Five weeks ago I wrote about the difficulty I was having in finding somebody to speak in favour of mammography at a conference on controversies in breast cancer. I feared that the establishment was adopting a strategy of non-engagement in the face of what seems to be growing criticism of mammography. Now that the conference […]
I have recently been enjoying a brief flurry of reviews of Catherine Hakim’s Honey Money: The Power of Erotic Capital. Hakim’s book has been bounding up the notoriety charts, which is less than surprising given the hyperventilatingly simple premise that has caught the eye of reviewers. Hakim – a senior researcher at the LSE – […]
I was born in the Borough of Partick and a couple of weeks ago watched Partick Thistle, or “Partick Thistle Nil” as they are affectionately called, for the first time for fifty years. Little had changed, with the exception of the availability of a “skinny” mutton pie on the half time menu. The competition, versus […]
Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is a condition we don’t understand. We don’t know its significance, how to describe it, and how to treat it. Worse, we may have created it. Its incidence in the US in 1975 was 1.87 per 100 000; now it’s 32.5. During that time there has been no drop in […]
My lack of recent blog posts is by no means due to a lack of something to report. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Life at Ola During Children’s Hospital (ODCH) has been busy and there are many exciting activities to keep us, and our partners, occupied. Let me update you on what has happened at […]
On 11 June 2011, 44 schoolboys died when the truck they were travelling in flipped into a canal in Chittagong, Bangladesh. The boys were from three villages and were riding in an open truck on their way back from a football competition. I was haunted by the image of the devastated village parents, who no doubt […]
Nadine Dorries MP is a very skilful politician. She decides there is a problem, for which she has absolutely no evidence. She not only manages to get her problem on to the front pages of the newspapers but also on to the agenda of the House of Commons. Having spoken to her about it, the […]
Last week, I had dinner with a member of the House of Lords, but he was wearing shorts and walking boots, not ermine, and I was wearing a sundress and plenty of mosquito repellent. Why might this be of interest to BMJ readers? Well, the Lord in question (Lord Bates of Langbaurgh) is walking 4000 […]
Philip Morris International, a tobacco company, is using the Freedom of Information Act to request data from research conducted at Stirling University into why young people start smoking. The university is resisting. I think that it is wrong to do so. I’m sure that this view will seem outrageous to many BMJ readers, and I […]
Would you give $1000 to stop a child drowning? Almost certainly. Why then are you not giving all the $1000 you can spare to save the lives of the 9 million children who die every year before their fifth birthday? The moral imperative is the same, says the philosopher Peter Singer. I learnt of this […]