Call for MP David Tredinnick to step down over latest homeopathy comments

THE HINKLEY TIMES is quickly becoming my favourite newspaper. Yesterday they published an article about my old friend Tredinnick. I cannot resist showing you a few excerpts from it:

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Alternative therapy advocate, David Tredinnick has called for greater self reliance as a way of reducing pressures on the NHS. Speaking on the BBC’s regional Sunday Politics Show he suggested people should take more responsibility for their own health, rather than relying on struggling services. He highlighted homeopathy as a way of treating ailments at home and said self-help could cut unnecessary trips to the GP. He also said people could avoid illness by not being overweight and taking exercise…During debate on the show about the current ‘crisis’ in health and social care he said: “There are systems such as homeopathic remedies. Try it yourself before going to the doctor.” […]

Read all about it here!

David Tredinnick: not again! Alternative medicine saves lives?!?

The Scotsman reported that David Tredinnick, the somewhat feeble-minded Tory MP for Bosworth, has been at it again. Apparently he said that many of his constituents are only alive today because they have been treated with alternative medicine.

Tredennick recently urged ministers to spend more NHS money on alternative therapies such as homeopathy and acupuncture to treat patients. It seems to me that, for him and other quackery promoters, evidence and science are issues beyond comprehension.

Read on: David Tredinnick: not again! Alternative medicine saves lives?!?

On the continuation of David Tredinnick’s ministering for quackery

Though of a reasonable, easy-going disposition, I do, like most, have my bugbears. Chief among which is people who lie for a living. Chief among whom are quacks. And those in public positions of influence who promote them and their snake-oil wares.

Re-enter David Tredinnick, Conservative MP for Bosworth in Leicestershire, whose continued dim-witted advocation of the expending of public money on disproven and unproven treatments has led me to label him the ‘Minister for Quackery’. (It is, I think, the nearest he will ever get to being an actual Minister for anything.)

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Are nonsense ‘cures’ for cancer a ‘soft target’?

I confess to wondering whether Edzard Ernst’s recent increased activity at The Spectator website has arisen due to the latter’s cynical recognition (following the lengthy reaction to Tarek Arab’s naïve, quackery-appeasing dreck) of his sure-fire clickbait potential. Certainly, a run of homeopathy-centric articles this month (May 2016) provoked some of the harpies who descend on these things in order to promote their cult to potential converts. And, inevitably, this draws reaction from those of a sceptical bent.


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Act to prevent Tredinnick becoming Chair of the House of Commons Select Committee for Health – again

The Select Committees are disbanded when Parliament is dissolved for the general election. Now, post-election, process is underway to establish the next incarnations of Committees, with voting on nominations for respective Chairs to take place on Wednesday 17th June.
Though not surprised that Tredinnick is making another bid to exert his perverse influence on government policy, I find alarming the list of his nominators...

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A medical visionary working tirelessly for the benefit of us all | Edzard Ernst

Yesterday, The Hinckley Times published a report on Parliament’s foremost medical expert which I take the liberty of reproducing below in a slightly shortened version.

Alternative therapy proponent David Tredinnick has pitched in with the possibility of complementary practitioners being the solution to the current A&E crisis. The Tory MP for Bosworth raised the issue with the Department of Health saying: “To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential contribution of regulated complementary and alternative medical practitioners to reducing demands on the NHS.” The question came against the backdrop of the nation’s casualty departments being swamped with new cases since Christmas...

Read on: A medical visionary working tirelessly for the benefit of us all

Tory MP David Tredinnick: “perhaps the worst example of scientific illiteracy in government.” But is he also a liar?

I know, I have written about this guy before – and I am likely to do so again – he is just too outstanding to pass by!

A few days ago, he was in the headlines again: the Conservative health committee member David Tredinnick insisted that herbal medicine and even astrology should be given to patients in order to plug a growing hole in the NHS-budget: “I have referred to the fact that in some cultures astrology is part of healthcare because they need to have a voice and I’ve got up and said that,” he told Channel Four News. “But I also think we can reduce the bill by using a whole range of alternative medicine including herbal medicine, acupuncture, homeopathy…We could probably save five per cent of the [NHS] budget.”

Unbelievably, a man with such views is a member of the science and technology committee! This really does instil trust in politics!!!

Read on: Tory MP David Tredinnick: “perhaps the worst example of scientific illiteracy in government.” But is he also a liar? by Edzard Ernst.