What is M. bovis?

M. bovis is a germ that primarily causes tuberculosis in cattle, but it may also infect and cause illness among other animals, including humans. In humans, M. bovis can cause a type of tuberculosis that may affect the lungs, lymph nodes, and other parts of the body.

How common is M. bovis tuberculosis?

In the United States and in other industrialized nations where few cattle are infected and milk is pasteurized, M. bovis causes less than 1% of tuberculosis cases in humans.

Since 2001, there have been 35 identified cases of M. bovis tuberculosis in New York City, the majority of which have occurred in Mexican-born adults or children born in the U.S. to Mexican parents.

Who gets M. bovis tuberculosis?

Anyone can become infected with M. bovis, but it generally occurs among people who eat or drink unpasteurized (raw) milk products produced in regions or countries where M. bovis disease is common in cattle, such as Mexico. Young children and individuals with weakened immune systems are at higher risk for disease.

How is M. bovis transmitted to humans?

Humans are generally infected by eating or drinking contaminated, unpasteurized (raw) milk products from areas where M. bovis is present in cattle. M. bovis can also be spread through the air when a person with the disease in their lungs coughs or sneezes. However, airborne transmission is less common than transmission through food.

What are the symptoms of M. bovis tuberculosis?

General symptoms of M. bovis tuberculosis may include fever, night sweats, and weight loss. Other symptoms may manifest themselves depending on the part of the body affected by the disease: disease in the lungs may be associated with a cough; lymph node disease may cause swelling in the neck; and gastrointestinal disease may cause abdominal pain and swelling, and diarrhea. In rare instances, a person may die if the disease is left untreated.

How soon after infection do symptoms appear?

Symptoms generally appear months to years after infection with M. bovis, but some people may never show signs of illness.

How is M. bovis tuberculosis diagnosed?

M. bovis tuberculosis is diagnosed by isolating the bacteria from sites of infection in a patient, such as lymph nodes in the neck or abdomen, or from sputum produced by coughing. Samples are sent to a laboratory for testing to determine if the bacteria is present.

What is the treatment for M. bovis tuberculosis?

M. bovis tuberculosis is treated with a combination of antibiotics.

Should a person with M. bovis tuberculosis go to work or school?

A person with disease of the lungs should not attend work or school until they have started treatment and have been told by a physician that they are no longer contagious.

A person with disease in other parts of the body, such as the lymph nodes or gastrointestinal tract, cannot transmit the disease to other people and can attend work or school.

How can I protect myself from M. bovis?

Do not eat unpasteurized milk products, especially those manufactured in countries where M. bovis is present in cattle, such as Mexico.
How do I know if a product is made from unpasteurized (raw) milk products?

A product that is unlabeled, or does not state that the product is pasteurized on the label may be made from unpasteurized (raw) dairy products. Do not eat these products.

Only eat dairy products that are labeled “pasteurized.”

The information, opinions and recommendations contained in this Material Safety Data Sheet are compiled from sources believed to be reliable, but I accept no liability or responsibility for the accuracy, sufficiency, or reliability or for any loss or injury resulting from the use of the information.

Newly discovered hazards are frequent and this information may not be completely up to date.

Charles Henry

BY MATTHEW GEORGE POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

Western Daily Press. . News

Gordon Brown was compared to bungling Mr Bean yesterday as the Labour funding scandal escalated in the House of Commons.

On another torrid day for the Prime Minister, opposition MPs ridiculed his competence and said his integrity was on the line.

Labour’s election fundraiser Jon Mendelsohn was the latest senior figure to be embroiled in the crisis, while an MP wrote to the police urging them to investigate.

Tory leader David Cameron delayed a trip to the US so he could savage Mr Brown at Prime Minister’s Questions.

And he said Mr Brown’s explanation of how tycoon David Abrahams gave £650,000 to Labour through go-betweens “beggars belief", warning: “This goes to questions of the Prime Minister’s own integrity.”

And he continued: “We have had 155 days of this Government. We have had disaster after disaster - a run on a bank, half the country’s details lost in the post and now this.

“His excuses go from incompetence to complacency, and there are questions about his integrity. Aren’t people rightly now asking: Is this man simply not cut out for the job?”

Liberal Democrat acting leader Vince Cable then joined in, with MPs laughing as he likened the PM to the fictional funnyman played by Rowan Atkinson.

He said the premier had suffered a “remarkable transformation in the last few weeks from Stalin to Mr Bean, creating chaos out of order rather than order out of chaos".

Completely unjustifiable. cond. . .

