WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES IN A COALITION

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES IN A COALITION

Only yesterday we saw some typical fence sitting from Junior Health minister Milton over the free milk for under fives (with no mention from her about fluoride in milk of course) but even before the pubs closed, Cameron had stepped in and overturnd her proposal. Well thanks for that Mr Cameron, but could you also end fluoridated milk in schools as well please. Like water there is little proof of any usefulness but a lot of health concerns about dosage and side effects.

When my father died my mother had to bring me up on a tiny Widows pension. Consequently I frequently went to school with no breakfast and the hunger pangs were assuaged by drinking the free milk. As the bottles provided were small I and others used to drink two or three of them. Fortunately no government loonies like Andy Burnham had thought up fluoridated milk, otherwise I would have received two or three times the expected dose. Luckily our water was not fluoridated or we might otherwise have received extremely large overdoses of fluoride as is undoubtedly the case with many people in Birmingham and the West Midlands.

Now lets hope that PM Cameron sticks to his guns which he loaded before the General Election and abandons any milk fluoridation and water fluoridation without consent. People can easily overdose on fluoride as it is if they wish with only toothpaste and tea as sources of the poison so come on Cameron, lets make things better not worse and lets collectively stop listening to the pseud=scientific twaddle emanating from the pro fluoride lobby still inhabiting the past and hoping to keep us all living there. End Fluoridation now, not next week or next year.....Now !!!

END OF FREE MILK FOR KIDS, CURSE OR BLESSING??

The main news on this rather grey and damp Sunday morning is that the government is considering ending free milk for under-fives as part of the spending cuts.

According to my AOL news page and most of the Sunday Newspapers, "Ministers said there was no evidence the nursery milk scheme improved health and, at a cost of around £50 million a year, was too expensive to run. Health minister Anne Milton admitted the move - which would echo the Conservative Party's removal of free school milk in 1971 - would be "highly controversial" and affect children in low income families.

Whether this is a curse of a blessing remains to be seen however. from the point of view of an anti-fluoride campaigner. Milk has already been poisoned with fluoride for several years in Sheffield and parts of Liverpool and God knows where else, and most people don't seem to know about this. Most fluoride campaigners however most see the milk supply to kids as a particularly evil way of distributing this industrial waste

There is little if any evidence to show that fluoride works either systemically or topically and recent research has raised growing health fears about the increasing intake of fluoride from many foods and drinks, especially in areas where water is already fluoridated such as Birmingham and the west Midlands. There are even differences of opinion about whether the calcium in the milk reduces the danger from fluoride or whether the fluoride blocks the the calcium intake. but as a long term anti-pollution campaigner with Friends of the Earth, i always adopt and recommend the Precautionary Principle. And we should be particularly careful when using young children as Guinea Pigs.

If health ministers really wish to save money in these straightened times, they should start by removing fluoride from the kids milk supplies and immediately follow this by removing it from the drinking water supplies and discontinuing all plans to extend fluoridation any further. Surely it cannot be right to be squandering vast sums on fighting its own electorate who have already made it clear to councils and Government that they don't want it. I would even suggest that they go the whole nine yards and scrap the SHAs and PCTs who are both little better than chocolate tea pots and who don't seem to represent anyone but themselvs and their cronies. Perhpas then we might have enough money to keep the free milk supply to young kids and even have some money left over for proper dentistry. This would be a "safe and effective" way of strengthening our finances and our democracy.

Of course this would assume that our new Coalition is a little more enlightened than the previous bunch of neredowells and as one of my more cynical friends put it, "if they had had a brain, they would have been really dangerous. However Having already received answers from Junior Health Minister Milton I dont hold out much hope of radical changes and will expect business as usual. After all, there are still many fences to be sat upon and lots of new bums ready and willing to accept the challenge. Meanwhile, I can best encapsulate the solution as... " keep the milk and Bin the fluoride." Sadly there are less than a handful of MPs and ministers who have even a rudimentary science degree but they still seem to believe they are equipped to make law on our behalf.

