(Daily Telegraph) “How I became a target for the ME militants” by Dr Michael Fitzpatrick

My understanding is that there was a single injunction against an individual*.
An individual subsequently removed content from the internet or it was removed by the hosting platform.

*Prof Sir Simon Wessely is on record as having stated in a media article that an injunction was taken out against an individual.

Edited for clarity.
 
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These guys do like playing the victim role, don't they.
It somehow gets newspapers to publish whiney grievances op-eds as if they're a news report so hard to fault them for abusing a formula that works 100% of the time. You do have to question why a newspaper would publish a whiny grievance op-ed of no journalistic value, though, that's the inexplicable part. Rants like this go on personal blogs, normally.

So the question is whose dirty hand was behind this, and why did a newspaper editor comply with such a ridiculous stunt?
 
Reasons given include their experience, and that of other experts in the field, of being connected with this topic area. These included concerns about personal harassment, previous abuse and threats they have been subjected to when involved in work on this topic.
Since they can't really help themselves and always reveal what they consider to be harassment, criticism for things they did, it really sounds like they're asking not to be held responsible as they exert power over other people. The opposite side of power is responsibility, without responsibility there can be no accountability, the lack of which is how things have been FUBAR for several decades.

The whole point of a profession is that there is responsibility attached to it, derived from the power it grants people who practice it. Without the responsibility part, well, you get what we have now: complete and total disaster. So by all means if they don't want to be held responsible for anything that's OK, but that means not participating, in effect voiding their contributions so far, because when millions of lives are the topic at hand, it's simply not an option for the people making those decisions to be completely detached from any accountability.

When an engineer signs on a plan and that plan is later revealed to have been flawed, they are held legally responsible and can even be criminally prosecuted if it's found that they knew enough and failed to respond. That this is completely missing from medicine is simply absurd and cannot go on, if anything it's the profession that demands the highest level of responsibility attached to exerting their power. Anyone who doesn't want their name signed to their work can simply find a hobby elsewhere.
 
So the question is whose dirty hand was behind this, and why did a newspaper editor comply with such a ridiculous stunt?
Because these folk are world class at networking (it is their key skill, because it gets them lots of what they want) and because newspapers are the first to fall for this tripe. Most of them just care about their circulation figures I suspect, little to do with any sense of professionalism.

ETA: And part of their networking skill is to obfuscate their involvement in any of it. Choreographing others is how they operate.
 
Were those remarks of Simon part of the ratio decidendi of his decision or purely obiter dicta? Was a case ever presented to the court to counter these arguments? It seems odd that a judge would opine so freely if no argument was allowed.
Judgement is here: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2009/452.html I think item 34 answers your questions but I've only skim read today for the first time in years. The whole approach of the claimants was pretty much a 'how not to' example of seeking JR.

As a wholly off topic aside - an RCP cadre Munira Mirza is currently serving the nation well: https://goodlawproject.org/update/testing-tory-fixer-matt-hancock/
 
The whole approach of the claimants was pretty much a 'how not to' example of seeking JR.

Yes. Everything I've seen of that looked like a needless disaster. It's so easy for people to make things worse and I worry that we've got more patients starting to act thoughtlessly again having forgotten, or never learnt, how often actions that can be taken are counter-productive.
 
Thanks for that @CRG .Very helpful.

The most significant quote from Simon seems to be from this



  1. Afterword
  2. I have already expressed my concern at the nature of the allegations that were made against members of the GDG. There are two points that arise from the Claimants' approach to this litigation.

  3. First, unfounded as they were, the allegations were damaging to those against whom they were made; and were such as may cause health professionals to hesitate before they involve themselves in this area of medicine. A perception that this is an area of medicine where contrary views are not to be voiced, and where scientific enquiry is to be limited, is damaging to science and harmful to patients.

  4. Secondly, these types of allegation may also have the effect of putting people off from serving on GDGs. Professor Baker expressed this concern at §26 of his 2nd witness statement.


