The Extent of The Nightmare speculated that the
UK could be witnessing 18,000 AIDS deaths a year. The same book warned
against deep kissing, and suggested the pill and even sterilisation for
women who had been tested HIV positive.
FOLLOWING AN INCORRECT COURSE
WITH THE MAXIMUM OF COMPASSION
I telephoned Dr Dixon and pointed out the physiological dangers of the
contraceptive pill. I also asked him to comment on the medical evidence
sent to him and to everyone at management level within his organisation,
which highlighted the fact that the HIV test can react false positively
to some 60 different conditions unrelated to any virus. Given the potential
for such a high rate of 'false positives' from the HIV test, I concluded,
should he really be suggesting this test, let alone recommending that
such women should consider the irreversible sterilisation operation?
Accusing me of being a flat-earther, Dr Dixon has so far refused to seek ways of professionally resolving these crucial issues. Furthermore, Dr Dixon's same ghastly advice on sterilisation has not been omitted from his updated version of The Truth about AIDS, stored in electronic format on his website. Perhaps if enough people write in to him at patrickdixon@globalchange.com, the sterilisation advice at least would be removed.
We should also ask ourselves what sort of health and social policies might emerge, should our health system be run by decision-makers such as this? While there are a number of well-intentioned, caring people involved with Dr Dixon's AIDS care teams, the ability to follow an incorrect path with the maximum of compassion can occur in all walks of life, especially medicine. Dr Dixon has since gone on record to say that SARS could be deadlier than AIDS. Will Dr Dixon be tragically mistaken again? His Global Trend/Global Change website has reportedly received 5.5 million hits over the last twelve-month period.
OPERATION STERILISE BEIJING
On 23rd April 2003, Five PM News Hour contained an interview with a doctor
who had recovered from the so-called 'new disease' of SARS. Struggling
throughout the interview to make his illness sound dramatic, the doctor
actually admitted that SARS is not the fatal disease it is touted to be.
Undaunted by both the relative flatness of the interview and the admission
by the doctor that SARS was not so lethal, news anchorman Eddie Mayer
summarised the world headlines five minutes later, describing SARS as
'a deadly virus'.
The world watched as 'Operation Sterilise Beijing'
provided round-the-clock, masked disinfectant teams spraying down elevators
and pavements while masked pedestrians hurried on by. How reminiscent
of the UK's 2001 'Operation Sterilise The Countryside' - an equally risible
attempt to shock and awe us into believing that foot and mouth was 'highly
infectious' and could be halted if we waded through the hurriedly-erected
foot troughs scattered across the countryside. The disinfectant ritual
merely served to reinforce in the public mind that we were dealing with
a vicious virus on the loose. We believed the establishment line on FMD
because we unquestioningly participated in the 'boot-washing' mantra.
For a more factual account of the very uninfectious disease known as foot
and mouth and the political intent behind the recent mass-slaughter, please
refer to the Credence title, Plague, Pestilence and the Pursuit of Power.
TERRIFIED OF SARS?
THE BBC UNMASKED
Perhaps the most laughable inconsistency in SARS theory is seen in the
example set by television journalists reporting from the supposed 'SARS
epicentres'. If it's all so highly infectious, then why are they never
wearing the 'life-saving' face masks? On this note, I contacted the BBC
World Planning Department, where the coordinating supervisor for BBC Beijing
conceded that there was indeed a certain inconsistency in maskless reporters
announcing the spread of highly contagious disease to millions across
the world. She would send an email to Beijing, she assured me, to find
out why that was the case, but I should not be offended if I didn't get
a reply: "After all, we are dealing with an enormous and time-consuming
story."
Whatever your views on SARS, one thing is for sure. This latest hysteria will be serving the South-East Asian pharmaceutical infrastructure very well over the next few months. The knock-on business is likely to be considerable in the battle to appease the masses currently crying out for the full array of 'urgently required', anti-SARS paraphernalia. News from the experts that we face a 'mutated virus' can only add to the potential profit margin. The question is, can we in the UK resist the urge to panic? The UK Sunday Times, dated 27th April 2003, featured an article on SARS by columnist Richard Leakey, who gravely intoned, "… people in Britain are terrified of the SARS virus."
