Danny Morgan discovered the band JAPAN. He was one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet. Always smiling, positive and charming. The band warmed to him and we would sometimes visit him at his home where he and his wife would invite us all for dinner, just to hang out and enjoy his company. Sadly, Danny’s life was cut short due to NHS contaminated blood products (he was a haemophiliac). Recently this topic has been raised in the House of Commons and there are finally moves to address this ‘cover up’:
A “criminal cover-up on an industrial scale” took place over the use of NHS contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s, former Health Secretary Andy Burnham has claimed. More than 2,000 deaths have been linked to the scandal in which haemophiliacs and others were infected with hepatitis C and HIV from imported blood products. Speaking in the Commons, the Labour MP said victims were “guinea pigs”. Health minister Nicola Blackwood resisted calls for a fresh inquiry. She said thousands of documents had been released by the Department of Health in relation to the scandal, while two reviews had already been carried out. In 2015, the then Prime Minster David Cameron apologised to thousands of victims of the contaminated blood scandal. A parliamentary report had found around 7,500 patients were infected by imported blood products – contracting hepatitis C and HIV – the virus that can develop into Aids. The UK imported supplies of the clotting agent Factor VIII – some of which turned out to be infected. Much of the plasma used to make Factor VIII came from donors like prison inmates in the US, who sold their blood. More than 2,000 UK patients have since died as a result. Now Mr Burnham is calling for a public “Hillsborough-style inquiry” – echoing calls already made by the Haemophilia Society and victims’ families. source
Whilst on the subject I would like to refer to some text contained in a book written by our ex-manager Napier-Bell in which he not only speaks of Danny in a condescending, patronising and sometimes cruel way, but also attempts to suggest that the band shared his viewpoints on Danny as a person. I feel this needs to be addressed as it simply wasn’t the case (I can only speak for myself of course) and because Danny isn’t around to defend himself. I’m sure we were all irritating to some degree, not least of all Bell himself, but who would feel the need to attempt to portray themselves as being ‘cool’ in the presence of someone with disabilities by incorporating mockery? And why? Perhaps to give Danny some credit where it was due, Bell might argue? To put Danny on the map at least? But piling insult upon someone that has already been dealt such a bad hand in life is yet another aspect of Bell’s inability to demonstrate moral standing in his professional life. And yet he is continually invited by ‘morally guided’ organisations to talk/write on the workings of the music business, or gay issues or whatever else brings him out of the woodwork. I am baffled by this. Would that his own words actually condemn him: skrufff.com