Derek Draper – quack in a spin *updated 3 times*

After a couple of really rather charming emails from Derek Draper I have made a couple of modifications to this post.

You may remember that the BBC disgracefully employed the services of a quack psychoanalyst who, overcome with delusions of competence, blurted out inappropriate, unfounded and irresponsible comments on the mental health of the prime minister, Gordon Brown.  Now it turns out that the Labour Party are employing the services of a quack psychoanalyst of their own, former spin doctor Derek Draper, with all the problems that come with quacks.  Such as honesty over qualifications.  Derek Draper in a recent Guardian profile claimed to have a MA in Clinical Psychology from Berkeley, University of California.  Guido Fawkes has been doing some digging and found out that Mr Draper has not been entirely honest.  It turns out that Berkeley have no record of Derek Draper and, as The Guardian report today, he actually received his degree from a private institution, the Wright Institute, which does not offer full time degrees, which no longer runs a full time MA, and has no affiliation with Berkeley, merely sharing a neighbourhood.  Derek Draper admits that while the Wright Institute have no academic connection with Berkeley “I did have the use of the facilities at the Berkeley campus.”, but his use of the gents at Berkeley has not prevented him from implying that he studied there on his website.

Ben Goldacre and The Guardian triumph over murderous Matthias Rath

Matthias Rath, a vitamin pill entrepreneur, has pulled out of his attempts to sue Ben Goldacre and The Guardian newspaper for libel.  Rath claims that his vitamin supplements can reverse AIDS, that his pills are better than conventional AIDS treatments and actively campaigns against the use of drug treatments for AIDS patients in the townships of South Africa.  The Guardian published columns from Goldacre criticising these claims so Rath decided to silence this criticism in the generous libel courts of Britain.  The Guardian, to their immense credit, have spent £500,000 defending Goldacre against this malicious action and yesterday’s victory is a fantastic triumph for free speech.  Before you read further I urge you to click on the following links to appreciate just how egregious the actions of Rath were.

The libellous Simon Singh article on chiropractors

Update

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Here is the full unedited version, as published by The Guardian, of Simon Singh’s article that was critical of chiropractors and is subject to legal threats by the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) as reported by Holfordwatch and the Quackometer. I have added the evidence to support Singh’s claims.

Chiropractors sue Simon Singh – prefer legal action to evidence

Via Holfordwatch and the Quackometer I have learnt that the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) are attempting to sue Simon Singh for libel due to allegations contained in an article he wrote “Beware the Spinal Trap”.  This follows attempts by chiropactors in New Zealand to sue David Colquhoun after he criticised their lack of evidence in the New Zealand Medical Journal.

Censorship at St Pancras – quacks 1, skeptics 0

Well I was hoping to work on a blog post at the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras today but unfortunately the internet is filtered and many sites are blocked.  A quick Google reveals that many people have expressed concern about the blocking of many mainstream politics sites.  I can add to the known list of blocked sites to report that Badscience and the Quackometer are blocked and, most incredibly of all, the General Medical Council!

The Society of Homeopaths website is not blocked nor are any quack sites that I have visited, the presence of Neal’s Yard at the station is mere coincidence I am sure.

While I appreciate the network at St Pancras is a service offered by the station and they have every right to run it as they see fit it does seem strange that they would provide a service that adopts a bizarre censorship policy.

I have emailed them and hope that in time they will adopt a more rational approach.