What's driving the BNP?  Brendan O'Neill
  Published 01 May 2008
    
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  The rapid growth in support at the ballot box for a nationalist party of the right has gone hand in hand with voter cynicism and disillusion with the main parties
     

  On a sunny day in Stanmore, north London, a motley crew of people gathers at the Tube station. An elderly man leans on a walking stick, a faded blue, white and red tattoo saying "Proud to be British" just about visible on his forearm. The tattoo might be older than I am. Bert, a sixty-something retired heavy-machine worker, is inappropriately dressed in a woollen jumper and beige overcoat. He lets out a yelp of approval when a truck with a Union Jack on its side - carrying "British Meat" - hurtles by.
  Housewives in jeans and short-sleeved tops talk animatedly about the beautiful weather. Charlotte Lewis, a 35-year-old unemployed woman from Croydon, is wearing a loud gold lamé jacket and black jeans. She speaks with a south London twang: "Sometimes I get on a bus and I'm the only white person on there," she complains. "It's a bit distressing."
  A white van swerves into view, beeping at the group of 15 men and women to move out of the way. Out steps Richard Barnbrook, dressed in a khaki suit and with a roll-up between his fingers. He has the look and swagger of an old colonialist. I can picture him leaping out of a jeep in white-ruled Rhodesia in the same manner he leaps out of his white van in multi-ethnic Stanmore. His two helpers, big men in T-shirts, unload boxes of leaflets headlined "The Changing Face of London". They show a group of smiling white women at a street party in the 1940s (the good old days) next to a picture of three women wearing burqas, one of whom is giving a two-fingered salute to the camera (the bad new days).
  This is the London wing of the British National Party. Five days before the local and London mayoral elections, it has come to Stanmore and Edgware in north London - which have large Indian and Jewish communities - for some last-minute electioneering. Its members are confident, even cocky, about their chances of a seat on the London Assembly. "We'll definitely get one, maybe two," says Barnbrook, who is the BNP's mayoral candidate. 
  Barnbrook is a graduate of the Royal College of Art, who worked with the gay film-maker Derek Jarman in the 1980s ("Me and Derek and Tilda [Swinton] hung out together, and there was never a problem," he says). His fiancée is Simone Clarke, former prima ballerina of the English National Ballet and a fellow BNP member, who has a mixed-race child. "How can I be racist when I adore that child?" he says, when I ask if the BNP is anything more than a Johnny Foreigner-baiting party. Barnbrook, who leads the BNP's 12 councillors in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, insists the BNP is "concerned about lots of things".
  "If I had to put our concerns in order of importance, I would say: housing, transport, health, education, the environment and law and order." So immigration isn't a concern at all? "Well, immigration impacts on all of those things," he says. "It causes overcrowding in housing, strain on the transport system, more pollution in the environment and it disrupts law and order."
  I see. Behind Barnbrook's "respectable issues" there lurks the odious far-right idea that immigrants are the root cause of every social ill.
    Cocky leafleteers  
  Barnbrook and his eager leafleteers have reason to be cocky. At the time of writing, many predict that the BNP will make important gains in the local and London mayoral elections. In London, parties must win 5 per cent of the vote in order to get a seat on the 25-member Assembly. That threshold was introduced by the government to allow minor parties such as the Greens to be represented, while keeping out the far right. In the last London elections in 2004, the BNP won 4.7 per cent of the vote - only 6,000 votes short of the threshold for gaining a seat. This time it is expected to win bigger, especially since the UK Independence Party (which won 8 per cent in 2004) is in disarray.
  Around the country, the BNP has grown in local electoral strength over the past ten years. Under its founder, John Tyndall, the party was a racist menace but electorally insignificant, only ever winning handfuls of votes. That began to change with the election of the slick Nick Griffin as party chairman in 1999. He set about trying to improve the BNP's image. The party had won its first-ever council seat in the east London borough of Tower Hamlets in 1993. After the local elections of May 2006, it had over 50 council seats: 12 in Barking and Dagenham, and a smattering of seats in the north of England: mainly in Stoke-on-Trent, Burnley and West Yorkshire.
  "The BNP has tended to prosper in segregated poor, white communities in the north, and in parts of the south-east where there have been unexpected infusions of new immigrants," says Tony Travers, an expert in local government at the London School of Economics. The party's vote has grown exponentially at general elections, too. In 1992, it won 7,005 votes; in 1997 it won 35,832; in 2001 it won 47,129; in 2005 it won 192,746. What is behind the growth of the BNP? How has it managed to gain a toehold in local politics?
  Many would argue that the party's recent success represents the re-emergence of flick-knife racism, even that "neo-fascism" is on the march. In fact, the expansion of the BNP can be seen as a product of mainstream political failure. The party - a ragbag of ageing skinheads, slick wannabe politicians and ditzy women with chips on their shoulders - thrives on disillusionment with the three main parties.
  "There is research evidence that a lot of people who vote for the BNP are not aggressive neo-fascists, but rather are cheesed off with mainstream politics," says Travers. "The rise of the BNP can be seen as a grim indicator of the failure of the Labour and Conservative parties. If the parties functioned properly, then probably the BNP could be contained. Its supporters would be tempted away by old-fashioned Labour values or by the legitimate, centre-right nationalism of the Tories."
  But today, Travers says, there is a "clustering in the centre" in mainstream politics, and a "collapse of the ability of the mainstream parties to win new members and supporters". The effect has been to allow the BNP to proliferate.
  "If the other parties were doing their job properly, we wouldn't be here having this conversation right now," says Barnbrook. "I know we win votes because people are angry with the other parties."
  Far from being a clear-headed neo-fascist party, the BNP comes across as a mess of contradictions opportunistically trying to pick up the votes of the disillusioned. For example, Barnbrook tells me the BNP has "no problem with black people". Someone clearly forgot to brief Bert, an older member of the BNP, who says "mixed marriages are just wrong because both races become denigrated". Bert has "no comment" on the question of whether six million Jews were exterminated in the Holocaust, yet Charlotte from Croydon tells me she was "really, really moved" when she visited Anne Frank's house in Amsterdam a few years ago. Barnbrook says the BNP has "nothing in common with the thugs of the NF"; Bert tells me the NF "are decent blokes". Most strikingly, where Barnbrook tried to convince me that "millions of Britons empathise and support our message", Charlotte reveals that a party stalwart advised her to walk to the top of a cul-de-sac and leaflet outwards. "It's safer that way,"
 she says. "You can run away if people get angry."
  With them for a day, I noticed two things about the BNP: its reliance on mainstream fear about immigration and its opportunistic exploitation of people's disdain for Labour, Tories and Lib Dems. BNP doorsteppers talk about Britain being "overcrowded" and claim immigrants are polluting our environment; they argue that Poles lower British wages. These are thoroughly mainstream ideas. They tell voters, in the words of Bert: "If you're pissed off with the rest, vote for the best!"
  All parties should be concerned that the growth of the BNP over the past 15 years - from 7,005 votes in the 1992 general election to 192,746 in 2005 - has coincided with political malaise and cynicism across the UK.
  Perhaps the best way to smash the BNP is to challenge the mainstream fear of immigration that it feasts upon and give voters something inspiring to vote for in its place.
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    24 comments from readers    
Carl Jones 
01 May 2008 at 11:02   
     Parties like the BNP and UKIP are establishment mechanisms which allows the main political parties to move their agenda to the right. Of course, we are talking a long game and when you consider to pooling of immigrant populations, there were likely to be some predictable outcomes. 
  