Speak for yourself, Mr Leakey. Speaking for myself,
if and when Emperor SARS does visit these shores, I will not be found
crushed up against the crowd-control barrier, marvelling at the grand
passing. I've seen this procession before. And every time, I see nothing
in the lead carriage but some still-born, shrivelled-up, shrunken, butt-naked
pharma-phantasm. The question is, will any of our respected, broadsheet
journalists break rank and admit the same? I doubt it. I'm still waiting
for any reply to my request for information from the BBC on the conundrum
of their maskless reporters.
JAIL FOR THE IRRESPONSIBLE
Perhaps more disturbing than all the inconsistencies, it seems that SARS
is paving the way for the introduction of potentially quite sinister legislation.
Enforced quarantine and restricted movement are being introduced into
the populations with relative ease. In Canada, for instance, within a
few days of the supposed outbreak, more than a thousand healthcare workers
had volunteered for home quarantine because of SARS. Otherwise, they faced
legal arrest and incarceration, as advised by the World Health Organization.
Canadian officialdom has been closing hospitals, restaurants, schools
and workplaces with only two deaths reported at the onset of the media
onslaught. The media has successfully whipped the population into a trembling
mass of masked and quarantined 'sheeple'.
On 23rd April 2003, the BBC announced that police in Australia have been
given new powers to round up and quarantine suspected SARS victims. Singapore's
prime minister has vowed to jail 'irresponsible' people who violate quarantine
laws. And, despite having no confirmed SARS cases, Japan has announced
plans to install a thermal imaging camera at Tokyo's international airport
to screen passengers. What's really going on? Are we witnessing some sort
of mass, social experiment? Even as I write this article, in the background
I can hear the latest UK radio bulletin telling us that UK Health Secretary
Alan Millburn is under pressure to bring in emergency powers to 'protect'
us from this SARS outbreak.
Despite the inconsistencies, the SARS juggernaut proceeds apace. The patents
on 'all things SARS' are already grinding through the mill. When will
all these new 'life-saving' products be on our shelves? Will we be scared
enough by then to submit without question to new vaccines, pills and potions?
For those concerned with protecting themselves from
any flu and pneumonia naturally, why not do what's right by your body
and strengthen your immune system with good nutrition and exercise? Get
informed on those 'wheels within wheels' and make informed, educated choices
for yourself and your family.
Achoo! Ahem! Oh no! A tickly cough at the back of my throat! Could I be
infected? Might they shut down the M25?
Will any of the news teams interviewing me be wearing masks, I wonder?
RESOURCES:
Plague, Pestilence and the Pursuit of Power
World Without AIDS
Health Wars
Available from www.credence.org
REFERENCES
'Hong Kong doctors identify killer disease',
BBC News, 19th March 2003 at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2862991.stm
Moynihan, Heath, Henry, 'Selling Sickness: the pharmaceutical industry
and disease-mongering', British Medical Journal online, BMJ, 13th April
2002
National Post, 28th March 2003
Moynihan, Heath, Henry, op. cit.
'Scared of SARS, man slays sneezer' at
http://www.abscbnnews.com/abs_news_body.asp?section=Metro&oid=21493
'SARS patent battle heating up', CNN News, 7th May 2003 at
http://money.cnn.com/2003/05/05/news/companies/sars_patent.reut/
BBC News Night, 2nd April 2003
Defining SARS at http://www.startribune.com/stories/1556/3848032.html
Wijeya Sunday Times, 4th May 2003 at http://www.sundaytimes.lk/030504/news/5.htm
'Sars misdiagnosis proves a costly and bitter experience', Bangkok Post,
29th April 2003 at http://search.bangkokpost.co.th/bkkpost/2003/apr2003/bp20030429/news/29Apr2003_news07.html
Regush, Nicholas, 'SARS and the befuddled media', RedFlagsWeekly at
http://www.redflagsweekly.com/extra/2003_may02.html
Scientific Stock Images Library at http://www.rkm.com.au/imagelibrary/index.html
Ransom, Steven, 'Telegraph Virus Reporting; the new plague?' at
http://www.whatareweswallowing.freeserve.co.uk/highfield.htm
'SARS deaths mount in Canada, Asia', UPI Science and Technology Newsdesk,
1st May 2003 at http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030501-035717-2143r
Regush, Nicholas, SARS and the befuddled media, op. cit.
