Posted in Science

Political Violence and Mental Health

kkkGiven the fact that the alleged murderer of Jo Cox has been charged, it is important that any discussion of the surrounding issues is contextualized by the requirements of the criminal justice system. There is guidance on reporting restrictions and contempt of court provided by the Crown Prosecution Service here.

But if we step outside this immediate British context, to consider another “lone wolf”, Omar Mateen, who committed the appalling slaughter at the Pulse night club in Orlando, then there are contested accounts in the mainstream media whether his motivation was the political expression of jihadi terrorism, or due to poor mental health. Continue reading →

How not to criticise space travel

philaeprobelWhat a stupendous achievement. The landing of a space probe on comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko 300 million miles from Earth is one for the history books, up there with the first space flight, Moon landing, and interplanetary mission. Sure, the Philae lander might be sliding about the surface a tad but nonetheless this is a triumph of ingenuity and engineering. The gratitude of progressive humanity everywhere is with the European Space Agency team in Darmstadt.

Not everyone will be celebrating, however. There are three leftish critiques sometimes levelled at space exploration. The first, articulated by the American civil rights movement during the Apollo programme was the resource argument: that this kind of expenditure is immoral in the context of unequal societies in which poverty and want remains unresolved issues. It’s an argument opportunistically appropriated by the right to delegitimise British aid to India’s poorest. After all, as readers know, India recently became the space faring entity ever to a put a probe in orbit around another planet. Continue reading →

It’s time to use evidence not knee-jerks in deciding Britain’s drugs policy

Last week the House of Commons had an important debate on UK drugs policy. The speeches suggested that, slowly, politicians are inching towards a reform of legislation which more closely resembles the views of the general public and informed scientific opinion. For instance a recent YouGov poll for the Sun Newspaper revealed (to the papers evident surprise) that most Britons believe the war on drugs can never be won. Some 71% of those surveyed said the war had failed, while 51% said it will always be doomed. And crucially the survey found 65% supported a review of drugs policy. Continue reading →

In remembrance of Sir Patrick Moore – the good and the daft

Sir Patrick Moore, who Queen guitarist Brian May once described as the “father of astronomy”, died over the weekend, as many will have no doubt already heard. As I wrote something by way of a tribute to his work on Twitter and Facebook I was speedily reminded that he also had very hairy political views. I want to briefly explain why I think we can distinguish the two things.

People who deal, professionally, with sets of objectively analysed data – economists or scientists, say – play two often inharmonious roles: analysts and people with opinions, good and daft, just like everybody else.

Continue reading →

Socialism and homeopathy: what’s the quack?

Was I not copied in on the email that said socialism and homeopathy were intrinsically linked? I wouldn’t have listened but it would have been nice to know. Though I suspect there is no such email knocking about. Which is all the more disturbing. Why do some socialists support this stuff?

My mate Dr Amanjit Jhund yesterday reported for Labour List that the Socialist Health Association have come out in support of homeopathy. As he said:

On a facebook post yesterday the Official SHA account stated “Homeopathy does no harm and its cheap. NHS wastes money in much worse ways”. Continue reading →