  Instead of opposing a potential BNP MP, political parties will make up the political devide. Of couse, these policy changes will be subtle. But this is what the establisment wants. Just re-read the last paragraph again...."mainstream fear"...is this not a MSM construct?:)
  
Jonny Mac 
01 May 2008 at 11:20   
     "Perhaps the best way to smash the BNP is to challenge the mainstream fear of immigration that it feasts upon and give voters something inspiring to vote for in its place." 
  
  Balls. The best way to smash the BNP is to respect voters' concerns about immigration, rather than try to convince them that they're wrong to have any concerns. In other words, for government to respect the will of the people. But then the left has never been all that keen on democracy when the voters are "wrong" on an issue, has it?
  
rhory 
01 May 2008 at 13:26   
     Is it any wonder that the indigenous population of London has feelings of alienation as they are displaced from their traditional homelands. It is not surprise that the BNP do best in areas where voters have already been displaced once (the old East End) and are in the process of being displaced again (Barking). As much as the Left would like it not to be the case, race matters as much, if not more, than class
  
Hippy 
01 May 2008 at 16:09   
     I would love for all the articles written by learned journalists about the BNP to be part of English Literature courses at universities. The use of certain words and sentence structure could be analysed for the beautifully impartial and impeccably fair treatment these folk use when writing about the BNP. I could stoop to referring their style to political propaganda - but then that would be an entriley different degree wouldn't it....
  
