Author Archives: John Abrams

John Abrams

A pill that stops HIV in its tracks

By John Abrams | Tue 1st December 2015 - 10:33 am

If I told you there was a pill that you could take every day that stops HIV in its tracks for those whom are HIV negative what would you think? What if I told you that recently you’d have to move heaven and earth to access information? That there were only one or two sexual health clinics in the UK that would provide the information? Astonished I’d imagine.

Well there IS such a drug. It’s available quite legally for anyone for those that want it – the patented drug (Truvada) for £400 a month – or the generic (Tenvir-EM) for £40. And I’m using the latter!

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 11 Comments
John Abrams

It’s time to take on Labour

By John Abrams | Fri 2nd October 2015 - 8:55 am

I recall a local by-election in an inner London area many moons ago. No names no pack drill although a few might work it out.

In that by-election we extensively campaigned by leafleting and knocking on doors. Our canvass was comprehensive and our campaign, by an excellent local community campaigner, was superb.

On the day there we had so many people that there wasn’t enough work to go round – thus, two people were telling on each polling station and knocking up was done by rota. Sounds brilliant doesn’t it – we must have won, mustn’t we? Well we came a strong 2nd behind Labour.

Who was the agent? Piers Corbyn brother of Jeremy.

It was similar to another national byelection. Again the same conditions prevailed. Again we came third to Labour.

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John Abrams

How did Labour get themselves into this mess?

By John Abrams | Thu 10th September 2015 - 4:55 pm

So it looks like Jeremy Corbyn may be elected Leader of the Opposition and if that happens, Labour have no one to blame but themselves.

As we’ve witnessed the farcical antics of Her Majesty’s opposition let’s consider how they have reached this point.

There’s a line that runs directly from the Blair years to 2015.

The Blair years (despite the welcome policies of National Minimum Wage, LGBT equality and various other things) were really about kicking difficult and much needed economic and welfare reforms into the long grass hoping it would be `alright on the night`. Their handmaiden was an unsustainable boom propped up by the Chinese. Though it’s true to say that Labour didn’t directly cause the banking crash – they did enable it to affect our economy by stoking up a huge credit bubble and poor regulation of the banks. Thus a blind eye was turned to  an annual 3% deficit during a boom – all designed to gain ballot box receipts. The money had to run out sooner or later. Blair and his cohorts loved the housing bubble and some MPs even took advantage of it by flipping homes.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 45 Comments
John Abrams

Opinion: we lead when we’re brave

By John Abrams | Tue 27th May 2014 - 10:47 am

UKIP logoLike many others I was a sub-agent for the European Elections. My ‘chosen’ borough was Tameside where we stood precisely zero candidates at the local elections. A bizarre contrast compared to Lib Dem led Stockport just down the road where I live.

It will come as no surprise from the North West results that one of my samples was devoid of any Lib Dem votes at all – a first after 30 years in politics. (Luckily there were samples that were a bit rosier!)

Once proceedings were complete something troubled me: there were Labour, Green and Conservative sub-agents and little old me. What was missing: ah yes, good old UKIP. I wonder if this is a sign of how they’ll be acting in the European Parliament? For a party who came second to absent themselves at a count so as not to represent the democratic process let alone their own voters is baffling and perhaps a little alarming.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 39 Comments
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