Greger, Dr Michael, Heart Failure, 1999, online books at
http://upalumni.org/medschool/preface.html
Ibid.
'The Truth About SARS' at http://www.globalchange.com/sars.htm
Dixon, Dr Patrick,
The Truth About AIDS, Kingsway Publications, 1987. Dr Dixon's contention
that Africa is dying ultimately of a sexually transmitted disease brought
about by 'rampant trans-African truck drivers', etc., has attracted a
particularly large and loyal church following - a following that has the
capacity to do much good, yet a following that has so far declined to
question this populist stance. A survey carried out by Durex on national
sexual practices, for instance, found that the UK was the most promiscuous
nation by far. Yet where is the British AIDS pandemic? And then of course,
there's the infamous AIDS test, now known to trigger 'false positive'
to some 60 different conditions. Furthermore, so few of these workers
have any idea about the dangers of the AIDS drugs they are demanding for
this so-called 'HIV-ravaged' continent. Please visit www.whatareweswallowing.freeserve.co.uk/viramune.htm
for a look at some of these dangers. By refusing to even consider such
factors in the African AIDS debate (despite numerous official requests
to do so), Africa must now do battle with an army of well-meaning but
ill-informed AIDS outreach workers who are applying a dangerously incorrect
'care' hypothesis with the maximum of compassion. In their book AIDS,
Africa and Racism, Richard and Rosalind Chirimuuta contend that African
AIDS research has been built upon racist preconceptions, rather than objective
scientific reality. Say the authors, "At times, we have felt like
the boy who shouted that the emperor has no clothes, but we urge all Africans
never to feel overwhelmed by the weight of scientific opinion, which has
so frequently served the master race and not the truth." The
ongoing dissemination of errant data by Dr Dixon and other western AIDS
experts is severely impeding the path towards the correct and relatively
simple treatment for the environmental affliction known as African AIDS.
Sound nutrition, clean water and a general education away from completely
unnecessary AIDS drugs, meddlesome western corporatism and well-meaning,
misguided missionary zeal is the only triple therapy needed to see a swift
end to African AIDS. If there is a plague that threatens to engulf us
all, it is AIDS ignorance and gross medical error. For more information,
please see World Without AIDS, available at www.credence.org
ONE BILLION TO BE INFECTED WITH SARS WITHIN 60 WEEKS,
Daily Record, Wednesday 23rd April 2003 at http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/04/1603343.php
'WHO team probe SARS outbreak', Intelihealth News, 23rd April 2003 at
http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/333/29758/363758.html
Depardieu's Son Blames Antibiotics
As He Faces Loss Of Leg
by Catherine Milner
Guillaume Depardieu, the son of the French actor Gerard, is to have his right leg amputated next month after losing a long battle to save it following a motorcycle accident.
The younger Depardieu, who is also an actor, overcame agonising pain to star in a new film, Process, with Beatrice Dalle, which is being launched at the Cannes Film Festival this week. But while his follow stars preen for the cameras, Depardieu, 32 is preparing to take legal action against a hospital that treated him and the French government, which is responsible for the administration of the hospitals.
Depardieu claims that his body was so weakened by antibiotics and morphine prescribed by doctors since the accident seven years ago that infections refused to clear up and amputation became unavoidable.
"The fact is that hospitals could use alternative drugs that are much cheaper and cause much less damage," he said. "The drugs destroy antibodies so you can't defend yourself any more from infections: 80,000 people are contaminated each year in French hospitals and 10,000 die, which is more than die in car crashes."
Mr Depardieu's leg was "cut in two" after the accident in the St Cloud tunnel in Paris, when a suitcase fell out of the car in front of him. Three of his fingers were also torn off.
After 17 operations on his leg, he has now given up hope: the amputation is to take place on June 6. "I have talked to dozens of specialists, but there is nothing else to do," he told the Sunday Telegraph last week. "I have no knee left and barely any calf."
Depardieu frequently broke down in tears of pain between takes during the making of Process, a virtually silent film about a couple united by fear and misery. Mark Westaway, the film's producer, said: "Guillaume's performance in this film required, each day, a massive effort of will. He earned our deep respect the hard way. I was full of admiration."