    ... I would also like to note that the fact that such allegations have been made in legal proceedings, and the fact that the individuals involved have had to submit their own version of events to the court in witness statements in order to defend themselves means that it is likely that they will think twice before being GDG members again. There is a real danger that health professionals will become reluctant to serve in GDGs again.
    The comment is fair; and explains the robust approach taken by NICE in defending these proceedings.
It is clear that these comments are obiter. Simon even goes to the extent, considerately, of stating that they are an "afterword". The extent of the argument on the point is therfor unclear. NICE would do better to quote from the body of the judgment.
 
Were those remarks of Simon part of the ratio decidendi of his decision or purely obiter dicta? Was a case ever presented to the court to counter these arguments? It seems odd that a judge would opine so freely if no argument was allowed.
I'm afraid that I have no idea what your first sentence means, due to the use of what appears to be very obscure language. My guess would be you are using legal terms in Latin but it doesn't help my understanding.

For my benefit, and the benefit of others, please could you avoid the use of such language where it is possible, life with brain fog is bad enough with out having such mental challenges crop up.
 
I'm afraid that I have no idea what your first sentence means, due to the use of what appears to be very obscure language. My guess would be you are using legal terms in Latin but it doesn't help my understanding.

For my benefit, and the benefit of others, please could you avoid the use of such language where it is possible, life with brain fog is bad enough with out having such mental challenges crop up.

The ratio decidendi is the rationale for a decision in a case, which is binding as precedent on decisions made in lower courts. Obiter dicta are other things said by a judge that do not form part of the ratio decidendi, so things said by the way or 'in passing'. Stare decisis is the principle by which judges must follow precedent established by previous decisions. Obiter dicta is not binding but may be persuasive in coming to judgements in other cases.
 
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I really don't understand why all of these people come out of the Revolutionary Communist Party/Living Marxism. What is the ideological connection?

My guess is that, in communism, malingering is considered an existential threat to a system that already has a problem with incentivizing work. Thus, the concept of any disabling disease that cannot be verified by medical tests must be suppressed.
 
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From what I understood the Spiked group views ME as good example of medicalization of personal problems. They think ME is a fig leaf that people use to cover up other, non-medical problems.

In this world view, the mistreatment of patients makes sense because patients must not be rewarded for expecting doctors to solve their non-medical problems. The obsession with finding a hidden psychological cause of the illness also makes sense.

They think they're helping patients take responsibility for their own problems.
 
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I really don't understand why all of these people come out of the Revolutionary Communist Party/Living Marxism. What is the ideological connection? I seems if you go so far to the left you can end up entering the far right. The extremists on either side are obsessed with 'freedom' over everything else but what else do they actually believe in??? Themselves maybe.

Authoritarianism / totalitarianism. This is conceptualised as the horseshoe theory although this has been criticised as overly simplistic.
 
It somehow gets newspapers to publish whiney grievances op-eds as if they're a news report so hard to fault them for abusing a formula that works 100% of the time. You do have to question why a newspaper would publish a whiny grievance op-ed of no journalistic value, though, that's the inexplicable part. Rants like this go on personal blogs, normally.

So the question is whose dirty hand was behind this, and why did a newspaper editor comply with such a ridiculous stunt?
how about the science media centre
 
https://www.spiked-online.com/2002/02/14/debating-the-disease/

Debating the disease

Dr Michael Fitzpatrick replies to his critics on ME.
14 February 2002

Thank you for that there is something really wrong with that guy just have a look at the following from your link:

He is trying to say that my is not a physical disease despite all the abnormalities because:
"On the other hand, there is also a long list of conditions that were once believed to have an organic cause but are now considered to have a psychosocial basis:...and, most notoriously, drapetomania (the inexplicable tendency of slaves in the American South to run away from their masters)." So according to him it is inexplicable that slaves want to have their freedom back.
 
I really don't understand why all of these people come out of the Revolutionary Communist Party/Living Marxism. What is the ideological connection? I seems if you go so far to the left you can end up entering the far right. The extremists on either side are obsessed with 'freedom' over everything else but what else do they actually believe in??? Themselves maybe. (Not expecting answers to these questions, I suspect it doesn't really make any logical sense.)
I suspect the notion of Control is at the heart of it. Control and dominance.
 
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