Boffey (2014) reports on \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe candidacy of the politician Jane Collins for a parliamentary seat in \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRotherham. In the spring of 2014, Collins was elected as a representative of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe right-wing nationalist UKIP party as a deputy to the European Parliament. Besides \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tto the refusal of an alignment to the EU and the free movement of persons, her \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpolicy is based on a critical up to a openly racist attitude towards the Rroma. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShe repeatedly demanded a comprehensive vaccination of all local children who \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tare in contact with the community of Slovak Rroma in Rotherham. These, she \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\targues, possess a significantly higher hepatitis-B rate than the rest of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpopulation. The Rroma children themselves need to be dealt with within a \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcomprehensive vaccination campaign, she states. On what kind of information does \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCollins build her claim of an increased hepatitis-B rate among Slovak Rroma? \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAre these truly objective data or are they rather deliberately politically \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tconstructed assessments? It is very doubtful that there are statistics that \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcapture health information based on ethnicity. With the portrayal of Rroma as \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcarriers of disease, who pose a risk to public health, they are additionally \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdiscriminated against and marginalised. Already now, a variety of prejudices \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tabout Rroma circulate in the British media and in politics, defaming them as \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsocial parasites, as unwilling to integrate, and as uneducated and criminal. These \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tstatements are not based on facts but on numerous prejudices and on the expressions \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof suspicion that many people simply accept uncritically. Collins fuels this \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthinking by making a racist differentiation between healthy British children \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tand virus-loaded Rroma children, in which the Rroma pose a threat to public \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\thealth. Such statements should not be tolerated under the paragraph of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfreedom of expression but rather be prosecuted and punished under the paragraph \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof defamation.<\/p>\n