THEY QUACK FOR YOU

THEY QUACK FOR YOU

ANN MILTON, UNDERSE-CRETARY OF HEALTH

A visit to Wikipedia to find out more about Ann Milton is quite revealing and certainly much more so than visiting her apparently official Web site which appears to be full of figures and mumbo jumbo demonstrating her generosity. Wikipedia, which could be wrong of course, tells us that she was a nurse trained at St Barts in London and that she is married to a doctor. It frankly appalls me that an alleged Doctor and Nurse can be completly ignorant of medical ethics which proscribe a doctor from forcibly medicating or prescribing any medication to an indivisual without their consent, even one of their own patients. This is especially heinous when they are doing it or even advocating or sanctioning it en mass without any prior knowledge of a person or persons, medical history and other medication.

Milton's assertion that the cost of fluoridation only works out at 80 pence per person is of course ludicrously wrong. As usual its not backed by any facts and proper costings. For starters it not effective at all on anyone who is not a child, assuming of course that its effective at all which in itself has not been proven. It should never be given to infants and young children and by the time they are old enough, whatever that really means, it doesn't work anyway. It would of course be nice to get some figures on the cost of treating fluorosis, of dental coatings, varnishes etc. but as these things are not available on the NHS its not surprising that they don't want the figures published.

Of course there is no mention of the possible costs of treatment NHS or otherwise for various other complaints which may be caused or complicated by the intrusion of fluorides. Presumably because this is "perfectly safe and effective," optimal, "comparison with non fluoridated areas," " pain and suffering of poor little children, trouble etc etc waffle blather. continued page 94.

Sorry Ms Milton but we refuse to be drawn into this kind of junk science. They haven't produced any reasonable stats on fluoride in donkeys years yet still hold with the old mythology and dogma and I for one will not be dragged any further into that swamp. Ms Milton must be prepared to discuss the details and not make sweeping statements without adequate proof of povenance. Fluorides in all their forms are unnecessary poisonous crap and we will not tolerate them or pay for them.

Ms Milton in backing fluoridation is being suckered by people such as Andy Burnham, and Alan Johnson MP and their cohorts in the apparently Labour controlled and partially or wholy financed, ( at least until recent parliamentary changes occured ) pro-fluoride organisation aka, the British Fluoridation Society. It is sad to see the same old junk science and quackery being perpetrated yet again and this time by a new gang of suckers that have apparently not studied any up to date research or even the statements of their leaders. My ex-MP Gordon Prentice had the ordacity to claim that he had read all the data but in discussion with him it quickly became clear that this was probably not the case. But i digress....

In the run up to the General Election, Friends of the Earth wrote to all the party leaders and asked them for their views on fluoridation and expressed concern that the Labour Government had produced legislation (the Water Act 2003 and its amendments) which was clearly produced to satisfy the whims of the Pro-Fluoride lobby which apparently holds sway in the Department of Health. It pretended to support full public consultation of the public before any decision was made but in actuality enshrined the ability of the SHAs to promote fluoridation, spending tens of millions on it of course, and then to compel the Water companies to fluoridate even if 100% of the public strongly objected to it. Not surprisingly, the responses we received were generally warmly welcomed and widely publicised.

David Cameron was opposed to compulsion without consultation and consent, Nick Clegg was totally opposed to fluoridation and even Gordon Brown said that people would not be compelled to accept water fluoridation without their consent. Sadly it would appear that a lack of scientific and medical training amongst the majority of Politicians of all persuasions, (who do not understand the science of fluoride, or the varied dangers it presents to our population and the natural environment, and which leads them to believe outdated dogma and orthodoxy, dating from a time when even asbestos, lead and even cigarettes were thought to be harmless or even beneficial. This can only damage the reputation and credibility of the recently formed coilition government when they appear like so many flat-earthers.

