Human Rights Watch is reporting that Brazil is in the process of formulating a law that will give “‘absolute priority’ to the rights of the fertilized ovum”. The proposed bill would require any act or omission that could in any way have a negative impact on a fertilized ovum to be considered illegal. The bill […]
Category: Politics
Official: The M-Cat is Dead.
So – remember those deaths that were linked to mephedrone use? The ones that started a moral panic and that led to the erstwhile government banning the drug in a desperate attempt to curry favour with the tabloids in the fag-end of the Parliament? Yep – those ones. Well, it turns out that Wainwright and […]
Age and Assisted Death in Scotland
The Scottish Parliament recently sought evidence in relation to the End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill; I responded to that call, and most of what I said would not be new to people who know me, or who read this blog. However, I did make a point there that I’ve not given an outing before; […]
More on the Oklahoma Abortion Law
A couple of weeks ago, I posted something here about the progress of a handful of Bills working their way through the Oklahoma legislature that would, among other things, require that women have an unnecessary scan – potentially internal – before being allowed an abortion. I think that the proposals are pretty much indefensible. Not […]
Oklahoma, OK?
Roe v Wade ensured that women in the US had a constitutionally-guaranteed right to abortion protection from interference in decisions to terminate their pregnancy. What it didn’t do, though, was ensure that women could access an abortion easily. This means that there’s a number of means by which laws can be passed that make it extraordinarily […]
Muslims! MRSA! or: How Journalism Works
The increasingly-tabloid Freethinker is running an indignant story about how – apparently – rules about bare arms have allegedly been relaxed for Muslim staff within the NHS (scroll down a bit – they’re indignant about quite a lot). Female staff who follow the Islamic faith will be allowed to cover their arms to preserve their modesty […]
The Slow Death of the ACMD
One of the most galling political sights of the last few months – and there’s been quite a range – has been the slow collapse of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs in the wake of the Nutt farrago. Ever since David Nutt had the temerity to bring facts to the table in […]
Is there an Election Due?
So: Alan Johnson has announced that he’s going to stop people using mephedrone… no, wait: that’s not it… make mephedrone use as safe as possible… no, that’s not it either… prevent the price of mephedrone rising and thereby increasing the likelihood of petty crime… close, but not quite… make sure that people can get hold […]
On the subject of Mephedrone…
I think that it’s worth pointing out that the way the media have handled mephedrone has been generally pathetic. This is not wholly a surprise, because the way the media handle any drugs story tends towards the pathetic. […]
Quick! Ban Something!
It goes without saying that the deaths of Louis Wainwright and Nicholas Smith, apparently after having taken the legal high mephedrone, is a matter of deep regret. But it’s also a matter of sad predictability that the news has been hotly followed by calls for mephedrone to be banned; speaking on Today this morning, Chris Grayling, […]