Another year has passed and in the current ecomonic climate it remains key that we pursue and argue our case, as a community, with government to ensure we are dealth with fairly and with the proper understanding.

Over the comming years we will see those on Incapacity Benefit being moved over to Employment  & Support Allowance (ESA). More assessment follows and we need to ensure the Department for Work & Pensions has a thorough understanding of our health issues.

The government is behind in passing key Disability Rights legislation.

We will continue to campaign on this front. I would like to thank those who continue to contribute, in their own time, to our plight - they know who they are.

Nick Partridge of Terrence Higgins Trust was elevated from a mere OBE to a Knight in the New Years Honours List. So HIV has some media coverage over the last few weeks.

What is alarming is Mr. McNulty MP the minister for Employment who does seem rather 'out of touch' with his employment portfolio as evidenced by the answer to our BBC Website question and more recently last week on BBC's Newnight where he was not sure if the new apprenticeships announced were new or a 're-announcement'. This clearly an employment issue.

So as they say 'onwards and upwards'. This year will see more work on our internet site as well as campaigning as health allows.  

We are also involved in delivering a study into 'Ageing with HIV' and campaigning for boys as well as girls to get the HPV vaccine and for it to be upgraded to 'Gardisil' as it offers protection against more strains of the virus and is an issue for gay men and rectal cancer.

As always we continue to fight against stigma.

I look forward to what we can achieve in this year.

All the best,

John.