“From Stalin to Mr. Bean". . “Creating chaos out of order rather than order out of chaos!". . . Besides giving the Commons their finest entertainment of the year so far; and helping to soften David Cameron’s vicious ‘mauling’ of Gordon Brown; Vince Cable has shown he is head and shoulders above the other pretenders to the Liberal Democrat crown. . . Never again can anyone ever ask “What is the point of the Liberal-Democrats"; only “Whatever happened to New Labour?”

Charles Henry

LAW LORDS TURN DOWN APPEAL TO SCRAP HUNT BAN

Lord Bingham said the Hunting Act 2004 must “be taken to reflect the conscience of a majority of the nation".

BUGGERY WITH 16 YEAR OLD RENT BOYS IS OK!
(The Law was changed specially.)

BUT THERE WILL BE NO HUNTING WITH DOGS.

NOT PUBLISHED. . THE INSULT IS COMPOUNDED

Lord Bingham said the Hunting Act 2004 must “be taken to reflect the conscience of a majority of the nation". . The Nation who’s cities fringe society has become a veritable cesspit. . . . . What an absolute insult from the heart of the sewer to traditional country people. . Roll on the revolution.

Charles Henry

Joseph Stalin was Russian gentleman ‘Errol’. . . He was a Bolshevick I believe. . . Not very popular with democrats. . . I’m not sure about Mr.Bean. . . What is becoming clear however, is that the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats is head and shoulders above either of the current ‘pretenders’.

. . Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity)

Western Daily Press. . . News

The major expansion planned at Heathrow Airport will not slow down the success story at Bristol Airport it was claimed yesterday.

Proposals for Heathrow include a third runway and a sixth terminal, which will mean the airport will be able to handle nearly 50 per cent more passengers per year.

But Bristol International Airport aviation development director Tony Hallwood, said: “Six per cent of Heathrow’s passengers still originate in the West, and we would like to reduce this leakage.

“Flying from a regional airport is a more convenient, less stressful and more environmentally friendly option.

“We are already seeing changes in flying habits, with an increasing number of passengers flying direct to their destination from regional airports such as Bristol International, or connecting via international hubs such as Paris and Amsterdam.

“Capacity problems at Heathrow will inevitably see more passengers follow this trend.”

Bristol Airport; ‘a success story’? . . Now there’s a misnomer Editor. A story of deceit, beligerance, and abuse of democracy perhaps; and if the threat of global warming is real; gross stupidity.

Charles Henry

Without doubt ‘Errol’; this has been the most dangerous Government of modern times. . . Alistair Darling, the new Chancellor, has really just been the ‘Fall Guy’. . . The one left holding the baby.

I will let you off this time. It’s enough to make the Queen swear.

Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity)

Western Daily Press. . Features/Letters 21/11/07

I wasn’t going to write about fireworks, as I feel it’s a waste of time.

Why don’t the anti-hunt people do something - they say that they are for the welfare of animals. Well, my dogs are more terrified night after night than any fox getting chased once in a blue moon.

Now, as soon as you pull the curtains, they start to shake and pant with a look of fear in their eyes. They can’t cope with any noise now - not even heavy rain.

Earlier in the year, I had to have a bitch put to sleep after two years of trying everything. Then, after new year fireworks, she just completely went to pieces and ate her way through a door. We tried her sleeping with us - it didn’t work - and we’d tried everything else.

Displays are the only way, and only on November 5.

You don’t have Christmas Day or Halloween on a different day.

A Sawyer

Editor, this letter shows just how the anti-hunting fraturnity are poisoning some people’s minds. The equestrian world’s concerns over fireworks are just as great; if not greater than A. Sawyer’s. Even stabled horses suffer and you cannot take them to bed with you; though many might wish to.

On reflection Editor, my comment was ill-judged. Many are being misled, but A.Sawyer obviously feels the fox is getting undue sympathy. I share his/her concerns.

Charles Henry

PROGRAMME UNFAIRLY SLATED

Chris Rundle’s comments about Bill Oddie and the hugely popular Autumnwatch programme are quite remarkable - most unfair, and totally unacceptable to millions of us who watch this programme (as we also watch Springwatch) with great interest and excitement.

He must be a very cold person who, it would appear, doesn’t like animals of any kind - shame on him.

He’s probably a lonely, grumpy, miserly individual who doesn’t appreciate anything decent, normal, natural and as beautiful as all the creatures we see on this wonderful programme.

Peter Collett
Bristol

I think Peter Collett was missing the point Editor. . We all know babies are beautiful, but just how much gurgling and nappy changing do we really want to hear and watch. . If I see another BBC program telling me just how wonderful foxes are(so how wicked hunters are by implication), I’ll have to go to the abattoir and have my horns removed. . . Mind you, I did enjoy Bill Oddie’s program about bats.

