Breivik and Fascism – A Lesson from George Orwell

If the public debate that as ensued in the wake of last weeks’ horrific act of terrorism in Norway has proved anything at all it is – yet again – that George Orwell was right on the money when he wrote the following passage of his classic essay […]

There are no fucking ‘monkeymen’

One of the potential highlights of the summer blockbuster season, if you’re a fan of science fiction, is the upcoming ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes‘, a reboot of the series which will lay the foundations for a new Apes franchise by providing an origin story for […]

Portrait of the Daily Mail as a political philosopher

I want to share something with you that you may not have seen before. The text that follows was written, originally, back in the 1950s by the late Sir Isaiah Berlin and, with a number of revisions along the way, was finally published in 2006 in a posthumous […]

Dear PCC… We’re NOT fucking stupid!

I feel a bit of a rant coming on and I should warn you in advance – if the title isn’t already a dead give away – that it may get a bit sweary in places, although I will try to hold it together for the sake of […]

Placebos, Asthma and Spin

If you’re in any doubt at all as what top-notch science blogging looks like then let me direct your attention to three new articles by Orac, Steven Novella and David Gorski, all of which tackle a new paper, published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, under […]

Put your willy away, Peter, It’s pathetic…

Much to my own personal amusement, Peter Saunders has attempted to respond to my recent post on the inane pile of drivel that is the Christian Medical Fellowship’s submission to the RCPsych consultation on its systematic review of the evidence relating to the mental health impact of induced […]

Right To Know? More like ‘Right to Bullshit’.

We’ve had to wait a little longer than expected for the publication of the Right To Know campaign’s ‘report’ on a so-called marketing of abortion services by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, largely, I suspect, due to nation’s ongoing obsession with the fall of the House of Murdoch, […]

Poor memory? Blame evolution, not Google.

If you mooch around the science sections of popular news websites this weekend then chances are you’ll encounter something called ‘The Google Effect’. From what I can tell, the BBC’s report started out the headline “Internet is ‘changing our memory'” but have since backed off a little and […]

Nadine Dorries & BACP: Mixed Messages

I have an admission to make this morning. Yesterday, I underestimated the ingenuity of the Guardian’s editorial team and suggested that it was unlikely that any of the content of Nadine Dorries’ response to Suzanne Moore, which I fisked here, would find its way on to Comment is […]

Nadine Dorries is a Fantasist

According to her own pseudoblog, Nadine Dorries is eagerly awaiting the publication of a self-authored article at Comment is Free. I am awaiting something I have written to appear on Comment is Free and will link when it is up. What will eventually appear, once its been thoroughly […]