James 
01 May 2008 at 16:13   
     Public opinoin about immigration and race in society are common sensibilities, they are about perceptions. Therefore these issues are very murky and blurred and it is for this reason why essentially non-logic based parties like the BNP can make gains. 
  
  The BNP is not a party of policies but one of sensibilities. The paradox here is that becasue of the (logic-based) consensus in mainstream politics all parties are more or less involved in the politics of sensibilities. However the mainstream parties are trapped in a further paradox in that there exist unoffical rules of the game which means that some sensibilities should remain untapped, or at least not tapped with the same zeal. 
  
  Whilst there are 'real' structural issues surrounding immigration that could be addressed logically I don't beleive that the mass of public opinion relating to the issue has more than the remotest connection to these. 
  These issues are so wrapped in mythology and misunderstanding, in sensibility, that it would be unwsie to build policies around them. 
  
  Class, although not the only issue of importance, can at least form logical policy foundations becasue it is linked to political economy, to markets, power relationships and so on. It can be linked to more than blurred groupings of sensibility and misinformation.
  
IrritatedofTonbridge 
01 May 2008 at 16:28   
     Hippy, what an utterly stupid point.
  
terence 
01 May 2008 at 17:58   
     lets get some thing straight you talk in distain of the bnp 
  with its hypothetical hidden agenda lurking beneath the surface/ Ok take a look at the labour party and its communist supporters that's very nasty // lets look at the other party each has its ghost if you look closely at their hidden agendas!! i wont go into it all but who's country is this why did my family fight and die defending its boarders its culture its people!!WHY HAVE I NEVER BEEN CONSULTED ON MASS IMMIGRATION ?? Why haven't we had the promised Referendum on the EU!!Why can I not be part of or have a vote for the Muslim council of Britain?? why can I not join the black police confederation ETC:I trust not the war warmongering liars thieves and cheats in power..WHo would sell our land for a mess of pottage and our children for a pot of money THE BNP is the only honest opposition Racism is irrelevant!! and nothing to do with it
  
Will 3070 
01 May 2008 at 20:24   
     "THE BNP is the only honest opposition" - Terence 
  
  Is that comment intended as a joke considering the BNP record. This election they've had their Mayoral candidate cheating on his partner, a member withdrawal for saying “Rape is simply sex” on a pseudonymous Blog and had a candidate unable to prove a series of claims he made in a leaflet including: 
  
  "all asylum seekers coming to the UK are handed cheques by the Government to buy a car" 
  
  
  The BNP are the most dishonest party I can think of. 
  
  Did your family "fight and die" to be lied too again and again by a party who wave the flag whilst treating them contempt.
  
Sylvie 
01 May 2008 at 21:50   
     I have been a BNP member for some time now. I used to be a Labour voter and activist. I also helped Ken on his campaign for Mayor in 2000. My husband and two sons work in the banking sector, and l am a housewife. The people l have come to know in this party run rings around people l met over time in the Labour party, Yes, the BNP are a mix of people, from all professions. I know an accountant, a lawyer, a builder, a teacher, a cleaner, and a security guard etc; We have a Jewish councillor in Epping, and that looks to expand as many Jews are joining the party. I do not recognise Mr Travers views of the members at all. They are good people who care about this country. Who else speaks for us, the white population? We didn't fight in two world wars, in order to hand this country over a few years later to people from the third world , who are happy to live here with all that entails, whilst not careing a jot about what was once our beautifal land. I for one am not about to
 let that happen, And thinking of us as a bunch of wierdos Mr Travers, is rank stupididy.
  
Matt J 
01 May 2008 at 22:54   
     While reading this article I saw something that irritated me so much that I have registered to this site just to comment on it. 
  
  The author likens Richard Barnbrook, the BNP mayoral candidate, to a Rhodesian colonist as he hands out flyers in London. Forgive me if I am wrong, but I believe Richard Barnbrook and most of his supporters are NATIVE to Britain. Furthermore, British National Party is a political party that is controversal largely because it stands for Indiginous Brits and against immigration. So for the author to describe the native inhabitants of London as foreign colonists (immigrants) is something I found absolutely frightening. 
  