Charles Henry

PILING ON THE MISERY FOR THE FLOOD VICTIMS

I am beginning to wonder if this country is still Great Britain or the Great British rip-off.

I refer to the great floods of Gloucester on July 20, 2007, as I know a chap made temporarily homeless due to the extreme weather conditions of that day.

Unfortunately, he was left with only the clothes he was wearing as all his possessions floated out of the door. Was he insured? Why, yes, he was. He had always paid his premiums on time and had never made any claims in all the years that his policy was running.

He put in his claim and it was duly accepted by the insurance company. They did pay up, though not quite enough to cover this chap’s complete losses. Then, two weeks later, the renewal notice came through the door of his still- wrecked home. His premium had increased by 100 per cent.

Why not shop around, his well-meaning friends and neighbours advised, for a new insurance company and a better deal. “Now, where did you say you lived, sir?” was the reply from the banks and insurance companies.

“Gloucester,” says the chap. “Oh dear,” say the banks and insurance companies. “We are sorry, sir. As you live in a high risk flood area, we are unable to provide you with any insurance cover!” There’s a surprise!

Undeterred, this chap rings round some of the bigger insurance companies, though when it comes to the question of “where do you live sir?", the answer becomes most unhelpful: “Oh, sorry, sir. As you seem to be in a high risk flood area, we are unable to insure you for contents in your property.”

If that wasn’t enough, this chap then receives a bill from the water company, wanting payment for water usage and waste from the period July to October, 2007.

Can you believe it? Not only has this chap not been able to live in his rented flat for the last three months due to flood damage and builders doing the repairs, but the water company wants him to pay for water that he has not used and is unlikely to use until at least January 2008.

R Haywood
A very frustrated flood victim
Gloucester

They are the ‘Upper Class’ R.Hayward; the new aristocracy; and we are ‘Lower Class’. . . They have to be able to afford to travel on the new high-speed link to The Continent and fly around the world. . 4x4s over 3 years old will soon be illegal. . ‘We must eat cake’. . Roll on the Revolution. .

Charles Henry

Western Daily Press. . . Features/Letters 20/11/07

Again, we see landowners across the Quantock Hills wanting to kill even more of our wildlife, and the less than honest methods they use to promote their bloodthirsty goals.

They claim to form part of the Quantock Deer Management and Conservation Group, but where is the conservation in this group?

I suspect that’s with the South West Deer Protection Group. It’s rather like the name used for rifle shooters, the British Association of Shooting and Conservation (BASC), which is actually all about shooting our wildlife.

It’s beginning to look like England’s blood-red land, rather than England’s green and pleasant land, isn’t it?

It seems full of Elmer Fudds, with cries of “kill the rabbit", “kill the fox", “kill the badger", “kill the deer", “kill the game birds". Oh, just kill everything that moves.

Next, the farmers and landowners will be demanding a Defra grant to undertake this cull and, in the same breath, calling for greater support for farmers.

What a mess they are in - and they say farming is in crisis? I wonder why!

Graham Forsyth
Chard

When an animal’s natural predator is removed then it needs to be controlled by artificial means. Otherwise it’s numbers will rise until it starts to exhaust it’s food supply. In the case of deer this includes growing trees.

Giles Bradshaw, Rose Ash

Would Graham Forsyth rather see school children and farming families struck down with antibiotic resistant strains of Mycobacterium-bovis TB Editor? . . Perhaps his diet of Looney Tunes cartoons when he was younger has permanently damaged his mind. “It was ‘wabbits’ actually Graham, and if he’d been a bit more successful they wouldn’t have had to introduce an unpleasant disease like myxomatosis".

Charles Henry

Graham is absolutely correct - I wish food in the shops was labelled to distinguish that which comes from farms that tolerate wildlife and that which comes from farms that persecute wildlife. Then decent consumers could boycott the latter, and, I for one, would be prepared to pay more for the former.

Terry, Somerset

I really wish that Graham and Terry would research their subject before bombarding us with their brand of ill informed rubbish. The deer population have to be managed to maintain a healthy population. With their natural habitat shrinking only a limited herd number can survive on reduced food resourses. The alternative…starvation. Any culled animals are progessed and added to our meat chain. Venison, like all game meat finds its way into our food chain and is one of the most safe and nutritious meats available. Does Graham realise that 96% of our population eat meat and that game products are the only meats to increase in popularity year on year? Of course if Graham gets his way more and more of our deers natural habitat would be taken up to produce vegatables for his table creating an even bigger problem.

Shaun Freke, Gloucestershire

I’ll take that as a ‘YES’ from Terry then Editor. . They are all so kind and thoughtful. . . Terry is obviously encouraging city dwellers to make pets of all their rats, seagulls, pigeons and mangy foxes.

