"Disgraceful, desperate, dishonest"
Wednesday, January 20, 2016 at 17:17 Credit to Dick Puddlecote for a genuine old-fashioned scoop.
You can read all about it on Dick's blog here.
It should make uncomfortable reading for Chief Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies and Martin McKee, professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, but a lot of people in public health are shameless.
Either that or they operate in such a bubble that they steam on, disregarding the opinions of everyone else, even their peers. They ignore the evidence and contend that anything they don't agree with or doesn't suit their agenda must be false or, worse, a conspiracy.
It would be nice to think the exposure of some remarkable correspondence between McKee and Dame Sally would attract the attention of the mainstream media but I fear it's destined to remain online, poured over and commented upon by obsessives like me but ignored by those in higher office.
Nevertheless I tip my hat to DP and his fellow 'jewel robbers'. The immediate reaction has been impressive. Let's hope others take note too.
Update: Did Martin McKee lie in the BMJ? (Dick Puddlecote).
Dick's Stuff: PHE Hypnotised By Big Tobacco, Claims McKee In Private Emails To The CMO https://t.co/0CqAMm2J3w
— Dick Puddlecote (@Dick_Puddlecote) January 19, 2016Thanks for this - to reiterate the tobacco industry had no input to our analysis and this claim by McKee is a lie https://t.co/lo6uk5qUza
— David Nutt (@ProfDavidNutt) January 19, 2016Disgraceful, desperate, dishonest and negligent of McKee! The ecig-gate is becoming truly ridiculous! @ProfDavidNutt https://t.co/3hYMcG8AB8
— Dr Christian Jessen (@DoctorChristian) January 20, 2016
Reader Comments (3)
Disgraceful, desperate, dishonest is how they are about smoking and smokers in pushing their junk science and scams. That's been ignored for decades and so this will be ignored about ecigs.
When DP exposed the scam and back room deals on Plain Packs, I thought someone of influence would take notice and ask questions about how so much public money was wasted and misused.
Ultimately, however, to that lot, truth doesn't matter. What matters in the fight against both smokers and vapers is the propaganda and who they can get to believe what in order to make a law to stop something they don't like.
Pat, anyone can put in a FOI request. Have a look at the timings of certain prominent announcements of questionable studies etc & see what you can uncover.
1 tip, keep the search scope as tight as possible otherwise they'll dismiss it as too expensive to respond to.
Yes, I have done FOIs before. I recall when Gillian Merron was Labour's head Nanny who promised a review of the smoking ban which was never done properly.