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Simon Singh’s Bogus Journey

I'm having trouble now seeing the meaning of Simon Singh's words any other way than that the BCA was consciously dishonest. It's not so much his words that they promote bogus treatments but that they do so 'happily'. The pre-amble to his argument is that there is no evidence for some of the BCA's claims to treat particular ailments, and he wrote: 'This organisation is the respectable face of the chiropractic profession and yet it happily promotes bogus treatments.' I'm not sure how that could be interpreted other than meaning that the BCA is an organisation deliberately promoting treatments it knows are wrong. The presence of the word 'yet' implies that the words that follow it are in opposition to the 'respectability' of the organisation--that the fact that it promotes bogus treatments is something that contradicts its appearance to be a respectable organisation. The fact that it does this 'happily' implies conscious intent in my view. Much as I hate to agree with Mr Justice Eady, I can't see another way of reasonably interpreting those words. I'd be very pleased if someone could tell me, because I share your view of Simon Singh and his intentions and reputation, so please, could you add something to your blog explaining what Simon Singh actually meant?

23-Feb-2010

4:56 pm