Prf Nutt - MB, BChir, MA, DM, MRCP, FRCPsych, FMedSci has been sacked by a man who left school to become a postman.
If you'd like to show your support for scientific rigour and research over the views of someone who has no professional qualifications of any sort - here are Prf Nutt's contact details:
Professor David Nutt
The psychopharmacology of depression, addiction, insomnia and other disorders
David.J.Nutt@bristol.ac.uk, d.nutt@imperial.ac.uk
Psychopharmacology Unit, Bristol
Imperial College, London
Oh bollocks. I've found myself on the same side as Alan Johnson.(Though for a different reason.)
ReplyDeleteProf. Nutt was appointed to advise the Government. An elected Government. When the Government decides not to follow his advice shouldn't he keep his gob shut? While he is on the inside the case for changing how we look at drugs in society should be made by other people. And is.
If he wants to campaign he can do that on his own money not mine. I can see a great deal of sense in the things Prof. Nutt has said but he is wrong to be pushing the issue in this manner.
The reason why I see things differently is that over many decades politicians have been ever more keen to shovel the authority we have given them into the hands of unelected people - Prof. Nutt is one such person. Politicians do this because it insulates them from the consequences of their decisions because they can claim all they did was what they were advised. Anything that strips away that insulation and forces responsibilty back into the hands of the people elected to deal with it is a good thing in the long run. We have so little to judge our MPs on as it is and even less when decisions are made behind a protective screen of technocrats. I want those shits in Parliament to have to make real decisions and shoulder their responsibilities. I do not want them delegating all of our authority to whoever they think will say what they want them to say.
Harold Macmillan said "We have not overthrown the divine right of kings to fall down for the divine right of experts." Modern politicians very much have for the sake of convenience and self-preservation.
Gareth, the terms of Nutt's appointment allowed him free comment on his scientific advice, but did not extend to the government policy to which it related. He stayed within his remit - AJ was wrong and completely hypocritical.
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