I honestly couldn't care what the uneducated population of the UK thinks. The stigma surrounding HIV today is still disgusting, and - to be frank - unnecessary. I will reply to your other post in full later, got a call to make now.
In bold.He means those applying for permanent settlement - which is right, considering how HIV drug treatment over a lifetime costs around £500,000 per person. Many other countries also take this into account with citizenship.
He should probably clarify this. Your statistic looks lovely, but it assumes that people are coming in at a very young age with HIV, and I imagine the majority are not.
Additionally, the fact it is currently free to have the treatment on the NHS can be changed (as it was before), although if someone is contributing in taxes they have as much right to use the NHS as anyone else.
Those are his comments without the hysterical Guardian opinion placed into it.
Regarding these comments, I thought Farage was always against a "me too" kind of government and yet, here he is justifying his comments... because other countries do it.
HIV does not have to be life-threatening, anyone with HIV can live a perfectly normal and happy life.
When Britons are being denied life-prolonging drugs on the NHS we can't treat the rest of the world.
It is after all called the National Health Sevice, not the International Health Service.
You don't need to accept people not here to work, but if they are - and they have a skill that Britain could use - they should not be prevented from having the opportunity because of HIV. It is time to accept people with HIV for what they are; human beings.
Furthermore, you do not have to give the drugs completely for free; they never used to be.
Also, of the 38% figure, how many of those people were infected with HIV whilst in the UK? That is another important factor to weigh in (and it also means that the significant majority of people infected with HIV were born inside the UK. Awkward.).
Wrote a blog bout this and Payasam's post just reminded me of it lol:
Two by-elections results this morning: UKIP won their first directly-elected MP. Labour held onto their seat in Heywood and Middleton but their majority was decreased to under 1000 votes. Labour and the Tories are running scared of UKIP and the voters not acting in the way they have taken for granted for decades. This post isn’t about UKIP propaganda though. It’s about addressing the elephant in the room that the three main parties all think but would never dare say to your face: The voters are stupid.
Less than an hour after Labour’s victory at the by-election, the winning candidate, Liz McInnes, gave an interview where she was already spouting the Labour line dictated by Westminister spin doctors, avoiding questions, using the political double-speak where they avoid saying what they really think and expecting it will fool the voters. It doesn’t. It is blindingly obvious to anyone with a brain… but that’s the point. They don’t think you have one.
Then in sweeps UKIP. They’re anti-establishment, anti-Westminster but more importantly, they speak as a human, they’re a refreshing change. Underneath the glossy surface, their policies are limited, they U-turn on ideas and suggestions before you’ve even got your head around it, they are as political savvy as the main parties so perhaps they are not the change they are making themselves out to be.
Labour and Tories strategy for dealing with UKIP is about educating the voters about UKIP. It’s all about teaching voters the truth that you are clearly too blind and ignorant to see and if only Labour and Tories would come in, they would rescue you from your misconceptions and delusion. It is inconceivable to them that voters would actually believe in what UKIP are offering. UKIP are flimsy charismatic showmanship, have policies that shift around depending on where they are but their greatest strength is that they don’t talk down to people. If something changes (and it very often does), they just explain why in a simple way as if they know people will understand and because we’re not stupid, we do.
I wouldn’t vote for UKIP personally but as this is about what I would do as Prime Minister, I think something we can learn from them that the other main parties have forgotten: People are not stupid.
Set out a vision about the country you want it to be, pitch it to voters, be realistic, explain to them that it won’t be plain sailing and things won’t always go to plan. When they don’t go to plan, explain why it didn’t. Drop the soundbites and the puppetry; let people be people with their own passions, their own vision, persuade them to vote for the issues the way you want them to by explaining to them why your way is the right way, why it’s good for the country. Don’t avoid difficult questions to avoid the wrath of the party whips/leadership. People aren’t stupid; they’ll understand that people will have different opinions to their leadership from time to time and it’s strong leadership that turns this into a strength rather than a weakness.
Voters are not stupid. If the main parties recognise this, they might be able to save themselves but judging by their actions so far, they’re too stupid to notice.