Depardieu, who has appeared in more than 20 films - Pola X, based on an obscure Herman Melville novel, was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1999 - is worried about the impact the operation will have on his future. "It is all enormously demoralising," he said. "I don't know how I will feel about myself after the operation and don't know whether anybody will want me."
Although Depardieu lives near his parents and sister in the Paris suburbs, his relationship with his father has always been tempestuous and they were estranged for many years. More recently, they were reported to have made their peace. Last week, however, asked what his father thought of his plight, Depardieu said: "My father is like someone who walks on the other side of the street. He cannot help it - it is his nature."
Depardieu, who is seeking compensation for his injuries, hopes to meet Jean-Francois Mattei, the French Health Minister, next week to voice his criticisms of the country's health system. He has said that he will also sue one of the three hospitals - two in Paris and one in the south of France - that have treated him, but would not reveal its name. "I am going to fight this to the end," he said.
He believe that the powerful antibiotics he was prescribed severely lowered his resistance. He developed a staphylococcus infection in his leg after his fourth operation, which spread to his intestines. He says that his health has improved since he started using alternative medicine, but it is too late to save his leg.
After mentioning his intention to take legal action in a French magazine, he has received more than 10,000 letters of support from other patients who are angry about their treatment. He is now organising a class action against the government.
A spokesman for Jean Lienard, a senior partner of Lienard et Landon, the law firm in Paris which is representing Depardieu, confirmed that the case would be the first of its kind taken against the government.
"Mr Depardieu has set up an association to help those who have suffered in the way that he has," she said. "We have chosen two independent medical experts to examine him and also a selection of the cases he has been sent so that they can be put to the court.
The government is guilty of administering too many
antibiotics that make people weak. You go into hospital to get better,
not worse. It is a major problem in France."
The Sunday Telegraph, 11th May 2003
Doctors in the Pay of Drug Giants
Drug Companies Engage in Illegal Sales Practices: U.S. Issues Warning
Another practice condemned is when drug companies pay
doctors to listen to their sales pitches. This practice is also susceptible
to fraud and abuse. Moreover, drug manufacturers that give their sales
agents excessive bonuses and expense accounts may be intentionally motivating
their sales employees to use entertainment or other rewards to promote
drug sales. More at
http://www.mercola.com/2003/may/17/drug_companies.htm
CTM COMMENT: Just another reminder of the
unhealthy relationships fostered across the board in the conventional
medical paradigm.
Secret Plan for Fluoride in All Water
David Cracknell, Political Editor
MINISTERS are planning to allow fluoride to 'deprived'
areas. Only about 11% of the population receive fluoridated water and
the move is certain to spark a fierce debate. Although water fluoridation
has been proved to reduce tooth decay, critics fear it may also be linked
to increased risks of cancers, hip fractures, kidney trouble and even
birth defects. They see it as a form of 'mass medication', leaving people
no choice but to buy bottled water if they do not agree with the policy.
They point out that people can look after their teeth perfectly well by
using fluoride toothpaste. The documents reveal Tony Blair is personally
backing the plan to extend fluoridation. A document signed by health and
environment ministers last month concludes that opponents are in a minority
and that 'this minority should not be allowed to deprive health communities
from opting for fluoridation by insisting on an indefinite research programme'.
Full story at http://www.npwa.freeserve.co.uk/secret_plan.html
The Sunday Times, 11th May 2003
CTM COMMENT: Reading between the lines, this latest fluoride news represents a breathtaking assault on civil liberties, as well as human health. Please go to this story and find out also the valuable work being carried out by Jane Jones and all others involved at The National Pure Water Association.
The list of adverse effects of fluoride at
http://www.npwa.freeserve.co.uk/adverse_effects.html
makes for shocking but necessary reading. Make your feelings known. Write
to your local council and organise local protests. Please write to Trading
Standards and Advertising Standards Authorities voicing your concern.
The NPWA has provided specimen letters for you to cut and paste into any
word processor and send to: the Advertising Standards Authority and Trading
Standards Authority. your MP and local councillor. THIS IS MASS-MEDICATION
WITHOUT CONSENT AND IT MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO HAPPEN.
Swiss Do Not Bank on Fluoride
As ministers plan to extend fluoridation of tap water in Britain as 'a cheap and effective way of helping to prevent dental decay', the 16th May 2003 UK edition of Private Eye reports that authorities in Switzerland have just ended 41 years of putting fluoride in water for the exact opposite reason.
