Tag Archives: evan harris

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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    Think Week: humanism, faith, religion, science and politics from 22nd to 28th Feb.

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    Think Week is a week-long series of free events from Monday 22nd to Sunday 28th February, exploring humanism, faith, religion, science and politics. Organised jointly by the Oxford Atheist Society, Oxford Secular Society, Oxford Humanists, Oxford Sea of Faith and Oxford Skeptics in the Pub, the aim of the week is to expose the type of discussion and debate that these societies offer to a wider audience and to make people think about issues they probably haven’t thought about before. Refreshments will be provided at all events. Attendees are welcome to bring food to lunch time events.

    We are also intending to post a daily summary of the events on The Skeptic Blog, contributed by the organisers of Think Week.
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      BCA v Singh: appeal news.

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      As I suspect a great number of you will already know, the gathering in support of Simon Singh’s legal defence went ahead in the Penderel’s Oak this evening, with visible weight added by attendance from Tim Minchin, Dr Evan Harris, Prof Brian Cox, Dave Gorman, Nick Cohen and many others.

      While Simon was expected to announce whether an appeal of his Preliminary Hearing will be forthcoming, his legal team are still working on the case and as yet cannot confirm the outcome. It would seem that an appeal will be made if legally possible, but with the deadline for this decision being 10 days from now (28th May), I suspect decisions and news will be will be forthcoming fairly quickly.

      I’ll try to update this blog with notable news, links and updates as they come to my attention. Please do leave comments with info, or send me an email too: digest [at] skeptic.org.uk

      For now, a running commentary of the event by its guests can be found here: #singhbca

      A rather loosely-phrased petition aiming to prompt change in British libel law can be found here: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/reformlibellaws

      EDIT:

      Links:
      An interesting article from Wendy Grossman: http://www.newswireless.net/
      From the Nature Network:
      in-my-opinion-the-british-chiropractic-association-is-being-unscientific
      From the New Humanist:
      simon-singh-hopes-to-appeal-chiropracty

      And a review of Trick or Treatment including the following, very pertinent paragraph:

      “Singh and Ernst do not set out to comprehensively condemn alternative therapies, but rather to emphasize the importance of evidence. Properly conducted clinical trials (double blind, randomized, placebo-controlled) are the best way to ascertain whether or not a therapy or product provides benefit beyond the placebo, and this applies to all therapies, not only complementary ones. It seems obvious, but as the authors state, the ‘plural of anecdote is not data’; it seems that some alternative therapists rely on anecdote to ‘prove’ their success.”
      http://metapsychology.mentalhelp.net