All the latest studies have shown that any benefits from fluoridation are minimal if at all, and are well outweighed by the dangers of exposure to fluorine productsl which include dangers to the kidneys, the teeth and bones, the thyroid and pineal gland, weight control and obesity, and childrens IQ. As for compulsory mass medication, it does not seem to be treated as a serious issue at all which must really lead us to question, sincerity, and competence.

All this creates the impression that Government health policy is being led by quacks and snake oil salespersons who would not be supporting such pseudo-science without an ulterior motive. Lots of money has swilled from the fluoride producing industries and much of it seemingly handled by few Labour MPs as mentioned earlier. For the benefit of democracy, the economy, stability and restoration of trust The Coilitions' best policy is to avoid suspect and useless, wasted money. They must honour their collective pledges to protect and nurture the priceless NHS and concentrate on spending money on point of need dentistry rather than squandering it on dodgy data, fighting the wishes of its own democratically elected majority in the courts, illegal and unethical medical practice and embellishing the pockets of vested self interest and a good start would be for junior ministers to at least get behind their leaders and present a united and coherent front. Pure drinking water is becoming an increasingly rare and of course expensive commodoty and arguably the most vital in many parts of the world including the UK. We need to use water carefully and efficiently. Only a nut case would advocate adding toxic industrial waste to something so precious. Only by such careful and concerted action then can they bring stability and trust back into our so-called democracy.

BRIAN JACKSON

PCT AND SHA QUANGOS, REPENT, THE END IS NIGH

THUNDERBIRDS ARE ER...... GOING!

Listening to the news over the weekend, I was very pleased to hear that the coilition Government is now apparently preparing to dramatically reduce the duties of the PCTs and SHAs. Personally i would not even trust them with a vending machine let alone key services at the point of need. It cannot happen soon enough for me.

What cheered me up in particular was to hear Andy (Virgil) Burnhams response. He is now a very unhappy man, no doubt under pressure from his friends in these Quangos especially the Pro-Fluoridation Lobby who he has supported so loyally,. I will be listening for the sounds of weeping and wailing, and of course, the gnashing of teeth.

TIME TO WRITE TO NICK CLEGG DEPUTY PM AND REMIND HIM OF HIS STRONG OPPOSITION TO FLUORIDATION

Thursday, July 01, 2010　

LAUNCH OF "YOUR FREEDOM" -- GOVERNMENT WEB SITE

Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg has launched the 'Your Freedom' website seeking our views on which laws need to be repealed:

We're working to create a more open and less intrusive society through our Programme for Government. We want to restore Britain’s traditions of freedom and fairness, and free our society of unnecessary laws and regulations – both for individuals and businesses.

This site gives you the chance to submit, comment on, or vote for ideas about how we can do this. Your ideas will inform government policy and some of your proposals could end up making it into bills we bring before Parliament to change the law.

So if there are any laws or regulations you'd like us to do away with, then submit your idea. If you see ideas here already that you like the look of, then rate them and get them moved up the list. And if there’s more you’d like to say, then talk to others in the comments section for each proposal.

It’s time to have your say. After all – it’s your freedom. There is also a video of Nick Clegg explaining the purpose of the web site.

　

This is a very useful opportunity to remind Mr Clegg that we wrote to him about water fluoridation in the run up to the General Election and his reply was one of categorical opposition to compulsory fluoridation.

This is a golden opportunity to write to Nick Clegg and remind him of his reply to our enquiry about water fluoridation dates March 8th, 2010 in which he said

...."In General terms, Liberal Democrats believe that people and local communities should have the ability to make their own decisions as to whether or not they they should take forms of medication, which according to the stated purpose, fluoridation would effectively constitute. Obviously, there is no such thing as absolute certainty when it comes to health safety -- but in normal circumstances, patients can weigh up the pros and cons of receiving potentially risky treatment and choose whether to undertake it. Mass fluoridation of water would leave people with no choice, and we believe that it should not be imposed by Whitehall diktat."

