June 2008 – The Quackometer Blog

What’s Behind the Green Door? More Unorthodox Thoughts from Glastonbury

30th June, 2008 5

It’s Sunday, day three at Glastonbury, the world’s greatest rap music festival, and the seagulls are now circling the farm in their thousands. Maybe, it is some Sheldrakean morphic resonance animal text-message vibe that sends them here. Or, it could be just the emerging smell engulfing the 900 acre site – redolent of municipal tip. There comes a time in every festival goer’s experience when they have to contemplate the [read more…]

Dispatches from the Sceptic Fields

28th June, 2008 8

It’s Shakin’ Stevens o’clock here at Glastonbury. Lunchtime. Saturday, as we emerge from the first full day of hard core mud action. It’s not my first time here. I am not wearing flip flops and I did not bring a suitcase. My first visit was in the (coughs) mid eighties. Many things have changed. Gone are the rows of blackboards advertising various alternative pharmaceuticals. No more communal showers. There are [read more…]

£10,000 if you can show homeopathy works

18th June, 2008 29

Edzard Ernst and Simon Singh have issued a challenge to homeopaths: show the world your evidence that homeopathy is effective for any single condition. After recently publishing a book on the merits of various alternative medicines, there has been a near universally negative response from alternative medicine practitioners, particularly the homeopaths, who would prefer to try to smear the Professor than engage in argument. The most common claim from homeopaths [read more…]

Sip Drink: Unnatural, Unethical, Farcical

16th June, 2008 11

If you were a dodgy plumber or made misleading double glazing adverts, you could expect Trading Standards to fine you and the BBC to make a Rogue Traders programme about your mischief. Make misleading and inaccurate health claims about a ‘health’ drink and the same BBC executives will be forking out license fee money on the product for their expensed lunch with their rocket, cous-cous and feng shui salad. Sip [read more…]

Bravewell and the Prince

11th June, 2008 34

Quackery in the UK has friends in the highest places. Despite constitutional restrictions on the monarch’s role in politics, our heir to the throne, Prince Charles, has decided to meddle most wholeheartedly in how public healthcare is provided. The main channel for this interference is the Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health. This organisation claims not to promote alternative medicine, but instead to “offer healthcare which makes use of all appropriate [read more…]