Last June Jack of Kent summarised the BCA’s decision to sue Simon Singh.

My Comment was spot on: Jack of Kent is a member of the Legal profession and has been blogging about the BCA libel case from the start. Simon Singh and Jack of Kent will come out of this with a very high profile, whereas the chiropractic profession has been severely damaged despite the NICE guidelines.

The BCAs idea to make a professional statement around the “BCA chiropractor” does not look very credible today. The BCA council has made the MacTimoney Association seem inviting.

 

Saturday, 6 June 2009

Why The BCA Claim Is Misconceived

It has not been a good few days for the British Chiropractic Association.
Whatever can be lawfully said about their treatments, I don’t think that the treatments were being promoted at all happily this week.
I am sure this was not the BCA envisaged when they first coined the phrase "Chiropractic Awareness Week".
I would think more people are now aware of chiropractic, and the nature of the claims made on its behalf, than this time last week. And this awareness is not on terms favourable to the BCA or to chiropractic generally.
The Sense About Science campaign launched this week is a fantastic development, and it may well be a real shift in the terms of engagement between those scrutinising ambitious claims and those seeking to use legalism to avoid that scrutiny.
However, the BCA clearly launched their misconceived legal action with no expectation of the storm which has now developed, and may even develop further. It may be that they saw this matter last summer as a "quick win".
But litigation is not like that.
And I did try to warn them.
Back in August 2008 I set out in a blogpost a series of questions which BCA members should pose to those bringing this case. I think that post reads rather well in retrospect. In particular I am struck by:
"Libel litigants often suffer a counterproductive impact on their reputations generally, even if they prevail at court.
"Also, by suing over an issue related to the efficacy of Chiropractic, the BCA are potentially also putting at risk the reputation of the whole discipline. They have needlessly created the scope for "Chiropractic on Trial", which they can be seen to lose."

I have always seen the BCA’s case as misconceived, but not weak.
What was especially misconceived …………………….for the rest of the posting

 

Reading Jack of Kents Blog one can be in no doubt why the chiropractic profession is in such a sorry state.

Peter Dixon is the GCC chairman and former BCA, ECU, WFC President and Tony Metcalfe is BCA president, former ECU, WFC president and GCC council member, they have been swapping these positions like a couple footballers roasting a wag, perhaps here lies the answer.

Richard Lanigan
Richard Lanigan

Richard Lanigan DC.BSc (Chiro) MSc( Health Promotion) was born in North London 1957 of Irish Parents and was educated in Ireland. Originally trained as a PE teacher, he moved to Denmark 1979, where a serious knee injury got him interested in rehabilitation and training methods. Richard founded Denmarks premier fitness centre "Sweat Shop" in 1982 and travelled all over the world to find how best to prepare athletes for competition. In 1984 he became fitness and rehab consultant to the Danish national badminton teams, handball teams and many football club sides. This approach to optimal performance is normal in 2010, however back in the early 80s it was very revolutionary, when stretching was limited to putting on your socks and knee injuries were immobilised for months in plaster.
Richard developed rehabilitation and fitness programmes for many of Denmark’s top athletes including Kirsten Larsten and Ib Frederickson, all England singles badminton champions in late 80s. "Team Denmark" hired him and his facilities to help prepare many of Denmarks athletes for the LA and Seoul Olympics. In 1990 he worked with Anya Anderson, Olympic gold medallist and voted worlds best female handball player at the Atlanta Olympics.
Richard advised Copenhagen’s main teaching (Rigs) Hospital on starting their rehab facility in 1984. In the same year he started working with Denmarks leading chiropractor; Ole Wessung DC, who demonstrated the effectiveness of Chiropractic in improving athletic performance, so impressed was Richard that in 1990 he moved back to England to study chiropractic at Anglo European College of Chiropractic and was student president for two years between 1993-1995.

Richard was awarded a fellowship by the College of Chiropractors in 2008, however in January 2009 Richard chose to stop using the title chiropractor in the UK because the British regulatory body for chiropractic (The GCC) had not maintained international standards of chiropractic education in the UK and including prescribing medicines in the chiropractic scope of practice, a fig leaf for incompetent UK chiropractors to hide behind. Richard has another clinic in Dublin and is a member of the Chiropractic Association of Ireland and the European Chiropractic Union.
Richard has four children Eloise aged 3, Molly and Isabelle aged five and the eldest Frederik aged twenty one is pursuing a career as a professional tennis player and has represented Norway in the Davis Cup in 2006 & 2007. None of Richards children have ever taken any medicine, www.vaccination.co.uk they eat healthy food, take lots of exercise and have their spines checked every month, www.familychiropractic.co.uk
Richard has had much experience working in the Cuban health service where Doctors are keen to incorporate drug free interventions (acupuncture and chiropractic) and prevention in their health care programmes www.henryreevebrigade.org

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