Charles Henry

What we have in our countryside is Bird flu, foot-and-mouth, bluetongue and bovine TB and grave concerns about salmonella, E coli, campylobacter and swine fever. Chickens who now grow from a day old chick to fully grown in just six weeks with the use of growth accelerators and just one hour of daylight per day. Surely with all bio security risks we need to ban all unnecessary movements and restrict access to the countryside until this situation is brought under control once and for all. This would of course involve a ban on Drag and Trail Hunting, an end to the release of some 40 million game birds bred and released solely for pleasure of being shot in countryside that has been systematically purged of any of there natural predators. Perhaps a new code of conduct for ramblers and other recreational users of the countryside; with perhaps new bio security measures like foot dips on the boundary of each farm. Farming is in crisis and what DEFRA needs to do is start with a clean sheet and map out the solution based on sound scientific evidence and remain detached from all minority pressure groups who seek to serve only their own selfish interests.

Graham Forsyth, Chard

And where do most of these problems all come from Graham? . . Oh the joy of foreign imports. . Britain has the finest farmers in the world. And the most ill-informed critics.

Charles Henry

I’d be interested to hear Giles and Charles’ view on the slaughter of dolphins in Japan. I see there are no comments on the letter published about this in today’s WDP. However plenty has been said about the letter, ‘The Hidden Cull of our Regions Wildlife’. Is this because they actually realise that this is animal cruelty or does it have too much precendence in the media and a view from the public across the country as abhorrent animal cruelty, that people of the hunting and shooting or ‘Wildlife Management’ groups, keep their thoughts to themselves on this one in fear of reproach..? However, can they both not realise that they too are part of abject cruelty and suffering to animals. Japan claims that their dolphin and whale hunting is a required part of conservation and control of stock levels in the water, as well providing part of their food chain…I’m sure this sounds very familiar to arguments used by the so-called ‘wildlife managers’.

Jennifer Forsyth, Chard

Editor, having lost the argument Jennifer Forsyth is now trying to smear us. But at least the campaign against the slaughter of whales and dolpins is a valid cause. Perhaps she should go to Japan.

Charles Henry

Wetern Daily Press

“Giant Stores proving fatal for small shops.”

Published 20th. November 2007

Increasingly our country is being ‘run into the ground’ by people who have never really had to generate their own income in the ‘real world’. The consequences of their blinkered approach to the lives of ordinary shopkeepers; trades people; farmers and working people generally; has finally come back to haunt us. . . . We have now all become prisoners of their new ‘class system’. . . The very rich just keep getting richer. . The rewards for being on the Government’s gravy train, where they try to keep up; now far exceeds anything ordinary people can achieve in the real ‘market place’. . And the incomes of many large families on benefit exceeds anything they could possibly earn if they had proper work. . . How else can you explain the ‘cattle class’ transport for workers in and out of London and most cities now, and the ‘Sky High Expense Account’ fares on the high speed link from London to the continent that cost us all over £6billion? . And that doesn’t include the cost of the channel tunnel!

Charles Henry

“The EU has no interest in local politics as long as it’s democratic.” Graham Watson M.E.P.

The EU is so wonderful for us Mr. Watson. . .
MEPs have just voted against expenses reform. . . . Well they would! . They can claim first-class rates for journeys to Brussels! . . . . MEPs critical of the generous expenses system at the European Parliament have reacted with dismay we are told after reform proposals were rejected. . . . . MEPs voted against producing travel receipts and publishing their expenses on the internet. . . . . . British Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies described the unreformed system as a “continuing public scandal". . . . . . . Europe’s main Christian Democrat group voted against individual reforms saying it wanted more comprehensive changes. . . . . . The current system allows MEPs to receive tens of thousands of euros a year in first-class travel payments, on top of their annual salary. . . . . ."We’re using public money. The public have a right to know that it is being used properly” said Chris Davies Liberal Democrat MEP. . These are the same . Liberal Democrats who want us to pay LOCAL INCOME TAX. . . . They do not have to produce receipts, meaning they can claim the full amount even if they have flown on budget airlines or been given a lift in a car. . . .
Parliamentarians are also entitled to thousands of pounds a month in office expenses, with little scrutiny of how the money is spent.

Charles Henry

Editor, . I would be interested to hear Graham Watson’s take on the new High Speed rail link between London and Paris. . The project has reputedly already cost us well over £6billion; that’s besides the cost of the Channel Tunnel! . And it will only be of use to people like him and his cronies on their obscene expense accounts, the fares are so high. . The British taxpayer is now being bled dry by this new ‘European Aristocracy’ , whilst our own travellers are forced to travel ‘Cattle Class’ where are wives and daughters risk and are often subjected to ‘assault’ as they are packed in like sardines. . . If the Equine fraternity travelled their HORSES in the same manner they would be prosecuted by DEFRA and heavily fined by dictat from Brussels. . How much longer will these new parasites survive I wonder? . Roll on the Revolution!