The Swiss say fluoride's supposed role in preventing
tooth decay "could not be proved by any study". In fact,
despite fluoridation, dental caries among children in the city of Basle
was increasing. Further, there were concerns about the potential adverse
health effects of exposure to fluoride, particularly on babies and young
children. Then of course there is the fact that less than 1 percent of
fluoridated water is used for cleaning teeth. Most goes down toilets or
drains. So apart from one small area in Spain, the only European countries
that remain wedded to fluoridated water are Britain and Ireland. For an
interesting report on the Swiss experience, go to
http://www.npwa.freeserve.co.uk/basel.html
Less than 1% of the fluoride in drinking water is actually used for 'prevention of caries', more than 99% of the fluoridated water is used for washing, cleaning, industrial production etc. and thus only pollutes the environment, a very undesirable imbalance.
Mailbag
Correspondence From Our Subscribers
Dear Phillip
I attended your meeting last night at Lancashire Cricket Club in Manchester.
As a working holistic therapist, I appreciate all your efforts/research
in everything you are doing. I was absolutely mind-blown after the interval
when you explained the implication of going into full European integration.
Thank you for making me aware of all the implications involved in not
only healthcare but our legal/monetary systems, etc. You are doing a great
job! - Irene, Manchester
Dear Phillip
I am a school teacher and have been living here in Stuttgart for 30 years.
Since I belong to various establishments that promote healing without
chemicals - I would like to help spreading the good news - the TRUTH you
believe and write about. If there are ways by which I can be of help,
please advise. God bless you! - Joanne W., Stuttgart, Germany
I have been a CTM member since Feb. 2003 and have lost my treasured possession,
The Health Review, winter/spring 2002/2003. I would really appreciate
you sending me another copy. - Sally C. Melbourne, Australia
Re- the lecture by Phillip Day April 13th at St Hill. Phillip, excellent
day yesterday. Looking forward to seeing another lecture very soon. -
Sly C., West Sussex, UK
What a load of self-righteous, political c**p. Remove me from your mailing
list immediately. - John B, Bedford, UK
What you say reflects my own concerns about health, nutrition and vested
interests, and I agree there needs to be a unified voice to make the point,
so I will be interested to hear more about what you are doing. - Mary
R., Surrey, UK
It would be useful to see the proposals that you are putting forward to
governments/ companies and the results of these issues being undertaken.
- Sheila M., York, UK
A light in the darkness of despair! - Norman B., Lincolnshire, UK
It's great. We need to get together on this. I care for my clients and
do not like the way modern medicine treats chronic, degenerative diseases.
- Jeremy B., Feemantle, Australia
It's about time that somebody told the general public what's really going
on. Hopefully, due to your high profile, people will begin to take notice
and believe what you say. Hopefully, too they will also realise that they,
as individuals, are not helpless and can do something, however small,
to help. - Mrs P. West Midlands, UK
I was thrilled to find your magazine with all the informative articles
relating to the truth in medicine. I am anxious to read more. - Ann
M., Oklahoma, USA
Very interested in keeping in touch with what is happening. - Ms J.
S., West Sussex, UK
Thank you for the valuable information. - Vincenzo C., NSW, Australia
Heard through Post on Channel 4 'Dying for Drugs' discussion board forum.
How can I get involved personally? - Emma M., Kent, UK
Could Papaya Be The
Miracle Cure For Parkinson's?
(It Seems to be Working for the Pope)
by James Le Fanu
Having spent Holy Week in Rome, I am able to confirm the remarkable improvement in the Pope's health. Now 83, he has been increasingly afflicted with Parkinson's in recent years, and has shown all the characteristic symptoms of poor mobility, shaky hands and slurred speech. But there was little evidence of any of these during the Easter blessing he gave from the balcony at St Peter's. His gestures were decisive, the tremor had all but disappeared and his speech was clear and coherent.
Vatican sources attribute this apparently miraculous improvement to Dr Luc Montagnier, who visited the Vatican last year. He suggested that the Pope take a supplement that includes extract of papaya, an anti-oxidant rich in vitamins. Apparently Dr Montagnier has been investigating the therapeutic value of papaya since observing, on a trip to the Philippines, that the locals who consume it in vast quantities 'tend to live long and healthy lives'.