  This sort of talk may be intended purely as a random smear against the BNP, but denying the Native inhabitants of a land their Native status is a terrible thing to do. Under international treaty it is a violation of their Human Rights and for good reason, denying Natives their status is normally only done by those intending to persecute those Natives. 
  
  As a person who has experienced violent anti-"White" racism in school and the lack of options "White" people have after such an attack. I know why the BNP are neccessary and why people who would deny people of Native British or European descent the same rights to self-determination and protection from discrimination that all other peoples are granted need to be exposed and stopped. These people often seem to think they are doing the right thing, but they aren't and are blind to their double-standards. 
  
  I respect all peoples and cultures and most of my friends are not White. However I recognize the uniqueness of my people and culture and want it to survive. I want to be able to have children and grow old and not find myself a stranger wherever I go. A person with no homeland, like the Jews before Israel was recreated. 
  
  For that reason and others I hope the BNP do well in this election to show people like this author that the Native Londoners will not accept being treated like "colonists" and "Rhodesians" in their own homeland!
  
Dickie 
02 May 2008 at 03:52   
     The reason people vote BNP is because they talk like most of the British people! This article in itself is politically correct...too afraid to be open and honest about the mess that Britain is in through over crowding and an infrastructure that can't cope. As for the BNP being some kind of lesser government or beings; who is responsible for the illegal war in Iraq and the thousands of lives that have been lost? Who is responsible for the web of deceit regarding weapons of mass destruction? Who is ripping off tax payers left, right and centre by claiming allowances for second homes and the rest? Who is accepting cash for honours? Let’s not forget some of the other scandals...Major and Edwina, Mellor and his infamous toes sucking antics, Archer and his time serving...and the list goes on. What a load of bloody hypocrites and scoundrels we have in the main three parties. No wonder GB is on her knees. At least the BNP have a love of the country, the rest of them are lining
 their pockets, bogging it under with immigrants...even our immigrants are sick to death of immigration. And what is being done about violent crime? We have Muslim no go areas, black gang violence. Don't talk to me about the BNP having no values. If something isn't done about GB soon she'll sink under the politically correct BS. There will be no more Great Britain. Wake up for God sakes. This article is no more than the rest of the BS propaganda we're sick to death of.
  
South Africa 
02 May 2008 at 08:11   
     I have read all your comments with interest - looking at the site to see how the BNP have done in the electins of yesterday, all the way from South Africa! 
  Do not kid yourselves for one moment - the BNP is about the colour of your skin and NOTHING else. 
  They will support and harbour anyone who has a white skin and will give them a home in the UK based only on their white skin. 
  One of the major propoganda forces in their party is a white Rhodesian with a serious political background in South Africa - he has no claim to UK citizenship other than his white skin but the BNP see no reason to deny him the right to immigrate.
  
Jonny Mac 
02 May 2008 at 09:25   
     Surely it boils down to this: 
  
  (a) yes, the BNP are nasty (though not as nasty as the old NF - eg see Sylvie's post); but 
  (b) they will continue to advance unless the mainstream political parties start reflecting political opinion and start doing something about immigration. Therefore, articles like this - the BNP are scum, the way to defeat them is to 'celebrate' immigration etc - are part of the problem, in that they increase the appeal of the BNP, and not the solution.
  
James 
02 May 2008 at 09:50   
     South Africa has it right. 
  
  The BNP are definately in the business of cornering the market of racist sensibilities, especialy from those sections of the population who feel they are under threat in some way or another. 
  
  Many of them are under threat and have little to gain from mainstream policies but these threats are to do with a rapidly globalising world in which the structures and institutions or their youth have been subject to de-emphasis. 
  
  The BNP has some very scary foundations and anyone who points to their policies on housing etc and says 'look, it's not about race' is haing their leg pulled, or perhaps more often than not, kidding themselves. Don't kid yourselves, you know what you think and how you feel. 
  
  As for those who point to the wars that previous generations have fought, that's the same for most of us but we don't feel the need to use our grandparents as an excuse for peddling lies. Many asians and africans fought in these wars as well, the eastern europeans fought a far more terrible war agaist the Nazis than 'we' did. 
  