Charles Henry

The Editor
Letters
Western Daily Press

Published 16th. November 2007

Dear Editor,

I would like, through your newspaper, to ask all Animal Rights fanatics; “Must it take School Children to actually start dying before you give up your foolhardy campaign trying to prevent the inevitable badger cull?

I know they don’t ‘give a fig’ about farmers and their families, or most other country folk; but their nonsense really does have to come to an end now.

Last year the Government announced the number of TB cases had risen to over 7000 a year- the highest since the 1980s. . In October 2005 a School Child in Powys, S.Wales developed two lumps on her neck which at first Doctors believed were caused by a glandular problem; but a consultant paediatrician from the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital diagnosed her as suffering from ‘Atypical TB’. . . All that anyone would tell the mother is that her daughter “may have caught it from wildlife.” . There has since been a conspiracy of silence on the subject. . To the spokesman for the National Health Service who said there is no such condition a ‘Atypical TB’. . . ‘Atypical’ was just the adjective. The Noun is ‘Mycobacterium-bovis’ TB. . Disassembly and obfuscation have always been New-Labour’s greatest strengths.

In the late 1990’s just a couple of farms in that region were under bTb restriction, but that has now surged to become 30/40. Dead badgers were also found in the area, including one on school playing fields. . The carcass was taken for post-mortem and tests, but the HSE stepped in and stopped it. ‘Inadequate Group 3 pathogen facilities(?). . IT WAS RIDDLED. . . The whole episode was buried.

In the last 3/4 years, eight or nine children, not including this little one, have had treatment for enlarged neck glands. This has involved either a 6 month course of antibiotics, or operations to remove. Veterinary Surgeons will tell you these are classic m.bovis legions; but they are euphemistically referred to by ‘Doctors’ as “Atypical tuberculosis from a non human source". They have just been telling these children that they picked it up on the ground.

As the very wise emailer said, “They are ignoring those canaries again!” (reactor cows).

Yours

Charles Henry

Well done to MP Dan Norris for joining the International Fund for Animal Welfare hunt monitors, “Hunting for the huntsmen” (Western Daily Press, November 6).

Mr Norris was able to see for himself that the Blackmore and Sparkford Vale Hunt was behaving as before the ban, by searching for foxes in exactly the same places as it has always found foxes.

IFAW monitor Peter White is right about the need to strengthen the law on hunting.

The Hunting Act was meant to end the cruelty of hunting a wild animal with dogs, but hunts publicly boast that they are breaking the law.

Helen Weeks
West Coker
Somerset

No Helen. . The Hunting act was a nasty bit of legislation aimed at a law-abiding minority and introduced by the most discredited government of modern times. . As always it curried favour with any organisation or grouping it could, by passing a host of laws that it thought would garnish its vote; no matter how unpleasant or extreme.

Charles Henry

FIREWORK NIGHT HAS LOST THE PLOT

Now that the last firework of the season has fizzled out (but for the odd one or two still being let off by individuals who evidently don’t know where Bonfire Night occurs in the calendar), isn’t it about time that this unwholesome November 5 tradition was laid to rest?

What is it that people are celebrating, exactly? The anniversary of a failed terror plot - that’s about the size of it.

So is an attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament, which went disastrously wrong, worth all the fuss? Some 300 years after the event, many rational people are content to see their hard-earned money go up in smoke for the sake of a token historical observance.

Where’s the sense in that, then?

Keith Davis
Bath

Reply published 19th. November 2007

Hopefully Editor; when the Government give us the referendum we are all entitled to, on the European Constitution that has been fraudulently dressed up as a Treaty; there will no need of a repeat performance of Guy Fawkes exploits that so upsets Keith Davis’s sensibilities. . However I would agree that at the very least the November 5th. 1605 anniversary should be strictly adhered to.

Charles Henry

Western Daily Press. . . Features/Letters

I was pleased to read recently how round-the-clock drinking has been adopted by only about 500 pubs and clubs two years after 24-hour licensing was introduced.
(Western Daily Press, November 9).

I would like to point out to all those premises across the country which have obtained the all-day licences, that alcohol costs the UK an estimated 20 billion euros a year.

It is responsible for one in five road deaths. It plays a part in nearly half of all domestic violence incidents and is a contributory factor in at least 1,000 suicides a year, not to mention that alcohol-fuelled crime costs more than seven billion euros a year.

