PopCon's Swift critiques the WHO...

Devotees – like Swift himself – of Association Football, will instantly recognise this home crowd chant. It is aimed at the players making up the opposition side of the day, intended to convey that they are has-beens, never-wases, impersonators, thimble-riggers and three-card tricksters who will shortly be exposed and then comprehensively defeated by the proper footballers of one’s own side.

On which note, let us introduce the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Now Swift – a patriot through and through – has never been entirely convinced of the value of multinational organisations, starting (at the top) with the United Nations. These bodies, always founded with the highest principles (usually in the first flush of enthusiasm for world peace and amity in 1945), have been inevitably captured by special interest groups, and thence dominated by nations counted by numbers, and not by value.

So we have had the absurdity of the UN human rights council, which currently glories in the committed membership of (a mere selection here) Egypt, Afghanistan, Cuba, and (Swift swallows hard) the Russian Federation.

But this is shooting fish in a barrel. No one cares what the human rights council says (or indeed the UN as a whole) because everyone can see that the system is corrupt.

Some tattered rags of respectability, however, remain with the WHO. After all, making people better is (a) a good thing and (b) since disease respects no national borders, might require some form of multinational cooperation.

Yet the WHO, one of those many post-war tadpoles spawned in the wreck of post-war Europe, has grown to be a particularly unpleasant and poisonous frog.

The charge sheet is long, but there are some egregious examples to mention here:

• its approach to tobacco has consistently undermined the positive impact of vaping on reducing cigarette use
• its approach to alcohol ignores the clear evidence that moderate consumption has health benefits
• it sold its soul on COVID to avoid acknowledging any evidence that the origins of the virus might be connected to one or more Chinese research establishments. It was a fish market, OK? Case closed

(In every respect it resembles the complete folly of our own former Public Health England, which was so occupied with lecturing people about their food, sugar, alcohol and tobacco consumption, that it was completely unprepared when the darkly-hooded figure of Coronavirus – complete with scythe – tapped it on the shoulder.)

Yet the WHO seems impervious to the kicks and blows which are in truth its due. Learning from failure? – nope, not a f*cking chance – instead, it goes on to fresh madness.

Swift regrets to say that one of the impulses behind this is the British government itself, which decided in the panic of the pandemic (do you see what Swift did there?), that greater international co-operation was the answer. Possibly, my readers, possibly…

Unforts, the vehicle to be used for this co-operation was, inevitably, the clapped-out, clocked (innocent readers might need to Google that), second-hand, Ford Capri (ditto) that is the WHO.

The madness in question is the proposed WHO Pandemic Treaty. Unlike pretty much anyone in the entire world, Swift has read this. Much of it is the usual international diplomatic cattle-fodder of co-operation and exchanging information (unless you are the Chinese government), climate change, and forming circles to chant ‘we love the world’ and so on.

It however includes (in its current draft) an grotesque infringement of national sovereignty that made even the cynical Swift blanch.

If we sign up to this, it would mean that the UK would have to, in the event of another global pandemic, hand over one-fifth of its vaccines and other medical equipment to the WHO. Errrm…

Let’s be clear. Obviously this is not going to happen as no UK government could either sign up to it, or survive if it did.

But there is a much deeper, harder discussion to be had here, so let’s start it now. The WHO, despite its appalling record on every issue that really matters to human health, is using this apparently virtuous proposal on international co-operation to permit it to become the future world government of health. Bit like Star Wars but less exciting.

We will say no to the current draft treaty. But be warned.

This project of domination, even if defeated today, will be still be assisted in the future by the prohibitionists, control freaks and new puritans that exist in most Western countries, including – sadly – our own. They will sell us down the river for a the price of a few international conferences in pleasant locations, assisted by the NGOs we ourselves fund, and thereby collect more government money to inflict fresh controls on our freedom.

Let us not allow this to happen. We should start the counter-insurgency.

Our mission – if we are prepared to accept it (sorry) – is to win the battle of ideas here and now, in Britain, via Popular Conservatism – so that the megalomaniac pretensions of international bodies like the WHO are never given the time of day. Shown the door. Escorted off the premises. Bid a courteous but firm farewell (but do remember to count your spoons).

After all, just WHO are you?