Reasonable Thoughts on Religion, Science, Skepticism, and Atheism

by VorJack

I really don’t want to be the one to rain on Custador’s “UK, F%@# Yeah!” parade, but … well, OK, yes I do.

Yesterday, Martin Robbins had an editorial on The Guardian, the title of which challenges the notion that the Brits are always more subtle than us yanks:

‘Choice’ fetish spawns mind-meltingly stupid homeopathy policy

The editorial is about the response by the Secretary of State for Health (pdf) to a report from the Science and Technology Committee that completely panned homeopathy and the government’s support of homeopaths.

The Secretary for Health defended the government’s position, and Robbins takes serious issue with the common refrain the the government is protecting consumer choice:

What I find so frustrating is this dedication to a form of “consumer choice” that is absolutely anything but. If I walk into a pharmacist looking for a packet of condoms, and I’m given the choice between a packet of Durex and a sock, it isn’t a choice, it’s just a pointless piece of confusion that’s going to lead to lots of people having really uncomfortable sex, and a localised population explosion.

I will give the government a half-point for one of their arguments, though it doesn’t seem to appeal to Robbins. The Secretary states that a ban on homeopathic medicine would “risk the introduction of unregulated, poor quality and potentially unsafe products on the market to satisfy consumer demand.”

Jokes about poor quality water aside, I think it’s wise to acknowledge that there will be loopholes in whatever anti-homeopathic legislation that comes down, and that homeopathic medicine will still be sold. This will probably mean that much of it will be produced in someone’s basement, and be based on whatever cockamamie theory is currently in vogue. (“Trace amounts of arsenic are good for you!”)

The Secretary is saying that it would be better to permit the sale of homeopathic medicine and regulate it for things like accurate labeling than to permit a grey market with unregulated products. But, as Robbins points out, this leaves the government in the schizophrenic position of accepting homeopathic medicine, while acknowledging that it doesn’t work. In fact, they go on to endorse an educational campaign that would inform the public that this officially accepted product does not, in fact, do anything. Let’s give Robbins the final say:

So the government is planning to launch a public information campaign against homeopathic treatments at the same time as it continues to fund those treatments through the NHS. In this glorious mess of a policy the government has come up with something so brain-meltingly stupid that even the satirical brain of Armando Iannucci (The Thick of It, In the Loop) would struggle to match it.