Mad Pig Disease

"Rule 1: Never allow a crisis to go do waste". Ram Emmanuel, Chief of Staff to the deity formerly known as Barrack Obama, like any public official, knows the value of a scared populace. Gordon Brown's spokesman asked to comment on his so called darkest days last week replied that the Prime Minister was too busy concentrating on sorting out problems like the recession and the pig flu o worry about it. The old swine. The recession that his party has helped to bring about and that he now is doing his best to prolong (see last post "How Mad Cow Disease is Threatening Our Economic Recovery"). And the mild dose of the flu now doing the rounds of planet earth...

But despite the obviously low risk that pig flu poses to public health, politicians and public officials are besides themselves with excitement. Carpe diem for the World Health Organisation as its Director General declares "All of humanity is under threat" from this virus. Oh for God's sake. Reminds me of Tony Blair's declaration that the Millenium Bug (one of the most ridiculous mass hysterias in recent memory) was an emergency akin to a state of war. Or in 2005, the WHO again - the bird flu was the "greatest single health challenge" to mankind, greater than HIV and malaria. Can anyone take this ridiculous organisation seriously? Its name implies worldly weight and seriousness, but dig only a little and the truth is painfull and pathetic.

Note that I don't invoke the BSE scare into this brief litany. Why? Because, as my (imaginary, so far, after one post) readers will know that this blog is based largely on the premise that mad cow disease is alive and well in Britain and has infected a large portion of our political class.

But wait - what's this from Alan Johnson? Some sobering facts? He's pointed in the Times that the pig flu is not killing people, except a few in Mexico, that it really is just a dose of flu that has affected only a few hundred people worldwide, and that very scary word "pandemic" merely describes its geographical spread rather than its severity. Although I note that he doesn't want to spoil everyone's fun just yet - "but I can't say it is never going to get any worse", he concludes, keeping the spectre of the apocalypse just alive enough to allow the spectacle to play out a little longer. But, on the whole, the man deserves some credit. Hard to believe that this is the same Alan Johnson that passed the silliest anti smoking measure in history. Consider the simplicity...Some toff in the Department of Health asked, "just how are we going to stop these young people from smoking". To which his intellectually anaemic colleague replied "I know, we'll hide the cigarettes". And then they sold this hilarious idea of banning tobacco displays in shops to the Secretary of State who was obviously off his BSE meds at the time.

Most of the time though, politicians and their officials love anything that gives them the opportunity to save the world from imminent disaster, however imaginary . It used to be religious crises. We had things like the Crusades and the witch hunts that allowed politicians of old to ride the crests of public imagination and save humanity. The problem is that these delusions have to be debunked on a case by case basis - the phenomenon of mass hysteria has never been seriously challenged. Consequently, there's always something new around the corner.

And just you wait, that sacred cow of modern extraordinary popular delusions, climate change is about to be popped. Its greatest supporter in print media, the Independent, started the ball rolling this month. Check it out here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/the-missing-sunspots-is-this-the-big-chill-1674630.html