David Tredinnick

David Tredinnick was the Conservative MP for Bosworth from 1987 to 2019. His support for astrology and homeopathy led to him being referred to by Labour MP John Denham as the "Right Honourable Member for Holland & Barrett" (a reference to a chain of health food and alt-med shops).[1] He was replaced by another Conservative, Dr. Luke Evans, who has an MD and (might) thus be less of an embarrassment.

Ravishing guide to
U.K. Politics
God Save the Queen?
v - t - e

Alternative medicine

Tredinnick has served on the Health Select Committee, then the Science and Technology Select Committee — while on both, he advocated for more use of homeopathy as well as herbal medicine. Rather worryingly, Tredinnick has advocated the use of homeopathy to treat both malaria and HIV/AIDS.[2]

Tredinnick's claim that blood cannot clot under a full moon led to the science journalist Martin Robbins referring to the appointment of both Tredinnick and Nadine Dorries to the Health Select Committee in 2010 as the appointment of "Dumb and Dumber".[3]

He also believes (1) that traditional Chinese medicine can treat cancer and apparently (2) that HIV/AIDS is a type of cancer:[4]

I was talking there to practitioners about what they are able to do for cancer patients, and there is actually a very long list of types of cancer that can be treated using traditional Chinese herbal medicine. One, cervical cancer, two, non-Hodkins lymphoma, three, HIV, four, colon cancer, five... six, breast cancer, seven, prostate cancer. And so the list goes on.

Astrology

His penchant for astrology led to a rather embarrassing expenses claim for astrology software and training. When asked by constituents why exactly he thought this was a valid expense, he responded:[5]

As you may be aware I have a longstanding interest in Parliament on the subject of Integrated Healthcare / Complementary and Alternative Medicine. I was at that time considering improved regulation for Group 3, Alternative Disciplines as set out in the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology Report, “Complementary and Alternative Medicine”, (HL Paper 123/1999-2000). I was looking at the relationship of Astrology to Indian Ayurvedic medicine and wanted to see if I could relate it to English Herbal medicine as taught by Culpepper who considered all plants to have Astrological correspondences. To do this I needed to improve my understanding of Astrology.

Tredinnick has given talks at the Glastonbury music festival alongside newspaper horoscope writer Jonathan Cainer, extolling the virtues of astrology, and says he has produced astrological charts for other Members of Parliament.[6]

gollark: Yes, I know. It's just a nonsensical idea.
gollark: PotatOS could be transmitted via LabelNet in just 4 minutes.
gollark: What?
gollark: Labels are 32 chars and you have 187 valid characters. Thus you can send 30 bytes per tick via label changes.
gollark: So you know how computers can set their labels? They can also read labels of adjacent ones.

References
  1. Astrology-loving MP David Tredinnick 'convinced' practise can reduce strain on NHS, The Independent
  2. UK election: Round one to the Science Party, New Scientist
  3. Conservatives put Dumb and Dumber on the health select committee, The Guardian
  4. http://www.scotsman.com/news/tory-mp-traditional-chinese-medicine-can-treat-cancer-and-hiv-1-4312683
  5. Tory Claims for Astrology CD, Lib Dem Voice
  6. Astrology-loving MP seeks health answers in the stars, BBC News
This article is issued from Rationalwiki. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.