The NHS spends more than £1 billion a year on dealing with alcohol misuse and lost productivity costs about 6.4 billion euros annually and deaths from liver disease have nearly tripled in a decade.

If we are to stop our next generation becoming a nation of alcoholics we must stop pubs and clubs from encouraging our youngsters to drink themselves under the table and legless, tell of the damage they are doing, and for the hundreds of pubs and clubs which licence the 24-hour drinking to call time like the rest.

D F Courtney
Weston-super-Mare
N Somerset

Editor, I believe the current excessive drinking culture has little to do with either the availability or the cost of alcohol. We have always had the most heavily taxed and most strict licensing regime in the developed world. What we are now suffering with is the most undisciplined youth culture this country has probably ever known. It shows in our schools; it shows on our streets; it shows on the terraces and it shows in the home. The youth have always rebelled and pushed at their boundaries, but since the rise and rise of the ‘liberal nanny state’ and the ‘anything goes’ society, the younger generations no longer have any boundaries. . . The Police are ‘toothless’ except with motorists. Our teachers have been ‘neutered’; and parents are no longer allowed to exercise proper control of their children at home. . . It can be no coincidence that as we approach the 30th. anniversary of the Soap Opera ‘Grange Hill’, the state education system has never before been in such deep crisis.

Charles Henry

Western Daily Press. . Features/Letters

Responding to Terry, of Somerset (Your Call, 8th. November), exactly how correct the Sainsbury’s checkout fiasco is depends on the accuracy of an article in the national paper from which I obtained the information.

From the same source, I also read that NHS Muslim trainee doctors are declining to attend lectures on liver diseases because they are so opposed to alcohol consumption that they don’t even wish to learn about its effects.

According to the BMA, they also boycott courses on sexually transmitted diseases and refuse to examine female patients. It also disclosed that some Boots branches allow their Muslim pharmacists not to dispense the contraceptive pill for “ethical” reasons.

If all of this is true, then I will leave Western Daily Press readers to draw their own conclusions as to which direction this country is heading in on account of just three per cent of the population - if we continue to let it!

J Rainey
Bristol

Mr.Rainey must be careful Editor. . . The Thought Police in Government and on the BBC are very active again since that prospective parliamentary candidate dared to suggest Enoch Powell might have been right after all! . . .

ENOCH POWELL WAS WRONG!!! . . NEARLY 22% OF THE POPULATION SAY SO. . . THEY ALL WANT TO LIVE IN A PLACE LIKE WOLVERHAMPTON!.

Charles Henry

DAN STANDS UP FOR HUNTING BAN

Thanks to Dan Norris MP for going out monitoring with the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Dan Norris is standing up for the ban on hunting which was supported by the majority of the British public against chasing and killing wildlife for entertainment.

Dan will have the support of the decent-minded majority in this region and across the country for his stance.

Chris Gale
Chippenham
Wiltshire

Dan Norris, even if a bit immature; was still a respected politician. . But now he has thrown his juvenile lot in with the animal rights activists his days will be clearly ‘numbered’. . There are people dying on our streets; our hospitals have become places people now fear because of MRSA and C.difficile ; our borders leek like a rusty sieve; the list is endless. . And did you know he has some of the highest ‘expenses’ in parliament? . His time is for sure fast running out.

Charles Henry

This occurrence was over 18months ago. It is just the tip of the ice-burg. We must all hope that the government’s chief scientist Sir David King’s recent intervention, signals the end of the deceit and ‘cover-up’ over the dangerous increase in Tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium bovis since the government protected badgers. Let us all just pray that they haven’t left the cull too late.

. . Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity)

“The mother of a young TB victim is angry over the lack of information available to her about the source of her daughter’s illness.”

Donna Jones’ four year old daughter was diagnosed last year with Atypical TB. She has since been unable to find out anything more about the likely cause than it has an ‘environmental source’.

This news comes in the same week the Government announced the number of TB cases in England, Wales and Northern Ireland had risen to over 7,000 a year - the highest since the 1980s.

In October 2005 Donna Jones’ daughter Emma developed two lumps on her neck which on first examination doctors believed were caused by a glandular problem. The lumps on Emma’s neck later burst and a consultant paediatrician from the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital diagnosed her as suffering from Atypical TB.

Emma was prescribed a course of two separate antibiotics to take for six months.

Donna’s distress over her daughter’s illness is borne out of her frustration at not being able to find what causes the illness, and how and why her daughter contracted it when her three other children have remained unaffected.

“All anyone will tell us is that she may have caught it from wildlife, I’ve asked the local vets and they say they don’t know anything about it but I want to know where, how and what she has caught it from,” said Donna, who lives in Kerry.

“I’m annoyed I cannot find the information I want. I want to know where she has caught it from and how come my three other children haven’t been affected,” she said.

