Ministry of Truth

Every so often you run across something across a commentary on the internet which leaves you wondering not only whether you’re reading the same thing as the author of commentary but even whether you even inhabit the same planet. The September 29th issue of the prestigious general science […]

Hi-ho, Hi-ho, its back to the subject of abortion we go courtesy of the Daily Telegraph, whose fact-checking department is evidently still on an extended holiday: Abortion costs £30m higher than previously thought No, not really… Taxpayers spend £30million a year more on abortion than previously thought, the […]

It seems that one of the Telegraph’s resident professional contrarians (aka trolls) – Brendan O’Neill – is just a little bit ticked off with claims that one in four people do/suffer/experience X… The one-in-four fallacy is 100 per cent annoying To mark Anti-Bullying Week, the Anti-Bullying Alliance has […]

Today’s grossly overhyped health scare story comes courtesy of the BMJ’s Open Access journal and, in its original form, sports the following title: “Oral contraceptive use is associated with prostate cancer: an ecological study“. Needless to say, by the time this paper filtered through into the mainstream press […]

Ordinarily I respond to comments at the Ministry in the usual way, i.e. by way a direct response in the same comments thread. But, every once in a while I get a comment which deserves a somewhat and more considered response, i.e. a separate post and this is […]

So, less than a hour after I posted my own response to Nadine Dorries’ first attempt to smear humanists as advocates of infanticide, Dorries is back with a second shot at the same desperate smear, which comes complete with a sideswipe at David Allen Green: We have had […]

Nadine Dorries’ response to her nomination for this year’s New Humanist Bad Faith Award is – well – classic Dorries: The Humanist magazine are running an online ‘bad faith’ poll and I am apparently in the lead. I am not sure why anyone would admit to being a […]

Had a love affair with Nina In the back of my cortina A seasoned-up hyena Could not have been more obscener She took me to the cleaners And other misdemeanours But I got right up between her Rum and her Ribena Billericay Dickie – Ian Dury and the […]

I know, I know. The words ‘Vote Dorries’ are just about the last thing that anyone would expect to read here at the Ministry but just this once she’s a contender for an award that she undoubtedly deserves; New Humanist’s annual Bad Faith award. Admittedly its strong field […]

If there’s one piece of law that, more than any other, is guaranteed to generate media coverage that makes you want to headdesk then it has to be section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986, which reads as follows: 5 Harassment, alarm or distress. (1)A person is […]