  Fundemental nationalsim is a relic of the early 20th C and the structures and institutions it rested on are evolving out of generational recognition. So yes, I understand that those who can only frame their thoughts in terms of nation-states and racial hierarchy will feel under threat. And I am sure that you will get in a few violent swipes as you have your swan song but the 21st C is going to be about a lot more than nations and races. This is teh most exciting time to be alive and the excitement is due to change on every level.
  
William 
02 May 2008 at 09:59   
     Political paties in the UK are for Britains involvement in Europe, denigrating the rights of its Citizens. BNP is the only organisation that stands up against this abusive harassment for All not just the Gilded Few. The Government is already setting up the 9 Regional Assemblies which will replace England, notice the lack of clarity on the Map of Europe: Quid Pro Quo.
  
johannine 
02 May 2008 at 11:21   
     All political parties are run by people with adjenda's, we need only to see that party loyalty is the aim [the main measure for getting 'party' nomination [and funding] 
  
  The system is completly rotton ,what is needed is a platform of reform that gets everyone representation , this isnt achieved through parties but by banning [as criminal colusion any voting the party line or rather colluding their vote [or trading their vote] 
  
  So what is the next step towards a more fair system? 
  i put forward that the world be divided into school districts [that each school acts as like council does in this day, health regulation , planning serving the houses homes and regulating local industry , 
  
  In affect the school district elects a lord major [who becomes the federal govt local representative ,for their school district,for all govt related services 
  
  [representing his or her local voters as public service representatives ie elected public officials; overseeing and coordinating specialists who earn their 'council' positions by a relitive skills base to meet specialised need in their district [as servants of the people not policers] 
  
  the trouble with parties is the ammount of supreme empowered but unseen heads currently heading parties 
  [the party isnt run by the pm and the opposition leader [because the current party system runs them [its the inseen hand moving the puppets [when we only get to vote for the chosen puppet] and party policy in most is only a way to pretend the party members are having a say 
  [how much labour party was in the end addopted? 
  why you think that is ? 
  policy is the smokescreen that pretends the party policy has support of the people behind it 
  
  [but when elected its the party heads are revealed to be ruling their party man,[men ;and women] and the other party elected members begin voting the party line 
  [were brown really labour he would use this term to eliminate the party system ] ie introduce real change , but he is too much the parties man [as are all our other ''elect'] as for the bnp it is the same as many other countries have got [our bnp is the hanson nationals party 
  ps get ready for the 'family first' the next level of the two party farce [just as bnp is the previous stage , it has become all so predictable , it takes party men topull the show off , get rid of the party machine first 
  
  but im dreaming right 
  
  has lynton crosby gotten boris johnstone elected yet ? 
  
  who is a great egsample of party machine man . using the great unseen powers of invisability [who works with the neo con right so look for him at the next bnp meeting [who'sss a bit camera shy [but the best party shyster the aussies ever had] 
  
  who knows the divide and con-quer better than most. so great at forming the wedge issue party.[that supposed one issue candidate so needed in a tight election.] 
  any way use your vote wisely 
  they know we dont like the parties [so are setting up these minority and independants [boy talk about the heads that regrow] thats the party way
  
midenglander 
02 May 2008 at 12:11   
     As an inhabitant of Middle England I am watching closely to see what is going to happen in the elections in London, it is after all, OUR capital city as well as the home town of a very mixed bag of people. My own view is that Londoners have been short changed with the choice of fairly low grade candidates. Livingstone is an unrepentant Marxist who sucks up to Islamist extremists, he also has had a very colourful private life, as have the other two main contenders. Paddick is a sacked, controversial, senior police officer and Johnson comes over as a somewhat befuddled bafoon. It is little wonder that electors are beginning to look elsewhere for representation. I feel VERY disallusioned about all three main parties. They havre presided over the gradual and now rapid ruination of our country, aided and abetted by the media,. They still refuse to address the real issues that most people are concerned with. It simply will not do to constantly dismiss concerns over
 immigration, law and order and the drastically changing face of OUR homeland. All three main parties have only themselves to blame if others start to fill the void in British politics.
  
PlanetStarbucks 
02 May 2008 at 12:37   
     The only good thing about this article is the commentary it has spawned. The article itself was written in such a bias way that it is almost pointless to read. 
  
