Humpty dumpty judge sides with BCA in Singh hearing

Bad news, I am afraid, from the courtroom in the BCA versus Simon Singh case (see yesterday's post). The Judge, emulating Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking Glass, has decided that he is the master of Singh's words and can decide that they mean what he wants them to mean. He has ruled that Singh's words:

"The British Chiropractic Association claims that their members can help treat children with colic, sleeping and feeding problems, frequent ear infections, asthma and prolonged crying, even though there is not a jot of evidence. This organisation is the respectable face of the chiropractic profession and yet it happily promotes bogus treatments."

should be interpreted as meaning that Singh is claiming that the BCA knew the treatments were bogus and dishonestly promoted them anyway. Singh is likely to appeal!

More news here:
http://godknowswhat.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/singh-case-update-a-real-pain-in-the-neck/

I am hoping for a more lawyerly commentary on the hearing from Jack-of-Kent in the next day or two.

It's not just creationists who are nutty: Simon Singh versus non-evidence-based nonsense from the British Chiropractic Association

I would like to think that readers of this blog, and anyone who has read my book, are happy to agree that creationism is, in the words of Baba Brinkman, "dead wrong". But sadly there are many other forms of non-evidence-based nonsense out there, from conspiracy theories to the use of chiropractic to treat asthma or bed-wetting.

Simon Singh is a well-known writer, who first came to prominence with his documentary and subsequent book on Fermat's Last Theroem. When a few years ago, with Dominic White, I released The Origin of Species in Dub, I was delighted to see a comment from Simon, saying that he had enjoyed it and I gave him a DVD of the videos from the work when he visited the University of Birmingham a few years back.

Today, Simon is going to court in London for a preliminary hearing in a libel case brought against him by the British Chiropractic Association for a piece he wrote in the Guardian. The following links provide some of the background:

• The original BCA brochure: http://web.archive.org/web/20070206003656/http://www.chiropractic-uk.co.uk/gfx/uploads/textbox/Happy+families.pdf
• April 2008 - Simon Singh's "Comment is Free" piece in the Guardian (removed from Guardian site, but here hosted on a Russian server!):http://svetlana14s.narod.ru/Simon_Singhs_silenced_paper.html 
• August 2008 - The news of the claim: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mandrake/2570744/Doctors-take-Simon-Singh-to-court.html
• August 2008 onwards - Material on the web summarised at: http://holfordwatch.info/2008/08/16/british-chiropractors-join-the-legal-intimidation-party/
• November 2008 - Summary of BCA's Legal Claim: http://jackofkent.blogspot.com/2008/11/on-bcas-case-against-simon-singh.html
• November 2008 - Summary of Simon Singh's Defence: http://jackofkent.blogspot.com/2008/11/on-putting-chiropractic-on-trial.html
• November 2008 - Article on the influential Quackometer site:  http://www.quackometer.net/blog/2008/11/chiropractic-folly-and-nature-of.html
• And on the Blog of philosopher Stephen Law: http://stephenlaw.blogspot.com/2008/11/simon-sigh-sued-by-british-chiropractic.html 
• December 2008 - Useful round up on Dr Aust's site: http://draust.wordpress.com/2008/12/23/it%E2%80%99s-quiet%E2%80%A6-too-quiet/
• December 2008 - And strong support from Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/12/24/uk-quackery-on-trial/
• March 2009 - High Court orders preliminary hearing on Thursday 7 May 2009: http://jackofkent.blogspot.com/2009/03/bca-v-singh-first-court-hearing-is.html
• http://jackofkent.blogspot.com/2009/03/bca-v-singh-date-set-for-first-hearing.html

I wish Simon luck today in his struggle against this legal idiocy! You can e-mail him your support on simon@simonsingh.net and join the relevant Facebook group here.