I’ve seen some bullshit in my time but this piss-poor attempt at a defence of homoeopathy by Denis MacEoin just about takes the biscuit: Last week, novelist Jeanette Winterson published an intelligent and lucid account of why she believes homeopathy works. Three days later, along came Ben Goldacre, […]

I’ve covered this subject before, fairly recently, but I’m going to make no apologies for returning to it again to revisit and add to my original comments. In a column in last Friday’s Daily Telegraph, Iain Dale had this to say about a particular issue that he expects […]

Without naming names, a quick scan of some of the chatter in the feminist blogosphere appear to indicate that David Cameron’s speech on rape has actually gone down rather well – or the very least he’s managed to produce the right of soundbites for that market but, if […]

Sunny has picked up a rather interesting special report on religion in public life in the Economist (start here – there are about 7 or 8 articles that can be read in sequence by following the ‘next article’ link at the bottom of each piece) which has prompted […]

I may be a tad late joining the ‘why I’ve joined the Liberal Conspiracy‘ party but sometimes its worth hanging back for a couple of days to check out some of the initial reaction to the project. Which, perhaps unsurprising, seems to be something of a mix of […]

Oh dear, David Green – a director of Civitas, apparently – thinks we’re heading towards totalitarianism: Until 1967 gays could be sent to prison. Now, 40 years on from liberalisation, one gay pressure group wants people who criticise gays and lesbians to be put in jail. The gay […]

According to the BBC – ‘Chastity ring’ girl loses case A 16-year-old girl was not discriminated against after she was banned from wearing a “purity ring” in school, the High Court has ruled. Lydia Playfoot was told by Millais School in Horsham, West Sussex, to remove her ring […]

I had thought I was finished with the whole Playfoot/Silver Ring Thing for the time being – at least until the High Court issued its judgement and we could see whether sense and reason have prevailed, but then I’m a bit of sucker for debunking bad science (and […]

Right, I said I’d look at the legal side of the Playfoot’s case for religious discrimination under the Human Rights Act. The basic contention is that the school’s decision to ban the wearing of chastity rings amounts to a breach of Playfoot’s rights under Article 9 of the […]

Third post on the Playfoot case and Silver Ring Thing, and this times its more of a quickie. One of the arguments being put up by Lydia Playfoot about the ring ban at Millais School has been that other pupils of different religions are allowed to wear their […]