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; […]
Category: Politics
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, […]
Don’t Go Outside… You Might Break the Baby
A couple of days ago, I made a post about Nicaragua’s abortion laws and their – ahem – unfortunate consequences. However, it would appear that the atmosphere that generated them is a model of liberalism in comparison to the atmosphere further north. I have in mind here Utah’s Criminal Homicide and Abortion Amendments (HB12), recently passed […]
Acronym Overload: HoC S&TC report on homeopathy published…
The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee’s report on homeopathy was published today (and is available here). The findings have not been diluted; the Committee didn’t sugar the sugar pill. […]