Category Archives: Skeptic News

Simon Singh on Evan Harris.

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Simon Singh circulated the following message via his mailing list, regarding Dr Evan Harris, one of the newest members of our Editorial Advisory Board and MP for Oxford West and Abingdon.
 

Hello Everyone,

Apologies for the mass mailing, but you are receiving this email because you are either a scientist or a skeptic or someone connected with Oxford, or maybe all three. I am writing because you might be able to help British science by helping Evan Harris MP to retain his seat in parliament.

Along with Richard Dawkins, AC Grayling, Colin Blakemore, Lisa Appignanesi and many others, I am supporting the campaign to keep Dr Evan Harris in Parliament as a voice for science, secularism and free expression.

Evan has been the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West & Abingdon since May 1997 and he is the Lib Dem spokesman for science. But our support for him is not party political; and it goes beyond the interests of his constituency. Indeed, you can see further below a long list of the vital issues that Evan has championed.

Ordinarily, Evan should be safe at the election, but boundary changes and an aggressive campaign to unseat him mean that we might be about to lose science's best friend in Parliament.

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    Little Atoms with Jonathan Balcome – Friday 30th April 19.00 on Resonance 104.4FM

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    On this week's show, Neil Denny and guest presenter Christine Ottery talk to Jonathan Balcome.

    Jonathan Balcome is an independent animal behaviour research scientist and a consultant for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine He is the author of Pleasurable Kingdom: Animals and the Nature of Feeling Good, and most recently Second Nature: The Inner Lives of Animals.

    Christine Ottery is a journalist and blogger published on Guardian.co.uk and Comment is Free, Timesonline.co.uk, Newscientist.com and Theecologist.co.uk. She is also a researcher for George Monbiot and multimedia Science Journalism MA student at City University.

      Little Atoms with Iain Sinclair – Friday 23rd April 19.00 on Resonance 104.4FM

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      On this week's show, Neil Denny talks to writer Iain Sinclair.

      Ian Sinclair is a British writer, documentarist, film maker, poet, flaneur, psychogeographer, metropolitan prophet and urban shaman, keeper of lost cultures and futurologist. His books include Downriver, White Chappell, Scarlet Tracings, Lights Out for the Territory, Dining on Stones, London Orbital, and most recently, Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire. He is the editor of London: City of Disappearances. He lives in Hackney.

      Join Neil this Friday evening at 19.00 on Resonance 104.4FM in London or via the live feed at www.resonancefm.com worldwide.

        Results of voting from the Libel Reform Campaign: Free Speech Hustings

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        The results of the online voting held after the Index on Censorship/Libel Reform/Sense About Science Free Speech Hustings are as follows (results of the votes cast in person are here):

        Conservative: 2%
        Labour: 5%
        Liberal Democrats: 93%

        Votes were cast on the specific issue of libel reform.

        Following the debate, a total of 55 people voted online. 26% of the online voters were female and 29% of online voters lived in London.

        Reasons why individuals voted Liberal Democrat included:

        "Convincing argument from Evan Harris"

        "Appear to be more principled on the topic."

        "Most considered and thoughtful contributions to the debate. If it is a hung parliament there will be a need to maintain a high profile for libel reform." and

        "On the issue of whether corporations should be stopped from suing Lib Dem was the only one that said yes. Labour and Conservative didn't appear as knowledgeable of the issues as Lib Dem"

        One individual who voted Labour also stated:

        "I would vote for the LibDems over Labour, but my MP Jeremy Corbyn is fully on board with the Libel Reform movement and I agree with him on many other issues as well."

        Perhaps the strong Liberal Democrat vote by those watching the broadcast is not surprising as Evan Harris has been an long-standing and outspoken supporter of Simon Singh's defence against the British Chiropractic Association libel claim, however on the sole issue of libel reform the Liberal Democrats gained a clear majority of votes.

        There were over 100 simultaneous connections made by 359 different devices to the live broadcast, which was watched by individuals and groups in 28 different towns/cities (including at least two overseas).