I'll be filing a piece for The Guardian tomorrow (Edit: now appearing Monday) on the latest developments surrounding Simon Singh's judge-baffling libel case. In the meantime, I've been approaching various people for comment, and I've managed to get a statement from the BCA. Here it is in it's full, informative glory, followed by my own in-depth analysis.
"Thanks for your email and request for interview and comment. The BCA is currently not providing any comment but as matters progress this might change and if it does we'll contact you. Sorry we can't help at this time."
So, er, this is where I'd normally dissect and study the statement but... yeah. All I can say with accuracy is that sometimes silence speaks a thousand words.
Of course the BCA's previous attempts to engage with the public through press releases have been as awkward, fumbling and embarassing as an adolescent boy encountering a bra strap for the first time, struggling vainly on, only to have the size of his plethora laughed at. It's tempting to speculate that perhaps the cooler heads of their PR firm, Publicasity, have prevailed.
Anyway, I'm not going to try and compete with the court coverage of people like Jack of Kent in my article tomorrow - I plan to approach the case from a different angle, with hopefully some interesting new tidbits to reveal - so for now, let me direct you to a selection of the coverage of Tuesday's promising events.
Sense About Science/Simon Singh
Jack of Kent (and his Bad Law column))
Index on Censorship
Crispian Jago
Nature.com
Stephen Curry
Neurologica
Austin Elliott
head of his plethora? brilliant. you should also read Cristian jessen's piece in the evening standard yesterday, if you haven't seen it already.
If you had ever met the leaders of the BCA, or spoken to one of the majority of British chiropractors, you would have realized that their primary motivation is not promoting the profession, expanding their practice, defining their scope of practice or engaging in scientific debate. It is purely self preservation, of their little practice and of their fragile egos. All too many biographies will start out something along the lines of...."Dr X was on course to become a medical doctor at the University of X when his/her life was changed by his/her (insert life/career threatening disability) which was taken care of by a chiropractor. This resulted in a radical change of direction when they realized that treating the cause was better than treating symptoms. They promptly changed courses and enrolled at the prestigious AECC/WIOC/McT chiropractic college and the rest as they say is history." I bet you can find that story as many times as you can find references to colic, otitis media, asthma etc. Anyway, just my 2 pennies. Incidentally I am a chiropractor so I have much first hand experience of this. I can assure you that not all chiros are rooting for the BCA!
As I am dealing with Chiropractic treatment method, I think this natural treatment method can solve all problem with nervous system. In my experience I found it is successful in almost every case.
i'm a chiropractor in lawrenceville, georgia and i'll be watching this case closely, very interesting about our industry.
i'm a chiropractor in lawrenceville, georgia and i'll be watching this case closely, very interesting about our industry.