“There is no information saying if she should be in school, there is no information on how she can contract it, I want the truth and some honest answers.”

Donna quizzed Emma’s consultant paediatrician and local GPs on the infection but says they only confirm the illness has an environmental source.

A spokesman for the National Public Health Service said: “There is no such condition as Atypical TB, it is a mycobacterial infection which can cause a whole range of infections some of which are TB.”

He said that mycobacterial infections are usually acquired from the environment but transmission can occur from animals to humans although it is not common.

County Times (Welshpool, Powys) 30th. March 2006

EMAIL SENT/RECEIVED April 2nd. 2006

Dear Mary,

This is winding up into something very nasty. We were told about the problem last autumn, but the newspapers / media had very little on it. Local vets and farmers knew and fed us bits. This (below) was published 30th. March, and our source has now had another conversation with SVS vets and private vets in the area.

In the late 1990’s just a couple of farms were under bTb restriction, but that has now surged to become 30/40. Dead badgers have been found in the area, including one on school playing fields.

This carcass was taken to test for ‘poison’. but HSE stepped in and stopped the postmortem - inadequate Group 3 pathogen facilities (?).

It was riddled.

SVS sent letters to Welsh Assembly / Page St. and they were lost stolen or strayed. The whole episode was buried. Page St. wanted absolutely no positive Tb badgers.

In the last 3/4 years eight or nine children, not including this little one, have had treatment for enlarged neck glands. This involved either a 6 month course of antibiotics, or operations to remove. Classic m.bovis lesions I’m told (by a vet) but referred euphemistically by doctors as “Atypical tuberculosis from a non human source". They are telling these kids, that they picked it up from the ground.

The badgers use the school playing fields as latrines, and a newish housing estate borders the same farmland too.

We’re ignoring those canaries again. (reactor cows)

ROUND LIKE A SHOT by Tony Gladstone

“Going to bed the other night, I noticed people in my shed stealing things.

I phoned the police but was told no one was in the area to help. They said they would send someone over as soon as possible.

I hung up. . A minute later I rang again. ‘Hello’ I said, ‘I called you a minute ago because there were people in my shed. . You don’t have to hurry now because I’ve shot them.’

Within minutes there were half a dozen police cars in the area, plus helicopters and an armed response unit. . They caught the burglars red-handed. . One of the officers said ‘I thought you said you’d shot them’. To which I replied, ‘I thought you said there was no one available.’ “

Not really luck ‘Errol’. . . Remember; there is always more than one way to ’skin a cat’.

. . Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity)

Re. HORSES TREATED BETTER THAN US
Published 19th. October 2007

The Editor
Letters
Western Daily Press

Published 7th. November 2007

Dear Editor,

Jennifer Forsyth Chard (Horses are living creatures, not throw away toys 23rd.Oct.) should be made aware that it is not the media that has swayed my opinion of the Health Service, but the deaths of both members of my family and close friends in recent years. . She should also be made aware that my Mother was a Ward Sister, and a total of at least 9 family members are Qualified staff at all levels, including two sisters(one in-law) and one daughter. One is running five establishments in the private sector now.

My comments were objective and well founded, and prompted by the obsessional antipathy so many now seem to have to farmers and the equine world stirred up by animal rights activists. . . Yes there are many good people having to be involved in animal rescue, but people have ‘mud in there eyes’ if they are not aware of many of the frightening shortcomings that are now affecting the N.H.S. . . I fear a great deal of it is down to the 21st. Century work ethic that seems more concerned with ‘Weekend Breaks’ than making sure that jobs are done properly. . The nonsense over the reaction to a necessary badger cull demonstrates how Government acolytes are putting animals before the population’s health and people’s livelihoods.

Since the announcement by Sir David King the Government’s chief scientific adviser, of a necessary badger cull of 80% in the worst affected areas, we will all no doubt once again be subjected to the activists twisted interpretation of the so-called ‘Krebs trials’.

Yours

Charles Henry

Charles Henry’s views that there exists a “21st Century work ethic that seems more concerned with ‘Weekend Breaks’ than making sure that jobs are done properly..", are quite rude in relation to facts. Britain is one of many EU countries where the average working week is way and above what is recommended. If I was a family member of his I would feel hurt for him to suggest that I did not put my time, effort and compassion into my work within the healthcare profession. Sure there are shortfalls. Money not going where it should be, for more staff and accessible resources for patients in order to improve patient care. However if I had a choice of whether to be a patient or farmer’s livestock, I know which I’d choose! And as for the badger cull, that’s just another excuse to satisfy a want and need to kill. Just look at Ireland where a badger cull was carried out and the cases of tuberculosis doubled as a result! Scientific studies even prove that a cull would be ineffective. So why the farmers keep on trying to exhaust this avenue is beyond me.

