Dependably right-wing blogger Paul “Guido Fawkes” Staines has been circulating the idea that Gordon Brown may be taking anti-depressants - specifically, Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors - under the touching and understanding heading “Is Brown Bonkers?”  and making some sniggering schoolboy allusions to Malcolm Tucker-like tantrums.  This allegation - and quite why it’s an allegation is beyond me - leads Fawkes to muse that

[i]n the context of all this speculation and his manifest physical unease, surely somebody in the Lobby has to publicly ask the question at the PM’s next monthly briefing: ”Prime Minister, have you been taking medication that may affect your judgement?”

But it’s not just Staines that’s casting doubt on Brown’s mental health: he’s asked me to point out, and I’m happy to clarify, that he’s simply following up a story in the Independent that was saying the same thing, except more speculatively (and coquettishly)

Senior Whitehall bods are reported as noting that [Brown] was recently given a long list of things he absolutely must avoid, and that among these are Chianti and cheese. Both are well-known for causing a violent, even lethal reaction to a specific group of heavy duty antidepressants known as MAOIs (Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors).

See how it works: there’s a rumour that Brown has been given a list of foods to avoid, a suggestion that this might be because of some medication, and BINGO! he’s a nutcase.  Of course, because his article’s in the Indy, Matthew Norman is careful to add all kinds of “Of course, I’m not saying…” caveats -

[w]hether literally the case or not, however, this rumour carries the kind of psychological truth that tends to be more damaging than fact.

- but only after having demanded disclosure:

You’d have thought that whether our Prime Minister is severely clinically depressed falls loosely under the public interest header, but what can you do? Our political system regards secrecy less as desirable than its raison d’etre.

See?  From “There might be some foods the PM’s avoiding” to “There’s a conspiracy to cover up the fact that he’s bananas” in two easy steps, with a little side-helping of “I’m not saying that… except I am” as a garnish.  Of course, there’s a range of references to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, natch, because there was a law passed in 1473 saying that every media story about mental health had to have at least one such citation.  Possibly.

There’s a range of things to question about this story: more…

It was only a matter of time before people started to come up with “evidence” that swine flu is all a hoax cooked up to allow the lizard illuminati Bildeberg New World Order freemasons to take over the world… and it’s happening now - this time courtesy of someone using the same name as a BMJ reporter (I’m not sure that it is the same person - but the page I’ve cited here makes the link).

(Actually, come to think of it, we’ve been here before… remember this?)

Here’s a sample of the claim: more…

A short time ago, I mentioned George Pitcher’s extraordinarily lame showing on the Today programme, when he was invited to talk about assisted suicide.  I included a link to his blog - and, I admit it, this was partly intended so that he’d get an “incoming link” notification and either make a comment here, or refer to my post there.

As far as I can tell, he’s done neither.  However, he has excelled himself when it comes to euthanasia paranoia.  He posted on the subject on the day of the Radio 4 interview, and you can read the full thing here if you really want.  I’m going to pick on a short extract:

And another thing: We have a growing elderly population, living longer, and palliative care is very expensive. It couldn’t be that the Government sees the ballooning NHS budget and realises that one way to save a bit would be for our senior citizens to be encouraged to top themselves?

Nothing would surprise me anymore.

Ahhh… wild speculation and scaremongering dressed as argument.  Rewarding stuff.

Of course, I’d like to think that things couldn’t get stupider… but, it seems, they can.  One should never underoverestimate the contributors to Telegraph blogs.  “BritishPatriot” has to have his poorly-spelled say on the subject:

In 1970 when Aborion was legalised they said it would only be used in extreme circumstances, we now have abortion clinics, err, sorry pregnancy advice centres in every town where potential mothers are lulled into aborting what they are told are ‘just cells’
7.2 Million British Babies later, we face a Demographics Timebomb.
Now they want to sterilise our Schoolgirls.
This Euthenasia drive they are trying ti get us to agree to is so they can asset strip the British Elderly then do away with them in their Privatised ‘clinic’
The EU doesn’t want you, they know you will not vote for the EU so they are getting rid of you every way they can.
WAKE UP !!!!

If I don’t contribute to this blog for a while, it’ll be for one of two reasons.  Either Gordon Brown and the entire staff of the European Commission will personally have come round to my house to euthanise me (coldly ignoring my cries of “No!  Really!  I’m all in favour of the EU and would sign up to Schengen and the Euro lickety-split!”), or I’ll have bought shares in Bacofoil and have moved to a private island in the Carribean.

Because there seems to be a growing market in tinfoil hats that needs to be exploited.