Signed by Douglas Dowell

Office of Nick Clegg MP

The more letters the Deputy PM receives on this subject now, the more likely we are to have success in getting the provisions of the Water Act 2003 removed along with any form or threat of compulsion. We should also ask for a full review of current water fluoridation in the West Midlands, the North East and elsewhere with a view to ending this practice as quickly as possible. . We cannot end expansion fluoridation without removing exisiting schemes as this would be unacceptable.

Brian Jackson

Friends of the Earth, Fluoride Campaign.

FLUORIDE CAMPAIGN UPDATE. WHERE NEXT?

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH..........

FLUORIDE CAMPAIGN UPDATE. WHERE NEXT?

Having discussed this week the progress of the campaign so far with other campaigners. I am inclined to say that we may well be winning the war against the cult of fluoride, although there are several battles yet to be fought and the Judicial Review in Southampton is probably the most important component for now. The fact that the SHA there has managed to find £400K of public money, IE our money which will be employed to fight us in the Review is not just a disgraceful misuse of badly needed NHS funds, its a disgraceful abuse of so called democratic power as well as desperately needed cash. If full and open public consultation was anything more than hollow words, why were we not given some of it to make our own case?

One thing is for sure, it shows just how desperate the Fluorinaders have become. Clearly they know they are in real danger of losing out to public pressure. We must keep up the political pressure and call for an enquiry into how this state of affairs can be allowed. How can there be an unbiased Consultation when the government stumps up money to ensure any decisions fall to them and their policy?

But, we are where we are so we must press on regardless and concentrate on the next issue, ie; the recommendations from the EC about infant formula and fluoridated water. If the latest findings indicate that fluoride can cause problems at levels as low as 0.7 PPM how come fluoridating water up to 1.2 PPM is considered OK. New Zealand for example is concentrating on this as as a major part of their strategy to get the whole fluoridation scheme abandoned. In this we must wish them all success. In the UK we are allegedly Democratic but the facts seem to indicate otherwise. We cannot claim to be a democracy when we are still apparently subject to a soviet style command economy led from the center. The proclamation is made by the PM or the Health Minister who at the time was Andy (virgil) Burnham, the SHAs MUST obey, the water companies are then INSTRUCTED to add fluoride to the water and all decision making and choice for the consumer is lost.

We do not believe this is acceptable. Local decisions must be taken locally after due consultation and deliberation not just theoretically, but in reality. Currently there is NO CHOICE when even the consultation is just a smoke screen. Even Gordon Brown agreed to local decision making earlier this year when things were getting hot for him and even his Lap Dog Burnham was forced to stand in line with him. When we wrote to the leaders of the political parties earlier this year we received similar answers rejecting central compulsion from the Tories and the Libdems, UKIP, the Green Party etc etc.

Meanwhile, back on planet Earth, The NHS needs money badly if we are closing A and E and childrens units and tens of thousands of people still cannot find an NHS dentist. Strangely however our previous Labour government could not even be bothered to respond to our letters although they could continue to throw hundreds of thousands at a campaign to force water fluoridation on us, despite having no proper up to date scientific evidence to justify such a policy. Even the latest reseach into topical applications of fluoride could find no conclusive evidence that fluoride prevented tooth decay but sadly much evidence that dental fluorosis was becoming more rampant. This mad cap policy which we did not vote for and for which they have no mandate to persue has no sscienticic back. In the run up to the General Election, the new Coilition Government of Conservatives and Lib Dems inherited this pathetic legislation and if it does not address the issue quickly, it is also likely to inherit the blame. More policy U- Turns will not look good.

Another issue is the toxicity and action of fluorine in its many forms. Obviously even without help, fluorine is more than toxic enough to do serious damage and as it accumulates in the body, its in no great hurry and can cause serious damage over a prolonged period. Many campaigners are increasingly concerned about its synergistic effects when it reacts or bonds with other chemicals. Clearly it activates and intensifies many chemicals and may even be causing normally harmless substances to punch well above their weight. These can have drastic and and as yet unknown effects on the immune system via the bone marrow. We know that certain groups are particularly sensitive to fluoride and other chemicals, notably kidney patients on dialysis and there can be no control of dosage via the public water supply. We all consume different amounts of water so the allegedly safe "dosage" of 1 PPM in the water supply has no basis in reality and its simply wishful thinking. Additional at risk groups will be people who already receive more than enough fluoride compounds via tea, grape juice and foods processed in already fluoridated areas.

