Anthony Browne

The secret threat to British lives

By promoting mass immigration from the Third World, New Labour has been importing killer diseases, says Anthony Browne. And it is trying to hide what is happening from the public

Several hundred years ago, the British brought mass death to foreign lands. They crossed the Atlantic, sneezed on the native Americans and watched them die of the common cold. Now the tables have turned. We live in fear of foreigners bringing death to our own land. Tony Blair said on Tuesday that it was ‘inevitable’ that al-Qa’eda would try to launch a terrorist attack on the United Kingdom; but immigrant terrorists are by no means the most potent threat to British lives. It is not through letting in terrorists that the government’s policy of mass immigration – especially from the Third World – will claim the most lives. It is through letting in too many germs.

From exotic cuisines to driving entrepreneurialism, Third World immigration brings many good things to this country. But it also brings the epidemics that blight the poorer countries: HIV infection, tuberculosis and hepatitis. And the diseases that mass immigration is bringing to Britain will probably claim more British lives in the long run than terrorism. The thousands of infected immigrants who are arriving in Britain each year are doubling the rate of HIV, trebling the rate of TB, and increasing twentyfold the rate of hepatitis B. All of these are life-threatening diseases which could be, and in some cases have been, passed on to the host community. Between them they claim six million lives a year worldwide. TB can be cured, but HIV infection and hepatitis B can only be treated – at huge expense to the NHS. Even if victims survive for many years, HIV and hepatitis B are incurable.

Britain’s new epidemics are the direct result of Labour policy. The government is not only importing epidemics, but is also failing to tackle them and indeed is trying hide what is happening from the British public.

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Written by
Anthony Browne
Anthony Browne MP is chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Environment. He is a former Europe correspondent at the Times and environment editor at the Observer. He is now MP for South Cambridgeshire and a member of the Treasury Select Committee.

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