Bad Charity – The Quackometer Blog

By Jonrawlinson (http://www.flickr.com/photos/london/75148497/) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The Charity Commission’s Consultation on CAM Charities. My Submission.

18th May, 2017 5

Tomorrow is the last day you can submit your thoughts to the Charity Commission on the charitable status of Complementary And Alternative Medicine organisations. After several years of activity by campaigner and clinical scientist Les Rose, the Commission has finally agreed to look into whether it is right to award the benefits of charitable status to groups that promote quackery. This blog has been highly critical of many quack charities. [read more…]

The Charity Commission’s Failure to Stop Quack Charities

5th April, 2017 14

The regulator of charities in the UK, the Charity Commission, is undertaking a consultation into how it should approach registering charities that promote so-called Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). The Commission have an obligation to ensure that only organisations that provide a benefit to the public gain the benefit of charitable status. CAM, by definition, is the set of medical beliefs and practices that are based on pseudoscientific and superstitious [read more…]

The False Hope of the Hufeland Klinik

11th September, 2016 33

Wales Online reports the tragic story of a two-year old girl with stage-four neuroblastoma. I cannot imagine the emotions the parents must be going through. I am sure if my children were ever in this position, I would consider anything to save them. Such desperation though provides rich pickings for those offering miracle cures and dubious treatments. As a society, we do a very poor job of protecting children and parents from [read more…]

HIV Homeopathy Charity Facing Financial Crunch

4th February, 2016 14

The charity Homeopathy Action Trust represents pretty much everything that is wrong with homeopathy in the UK today. Homeopaths would not be under such pressure and scrutiny if they did not fund and support HIV clinics in Africa, did not agitate for public funding on the NHS and did not advocate homeopathy for serious and life-threatening conditions. Other forms of alternative medicine do not do such things (at least to any [read more…]

Disaster for British Homeopathic Association after Judicial Review fails over Provision of Homeopathy on NHS

30th August, 2015 40

Like many parts of the NHS, Lothian Health Board had recently made the sensible decision to stop funding homeopathy. It made this decision after an extensive public consultation. However a 73 year old woman with arthritis called for judicial review of the decision. That review came down firmly on the side of the Health Board and homeopathic provision will not be reinstated. However, the impact of this decision goes well beyond [read more…]

By Keiko Oikawa (it was sent to me personally) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Ottolenghi and the Quack HIV Homeopaths in Africa

21st July, 2014 10

This blog has been a long term critic of the Society of Homeopaths, and other British Homeopathic organisations, who support their members who practice homeopathy in Africa on people with life threatening conditions such as malaria, HIV and TB. Indeed, the Society of Homeopaths threatened to sue me and my web hosts for pointing out that the Society did nothing to stop these dangerous practices, despite their Code of Ethics suggesting [read more…]

Kevin Wright and the Cancer Charities that Harm Children.

6th September, 2013 197

A month ago, I saw two young men in Bristol Temple Meads Station collecting money for the charity Kids Integrated Cancer Treatment. They were holding two large plastic apples for passing passengers to put money in and telling people they were like CLIC – a popular childrens’ cancer charity – except “Integrated”. What made this everyday scene unusual is that one of the trustees of the charity, Jacqueline Wright was [read more…]

William Alderson Hung Out to Dry by Homeopaths

3rd June, 2013 18

The desire for homeopaths to obtain state-recognised legitimacy has been tearing the trade apart for a decade or more. On one side are those with ambitions to be seen as mainstream and respectable. On the other side, those that want to remain ‘alternative’, anti-establishment and to be able to make whatever claims they like about homeopathy. The latest instalment concerns homeopathy lobby group, HMC21. They plan to hold a demonstration outside the [read more…]

What Every Parent Should Know About Steiner-Waldorf Schools

2nd November, 2012 483

You may know my feelings about Steiner/Waldorf Schools*. Most importantly, that prospective parents are not being told about the occult foundations of the Steiner philosophy. You may think that the mystical, spiritual and esoteric movement behind Steiner schools might be a very important factor in deciding whether your children should attend such a school. But the schools obviously do not. Informed choice is not possible when you do not understand the [read more…]

(False) Hope 4 Cancer

23rd June, 2012 258

Richard Branson has apparently intervened to fly a desperately poorly girl from Mexico who was undergoing last ditch cancer treatment to save her life. The treatment did not work and seven-year-old Olivia Downie found herself in a different hospital in a ‘critical condition’ and too ill to fly home. Appeals appeared in the Daily Mail and the Sun saying the parents were trying to raise £140,000 to charter a special [read more…]