If the new government decides to continue the work of New Labour and press on with fluoridation, the fluorinaders will probably act surprised and shocked when they have to start allocating even more funds from the NHS pocket to pay, unpaid water bills to keep the Water Industry happy or defend legal actions provide security for toxic tankers and isolated water treatment plants which become terrorist targets. Neither the companies nor the Government can pretend to be shocked however. Many thousands of consumers have already pledged to refuse to pay for toxic waste contaminated tap water and rightly so. And the numbers are set to grow exponentially if consumers find themselves compelled to self medicate via contaminated tap water for no good reason and this at a time when the fluoride budget is already exhausted.

I am not aware of any contract between the water companies or the government or the people for such a practice and if the coilition continue with this discredited and illegal New Labour policy, they will bring about their own demise much sooner than they think. The UK public are now acutely aware that we will all have to go through difficult times whether as tax payers or benefits claimants and are prepared for that, but i dont think they are prepared to lie down and be poisoned as well.

I received written confirmation only yesterday from the Scottish Parliament that fluoridated salt, which is now available via LIDL Supermarkets in Scotland is not a licensed medicine anywhere in the UK. In that case why is it being sold at all and why is it being put in the public water supply or the salt under the pretense that it is a medicine??. Presumably the fluorinaders are increasingly alarmed at the prospect of England and Wales following Scotlands lead and refusing to allow any fluoridation and salt will be their fall back position for this waste disposal exercise. Could it be that those prescribing it who are not doctors and have no right to prescribe, let alone force it upon any of us sense not just prohibition in the wind but possible court actions against all perpetrators. After all evidence is already being collected in the USA for major Class Actions against all involved in fluoridation and given the increasing communications across the pond, such actions could happen here sooner than they think. After all, Irrespective of the results of any Judicial Review, we should consider the possibility and necessity of legal action against quack doctors and quack quangos for medical malpractice and impersonation of doctors. The government could possibly forestall this by winding up the SHAs and PCTs and reinstalling the locally elected, Local Health Authorities which at least represented local people and local thinking.

Despite all this we still regularly read out and out twaddle from journalists who should know better but really dont. Only last year on a phone in on BBC radio Lancashire, I was pulled up by a programme presenter for using the word poison, when I challenged him it was clear that he did not even know that a toxin and a poison were the same thing. BBC local radio used to be fairly reliable and checked its facts. Now under the post Jonathan Ross regime of ultra paranoia, everything has to be double-checked and signed by at least two producers for broadcast purposes but how can this be done when the staff are so poorly educated. The same even applies in parliament where according to some scientifically interested MPs, only about 10% of MPs actually have any scientific training or qualifications at all, so its very hard to get out a clear message when even the messengers dont understand it. In such a climate of corruption and ignorance, lies can easily take on the mantle of truth and even the good guys and the innocent bystanders are villified.

So what do we want? We want not only the abandonement of all future fluoridation projects and wasteful PR and we also want the abandonment of existing fluoridation projects in the North East, and the Midlands. We want proper dentistry provided by the NHS at the point of need for this is where the money wasted on fluoride should really be spent. And perhaps we need and want most of all, a Government of whatever persuasion that listens to the electorate and especially its own independent advisors and does not hatch policies on the hoof with no scientific basis which it uses to dictate to science. First science and then policy. This is the way of common sense. Finally we want to see the end of the Water Act 2003, A useless and hipocritical piece of legislation reminiscent of the notorious and failed Dangerous Dogs Act. With a fluoride policy, The tail must not be allowed to wag the dog.

BRIAN JACKSON

28th June, 2010