Family doctor Graham Hunter, from Bexhill-on-Sea, who
kindly drew my attention to the details of the papal cure, which is available
in this country from Holland and Barrett as 'chewable papaya enzyme',
tells me that four of his patients with Parkinson's are now taking the
supplement and he 'is awaiting the comments with interest'.
Daily Telegraph, 29th April 2003
Tweedledee and Tweedledum
Ritalin and Cocaine
A new study that casts doubts on whether Ritalin use for youngsters makes them susceptible for drug abuse later in life has sparked people's attention to a little-known fact: Ritalin reacts in Junior's brain similarly to cocaine. Yes, it's true: Methylphenidate (generic moniker for the brand-name drug Ritalin) targets the pleasure-producing centers of the brain - those that produce dopamine - the same way cocaine does.
Dopamine is the neurotransmitter that makes the physical side of life fun and pleasurable. When you eat chocolate, for instance, your dopamine level rises and you get a shot of 'happy juice'. If you relied on chocolate for continual euphoria instead of an occasional pick-me-up, however, you'd get quite fat because your limbic system (in which dopamine does its duty) is designed to regulate the amount of the neurotransmitter in your system. To keep you from having too much, it reabsorbs the stuff; thus, it would be back to the Hershey's every little bit. Full story at http://www.rense.com/general37/ritalin.htm
SARS Potion Comes With a Rich Promise
A health drink said to ward off SARS has been launched
by Hong Kong's richest man, who says he will pay £14,000 to anyone
who catches the disease after using his product called VitaGain. Mr Li,
a septuagenarian property developer, claims he himself has benefited from
VitaGain during its trials. At a press conference, his son Victor, Cheung
Kong's deputy chairman, refused to say how much the health drink would
cost but insisted it would not be 'overly expensive', the Hong Kong Standard
reported. Customers are told they need to drink a bottle a day of the
concoction for 90 days to complete a course. Their immune systems will
then be shielded for a further 90 days before they need to start a new
course. Full story at
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/13/1052591789262.html
Sydney Morning Herald, 14th May 2003
CTM COMMENT: This is no more than elephant repellent marketing. Didn't
I mention that earlier this morning, before you came downstairs to turn
on your PC, I sprayed your front room with our fabulous new product, Jumbo
Gone? Please look carefully in all corners of the room. Has Jumbo Gone
worked? Have you found any elephants? I enclose Yuan 5,000 for the complete
course. I understand I need never worry about elephant infestation ever
again. No wonder Mr Li is Hong Kong's richest man. The full story on the
scam of SARS is available in this edition of eclub.
Shorts
DOCTORS SELLING DRUGS TO THEIR PATIENTS
Are doctors' offices being turned into salesrooms? Some, certainly. And this practice is drawing more criticism as it becomes more common even though it is perfectly legal. Why? Because a doctor who sells a patient a product may be behaving unethically and involved in a financial conflict of interest.
Doctors themselves (and their patients) are divided about the practice, as recent discussions in the medical journals have revealed. This is an issue that runs through both mainstream medicine and CAM medicine. Some doctors sponsor health product lines (even a hundred products or more) that could easily stock a big shelf in a pharmacy. The issue blew up recently when The New York Times revealed how cancer doctors were selling cancer drugs. The so-called 'chemotherapy concession'. And it turns out, this direct selling to patients brings in a total of hundreds of millions of dollars each year. More details of this practice of doctors selling directly to their patients are likely to surface, as conflict-of-interest issues in medicine are finally on the map.
MEDICAL JOURNALS REFUSING DRUG ADS?
Yes, it's true and may become a major trend. A new research journal, Annals of Family Medicine, will actually be supported mainly through dues (subscription). Six medical organizations (family medicine groups) have put this project together. If it works and the concept spreads, it could seriously challenge the status quo and distance editorial content from the awesome clout of drug advertising. The impact? Well, there is no need to get too excited about this right now, but it signals that some medical organizations are beginning to react to the corruption that plagues the medical field.
RedFlagsDaily Health Trend Forecast, 17th May 2003.
These and other health headlines are available at www.redflagsdaily.com
Anger Over Plan for Fluoride in All Water
by James Chapman - Science Correspondent
Fluoride is set to be added to drinking water throughout England and Wales despite controversy over the long-term health effects, it emerged yesterday.
