Yesterday, the British Chiropractic Association made what many believe was a serious error of judgement in a press release regarding Dr. Simon Singh's recent appeal victory. In the release they stated that:

"However, this action is actually a simple libel claim based on the fact that the BCA was maliciously attacked by Dr. Singh in the Guardian newspaper."

As legal expert Jack of Kent has pointed out, this is a defamatory remark which Singh could countersue over, and in Jack's view, "the moment he chooses to do so will surely be when this case ends."

Back in 2000, when I was a lowly undergraduate, the warden in charge of our halls called all the resident students to the bar for a meeting. There, he warned us of a terrible health and safety menace. Apparently, near the student village, there lurked a large crop of magic mushrooms. On no account, he informed us, were we to go near the mushrooms located in the field at the top end of the village, nor were we to pick the white ones with the brownish tops on them.

This is an article about Simon Singh, but more than that about the wider issues at stake. In recent months I've written about the BPS, BACP, GCC, BCA, CNHC, and other unimaginative groups of letters that act as regulators or professional bodies for auxilliary health industries in Britain. Simon Singh's battle against the BCA is one chapter in a broader story that links all these cases together. In this post, I want to take a step back, and explore that wider story.

There are four distinct but related stories that have bubbled along for months now (among many others). The CNHC ('OfQuack') are a hapless alternative medicine "regulator" set up by an alt med charity run by Prince Charles at considerable expense to the taxpayer.

The 'chiropocalypse' continues. Hot on the heels of the McTimoney Chiropractic Association's urgent request that members remove their websites and medical claims; the United Chiropractic Associated have issued their own urgent call to members as the fall-out from the British Chiropractic Associates increasingly disastrous libel action continues.