Jennifer Forsyth, Chard

Recommended by whom Miss Forsyth? . . Some European ‘Jobs Worths’ who have never done a proper days work in their lives? . . The ‘Cap Fits’ in many cases Miss Forsyth; as plenty can testify I can assure you. . My comments were not aimed at my family members or any one in particular; that much should have been obvious. . But ‘Work Avoidance’ has been the pastime of many in all walks of life since time immemorial. . . If you had ever been an employer you would be acutely aware of the fact. . Success in any field of work comes from diligence and hard work, not clock watching.

Charles Henry

Western Daily Press. . . Features/Letters

According to a recent survey by the Institute for Public Policy Research (closely associated with the Government), it appears that Turkish immigrants in Britain are now second only to Somalians in claiming state benefits, with 59 per cent not working, 21 per cent on income support and 49 per cent in social housing. As a Cabinet Minister, our esteemed Foreign Secretary must be aware of this, so why the heck is he advocating Turkey’s entry into the EU, knowing full well that of the hundreds of thousands of Turks who would then eventually head this way (remember Eastern Europe), similar proportions will be living off the state (you and I) as soon as their feet touched British soil?

Furthermore, why are we still sacrificing British lives in the name of democracy against a tide of Islamic fundamentalism in Iraq and Afghanistan, while we allow the radical Islamic group Hizb-ut-Tahrir, dedicated to a worldwide Islamic state opposed to democracy, to hold a rally at Alexandra Palace in North London?

Talk about stabbing our troops in the back.

Finally, I found it hilarious that Sainsbury’s of all people is now kowtowing to Islamic sensibilities by allowing its Muslim employees to refuse to handle alcoholic products in its stores.

What will they do about non-halal meat, pork products and smoky-bacon flavoured crisps?

Perhaps it would be simpler if Sainsbury’s didn’t employ Muslims at all and got on with dealing with normal British people who don’t incessantly demand and expect special dispensation at every turn.

You really couldn’t make it up, could you?

J Rainey, Bristol

Editor, . . The really worrying thing is that these interesting facts about certain immigrants; that we are all now finding so disturbing; are emerging at the very time the ‘Liberal Establishment’, led by the Fabian Society, choose to vilify a prospective Conservative parliamentary candidate who dared to suggest that Enoch Powell might just have had a point. . . The truth of the matter is that his ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech should have been called ‘Like The Roman’, as any who have read the original can confirm. . . It was not so much ‘racist’ as a realistic look into the future if things didn’t change. . . The British people must be complimented on their tolerance and forbearance as Enoch Powell’s forecast has unfolded. . . Perhaps his biggest mistake was the use of ‘The Roman’ and the River Tiber as a metaphor for the strife that could unfold if things did not change. . It would be interesting to compare the real inner-city crime levels of then and now; and start asking just who we can hold accountable. . The other disturbing thing is the wackier and wackier solutions our government keeps coming up with to solve our problems. . Perhaps we should keep children in full time education until they are middle-aged and of course only feed them breast milk. . Mr Rainey is right. . You couldn’t make it up. .

Charles Henry

Western Daily Press. . . News

A landmark study has revealed eating processed meats like bacon, drinking too much alcohol and being overweight dramatically increases the risk of developing cancer.

A major report, involving Bristol scientists, has issued the stark warning about the link between a poor lifestyle and the often fatal disease. It has also found a link between cancer and taking vitamin tablets and even being too tall.

Eating processed meat like bacon and ham increases the risk of colorectal and bowel cancer and people are advised to consume no more than 500g of cooked red meat a week. . cond. .

Report by Aleisha Scott Health Correspondent. 1st. Nov. 2007

Editor, . . This ‘landmark study’ focusing on meat, is as equally intriguing as the many previous studies that have said we shouldn’t eat all manner of our ‘daily delicacies’. . . For generations the advice handed down has always been, “All things in moderation". . . I suggest that before these ‘Bristol Scientists’ and their ‘researchers’ try to undermine British farmers and their products any further; products that have helped to keep us strong and healthy for hundreds of years; they first examine how poisoned we have all been by the daily dose of Chlorine and other chemicals that are persistently pumped into our drinking water. . They might also examine how chlorine disperses; and why since the advent of the ‘daily shower’, so many people now seem to suffer skin conditions that require application of lanolin or the ‘like’, to their lower legs and ankles. . . Of course if they don’t take a daily shower they won’t know what I am talking about. . It’s odd isn’t it! . The better we have been fed the longer we have all been living! . Maybe that’s the real problem; you think!!?

Charles Henry

(more…)