The law is expected to be changed so that local authorities can compel water companies to add fluoride to water.
Environmentalists and consumer groups, who believe fluoridation has links to cancer, Down's syndrome and infant mortality, and can also damage bones, will be angered by the Department of Health policy.
Up to half of people drinking fluoridated water also exhibit a condition known as dental fluorosis - a mottling of the teeth.
Mass fluoridation has been blocked in several European countries and 50 U.S. cities, but studies have shown that the substance reduces tooth decay among children.
The NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination found that children in fluoridated areas suffered 15 per cent less decay because the enamel on their teeth was hardened, while there was no evidence of a bad effect on health.
Currently, about one in ten people in Britain drinks fluoridated water, with some companies adding it, while others refuse to.
Amendments to the Water Bill, expected to be introduced later this month, will shift responsibility for treating water from water companies to regional strategic health authorities. Campaigners say such bodies are more likely to agree to fluoridation.
A letter from Health Minister Hazel Blears and Environment Minister Eliot Morley said: "Those who remain adamantly opposed would be able to use water filters that remove fluoride or buy bottled water."
The letter, sent to John Prescott in his role as chairman of the Domestic Affairs Cabinet Committee, added: "Experience of oral health promotion projects shows that it is much harder to establish regular tooth brushing in deprived areas because of the costs of toothpaste and, perhaps, because of the less ordered lifestyles of families."
It added that opponents were in the minority and "should not be allowed to deprive health communities from opting for fluoridation by insisting on an indefinite research programme".
The ministers also pointed out the British Dental Associated supported fluoridation.
Research revealed children's teeth were three times healthier in and around Birmingham, where tap water has been fluoridated for nearly 40 years, than in Manchester, where it is not.
About five million people in England already have fluoride added to their tap water - in Birmingham, the West Midlands, and Tyneside - while another 500,000 on the eastern coastline get naturally fluoridated water. But Jane Jones, campaign director of the National Pure Water Association, said: "There will undoubtedly be a huge row about the renewed proposal to add fluoride to drinking water on a wide scale in the UK".
"This is nanny statism. It is outrageous. To medicate the whole population against their will is not the way to deal with tooth decay."
A Department of Health spokesman said: "The Government will be encouraging health authorities with particular dental health problems to consider fluoridating.
"No area would be expected to fluoridate without having undertaken a proper consultation, which established that the measure was strongly supported."
The fluoridation of water involves the addition
of chemicals based on the element fluorine. The substances also occur
naturally in vegetables such as endive and curly kale.
Daily Mail, 12th May 2003
Phillip Day UK Dates Coming Up
Got your tickets for Phillip Day's 'Let's Fix Britain' tour yet? Forthcoming venue locations over the next few weeks include:
Newcastle
York
Sheffield
Nottingham
Belfast
Dublin
Cork
Galway
Shrewsbury
Chester
Wolverhampton
Norwich
Ipswich
Newmarket
Luton
Steven Ransom UK Dates Coming Up
Steven Ransom, author of Plague, Pestilence and the Pursuit of Power, Great News on Cancer in the 21st Century and co-author of World Without AIDS, is currently on tour in the UK. Steven heads up Credence's research department and is a dedicated proponent of compelling truth into medical practice and research.
Forthcoming venue locations over the next few weeks include:
Eastbourne
Hove
Worthing
Bridport
Salisbury
Gloucester
Heathfield
More Excellent Talks
For anyone wanting to find out more about the European Union debate and become involved, do not miss an opportunity to listen to Nigel Farage, UK Independence Party Member of the European Parliament, and a passionate, articulate advocate for Britain's independence and her continued prosperity. No one knows the workings of the EU and their dangers to the free world more than Nigel, currently on tour throughout the UK, educating citizens on the issues involved.
Here is his schedule, which also includes other excellent speakers.
Thursday 29th May - WINCHESTER, Hants
St John's House (opposite King Alfred's statue),
Winchester
Commencing 7.30pm
Speakers: -
Nigel Farage MEP, UK Independence Party and Vice President, EDD Group
of the European Parliament;
Lindsay Jenkins, Author of 'Britain Held Hostage' and 'Last Days of Britain'