It's finally over for Simon Singh - the BCA is no longer pursuing him for defamation.
It's good and bad, though, since the stupidest law in the world remains unchallenged, and anyone so inclined can use the british libel law to silence any critics, right or wrong...
It's good and bad, though, since the stupidest law in the world remains unchallenged, and anyone so inclined can use the british libel law to silence any critics, right or wrong...
They dropped the case, and it’s over.
Well, kinda. Actually, there are a lot of unresolved things here. One is that Simon is out over £100,000 of his own money. Had this gone to court and he won, the BCA would have had to pay his expenses.
That’s a pretty strong incentive on their part to have dropped the case, not-so-incidentally. I’ll note that fellow skeptic Ben Goldacre says Simon may go after the BCA for costs, something I would dearly love to see.
Second, the libel laws in the UK are still truly awful. I hope that the libel reform groups there keep the pressure on the government to look over those laws and drag them from the 17th into the 21st century. Don’t forget to show your support (even if you’re not from the UK)!
And third, I wonder how this will affect the BCA. Will they be more careful? Will they review their practices, going over them carefully to see which ones are backed by scientific reviews and testing, and which ones may be nothing more than thinly-veiled nonsense that not only do not help but can in fact harm or even kill patients?
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