Aids epidemic overstated...

At the start of this year, I posted a blog wondering why people are so ready to believe that "experts" have it right when they predict disaster because of global warming.

I pointed out that in several cases "experts" have got it wrong including Aids in the 1980s. I wrote: "In the 1980s the 'experts' predicted that by the end of the decade every family in Britain would be affected by Aids; we would all know someone who had died of Aids. Billions of pounds were spent telling us to change our behaviour. Twenty-five years later, the Aids explosion hasn't happened. Guess what? The 'experts' were wrong."

Now, top scientists at the United Nations have finally admitted they have long overblown the scale of the global Aids epidemic. Flying in the face of its own doomsday forecasts of an ever-expanding Aids nightmare, a UN report published today reveals that the threat has been declining for nearly a decade.

New infections have also been calculated at 2.5million, a cut of more than 40 per cent from last year's estimate.

While Aids activists have warned in the past that all sections of society are at risk, the UN Aids agency's latest annual report says that in most parts of the world, outbreaks of the disease are mostly concentrated in gay men, intravenous drug users and prostitutes.

Will the gay activists now apologise and admit their error? Don't bet on it.

The surveillance society...

An interesting new book has landed on my desk. The Road to Southend Pier details Ross Clark's struggle against the surveillance society.

Britain’s Information Commissioner said that we are sleepwalking into a surveillance society so Ross Clark decided to find out if that was true.

These are some of the facts uncovered by Mr Clark:

• There are 4·2 million CCTV cameras in Britain, one for every 14 people
• In 2004 Melbourne dismantled its 23 cameras because they did not justify the A$500,000 they cost annually
• Britons are the third most spied on people on earth; only China and Malaysia spy more on their citizenry
• In 1998 Newham introduced a facial recognition software. Unfortunately, it didn’t work on sunny days and had a tendency to confuse young people and women and had a tendency to recognise black people
• Despite the claim that DNA is foolproof – it isn’t. If everyone in Britain (60 million people) was on the database the chances of a mistake being made by misidentifying someone’s DNA at a crime scene is actually one in 16
• In 2007 John Reid admitted that the Prevention of Terrorism Act had been drafted in such a way that people on control orders i.e. terrorists could not have their fingerprints and DNA taken
• In 2007 the Home Office admitted that despite the plethora of CCTV, DNA databases, tagging and police surveillance it had “lost” 322 registered sex offenders
• In 2005 2,000 people randomly volunteered to be surveyed for the biometric ID card. It took an average of seven minutes and 56 seconds to record the information. To cover the entire country would take 905 man years
• Between April and June 2007 the six largest European airlines lost 1·12 million pieces of luggage – this at a time when passengers and their baggage are supposed to be monitored every step of their journey
  
  
  
  

Cameron gets it wrong... again

While the floods cause mayhem and even death, it would seem reasonable to ask the Government why so little preparation was done to combat potential disasters. After all, they are constantly banging on about climate change - the weather to you and me - and how it affects us all so having some plan about how to cope might just seem sensible.

But no, as usual, this country is caught on the hop: too much rain, the wrong kind of snow, leaves on the track, the list is endless...

So, one would imagine that opposition parties would take every opportunity to bash the Government. So what does David Cameron do? Swans off to Rwanda, while his own constituency is under water. Why? It was a longstanding commitment say aides. Nonsense, a disaster in this country and even more so one in your own constituency overrides any "longstanding commit" to foreigners. Once again, Cameron shows that the Tories are not fit for anything...