  As for my own views, I believe fully in egalitarianism and having come from a working class background I am angered that money is spent on ethnic minorities whilst the white working class are left to rot. This however is not for me an issue of race. My black friend wanted to join the Army but refused when he realised that he would be assessed at a lower standard then whites because the Army wanted black recruits at any cost. This purported ‘positive racism’ is sheer racism pure and simple; it is telling that we think that non-whites need our devoted help to get themselves out of their quagmire. Wasn’t this the principle the British Empire was built on, spreading Christianity to the savages who couldn’t look after themselves? 
  
  The world is slipping inexorably to the right, we have the far right back in power in Italy, we have a proto-fascism regime in the US, and all the while the rest of Europe is tearing up its socialist constructs and privatising the state. The right are winning; the left is so pathetically caught up in its idiosyncrasies and single issue politics that it is powerless to stop this.
  
Dickie 
02 May 2008 at 17:03   
     South Africa. You are sorely deluded! Have you paid any attention to the slaughter of white farmers that is going on in SA? These same farmers are refused refugee status in Britain but if they were black they'd be welcomed with open arms. Is that not racist? Did you know that by 2009, all white farmers have to hand back their land at a fraction of what they paid for it? Have you taken note of the violence that has exploded since aparteid? South Africa must be one of the most violent places on the planet...and only since Mandella had a say in the running of it. At least before aparteid it was peaceful. The blacks had more than they have now. To say the BNP are racist has become a boring statement by those who do not think. The indigenous in Britain are the ones being abused. Make no mistake about that. I'm fed up of hearing all this clap trap from people who haven't taken the time to read BNP policy or their manifesto. Please Grow up, and wake up!
  
IsThatcherDeadYet 
02 May 2008 at 23:15   
     The Daily Mail and Daily Express coverage of immigration and Islam is an open invitation for people to vote BNP.
  
IndigoJo 
03 May 2008 at 00:08   
     A bit of background on this Charlotte Lewis would not have gone amiss. She is a former BNP candidate who stood for the St Helier seat in Sutton in 2006, claiming to have lived in the borough when she actually lived in Thornton Heath, in Croydon. Merton and Barking/Dagenham councils also reported two incidents each of BNP candidates falsely claiming to live in their boroughs in order to get council seats. So she's not just a "ditzy woman" but a party activist deploying that time-honoured BNP tactic: lying. 
  
  I used to live in Croydon, and regularly go back there for both work and other personal reasons, and most of Croydon is predominantly white, except for parts of the north around Broad Green and Thornton Heath. Those areas have had substantial ethnic minority populations for decades. You might be the only white person on the bus there from time to time, most likely when there are not many people on the bus, but it's likely that the non-whites might be outnumbered too. Did Brendan O'Neill not have the time to do a background check on Charlotte Lewis? 
  
  http://www.blogistan.co.uk/blog/
  
Dickie 
03 May 2008 at 02:47   
     Indigo jo. I suppose Lib/Lab/Conners are holier than thou? Where did you get your info, was it from the media? Well, it must be true then!
  
Mockneyflip 
03 May 2008 at 03:01   
     Um, just who are you Brendan O'Neill to infer that women in the BNP are ditzy? So it is OK for you to indulge in stereotyping women but the BNP are evil if they stray into sexist territory? Go back to journalism school as you need to master the basics.
  
steffaction 
03 May 2008 at 05:06   
     Mockneyflip: "Um, just who are you Brendan O'Neill to infer that women in the BNP are ditzy? " 
  
  When I read the word 'ditzy', I knew someone was going to make this utterly meaningless point. Ditzy wouldn't be the word I'd choose for BNP women - in fact its rather quaint, evoking images of charming yet steely women in old Hollywood comedies. The word I'd choose would denigrate women to a much greater extent, although not to the extent of that lovely 'rape isn't so bad' BNP ex-candidate. 
  
  The BNP's membership (or at least a significant section of their membership) engage in racist violence, lionise Hitler and deny the Holocaust, as well as generally being thugs of a less politically incorrect stripe. The BNP's election manifesto for the General election 2005 says a number of magnificent things: immigrants, even those who have lived her for decades, are not be repatriated, but encouraged to leave (let's all think about how that might be done); AIDS is not to be treated in NHS hospitals as it is a 'foreign disease'. All matters of public record.

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