Andy L – Page 6 – The Quackometer Blog

Libel Case: A Statement. Steve Paris & Angel Garden vs Andy Lewis & Melanie Byng

14th July, 2015 0

Three years ago, in February 2012, Angel Garden tried to leave a comment on my first post on Steiner Schools. That comment was held up my moderation queue as it contained a number of external links. Within a short space of time, Angel and her husband, Steve Paris, accused me of censorship repeatedly on twitter, blogs and video. After a somewhat incredible sequence of events, the couple issued civil proceedings [read more…]

Theresa May Exempts Homeopathy from Farcical Psychoactive Substances Bill

2nd June, 2015 11

The Home Secretary, Theresa May, is to introduce new legislation banning any substance that might be considered a ‘legal high’. In her Psychoactive Substances Bill, any substance that can “affect[s] the person’s mental functioning or emotional state” will be banned unless it is on a very short list of allowed substances. So, after this Bill is passed, you will only be allowed to drink tea because Theresa May has specifically allowed you to [read more…]

Maurice Saatchi’s Zombie Quack Bill To Be Rushed Through Parliament.

29th May, 2015 3

Lord Saatchi’s so-called “Medical Innovation Bill” which has the aim of removing patient right’s to sue doctors if they use unproven treatments in ways that no responsible body would endorse was blocked from proceding through parliament during the last session. It now looks like Saatchi intends to try to rush it through again as a reintroduced Private Member’s Bill. The Bill has been listed on the House of Lords schedule [read more…]

Big Legal Blow for NHS Homeopathy

13th April, 2015 30

That the NHS spends money on homeopathy is a red flag to many thinking people. If the publicly funded health service is to operare efficiently and fairly, how is it that it can spend money on this egregious quackery? Furthermore, how can campaigns to stop homeopaths exporting their dangerous ideas to people with HIV, Ebola and malaria in African countries counter the claim that ‘the UK government supports homeopathy by [read more…]

The Professional Standards Authority is a Threat to Public Health

12th March, 2015 24

The Professional Standards Authority has published a report about how it has performed with its Accredited Registers Programme. This scheme has been trying to provide some sort of quality stamp for the registering bodies of various non-statutorily regulated health workers. It has been criticised for rubber stamping organisations who promote quackery, such as homeopathy and acupuncture. Their press release today says that it now has 63,000 ‘underused’ registered health care [read more…]

How to Get Bad Law That Nobody Supports Through Parliament

27th January, 2015 11

Let us imagine an ex-advertising man called Lord Scratchy. After, his old PR firm, Itchy and Scratchy helped the Tory party win elections, he has now been given a seat in the House of Lords. Still working in PR, with many large American Breweries using his skills, he now introduces a Private Members’ Bill into the Lords which he calls the Free Beer Bill. In newspapers, he says that he [read more…]

Medical Innovation or Quackery?

12th December, 2014 19

One of the common marketing messages behind alternative medicine is that is represents true innovation in healthcare. Using one Prince Charles’ favourite words, it tries to offer “integrative” services by combining the best of ‘Western’, or orthodox, medicine with ancient traditions, Eastern practices and New Age ways of knowing. Doctors, in this thinking, are portrayed as hamstrung by their conventional medical training or, even worse, beholden to their imagined paymasters [read more…]

Nutritional Therapists Call for Equal Statutory Footing with Dieticians.

2nd December, 2014 31

In a surprise move, the British Association for Applied Nutrition & Nutritional Therapy (BANT) have formally written to the Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC) requesting that the register of dietitians is modified to allow for the entry of nutritional therapists. This would give Nutritional Therapists equal statutory footing to Dieticians and give them all the privileges and protections that only Dieticians currently have. In a notice to their members, BANT says, [read more…]

Soil Association Trustees Resign over Homeopathy Attacks

29th November, 2014 13

The Soil Association is the marketing organisation behind so-called Organic Farming. It’s stated aims are to campaign for “healthy, humane and sustainable food, farming and land use.” However, it is routinely criticised for embracing pseudoscientific and dogmatic ideas about farming and animal welfare. Matters have now come to a head as four Trustees resigned from the Soil Association earlier in the month. In a blog post, one of them (Joanna [read more…]

Have Homeopaths Reached Peak Stupid?

21st November, 2014 243

Remove hot drinks and sharp objects from your immediate vicinity. Across the world, homeopaths today are trying to ‘heal the oceans’. To do so, British homeopath, Grace DaSilva-Hill, has been writing to appeal to other homeopaths to drop some homeopathic remedies into the sea. She tells homeopaths that those not close to the sea can instead drop their remedies into a river. If even this is too challenging, then Grace advises [read more…]