Best Of

Christ, the Mail have got the paracetemol/autism thing on their front page. I'm sure their article will get round to the medical evidence but the "just asking questions" thing is just so hideously irresponsible.

Expect a big increase in stomach ulcers as people switch to ibuprofen.

This massive Swedish study found no connection.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2817406

Keep taking the pills.

That's not *quite* true; it found a very minor correlation that is not statistically significant, and may simply be chance. The children of mothers who took acetimponephien were about 0.2 percentage points more likely to be autistic than those who didn't (albeit once you controlled for siblings, even that minor correlation largely disappeared.)

It *might* be the case that there's a tiny increased risk of autism from taking paracetamol, but it certainly doesn't *cause* autism.

Of course, it's also entirely possible that illness/pain is correlated with autism, and people who are sick/in pain are more likely to take paracetamol.

I think there is no statistically significant risk of taking paracetamol in pregnancy. It is important not to be ambiguous about stating this.

There is a definite risk both to mother and child of not treating fevers in pregnancy and childhood. Leaving children and mothers to be to suffer without pain relief is just cruel.

Get rid of Natural England, get rid of the retained EU law. Say goodbye and please don't stay in touch to their Stalinist stranglehold on British life.

Getting rid of retained EU law is a good example of why parties who promise the moon on a stick, often fail.

T. May when faced with the problem of how to separate EU and UK law decided there wasn't the bandwidth within government to separate the two (very different) legal systems so rolled EU law over into UK law. The idea was to unpick it over a period of time when it could be done at leisure. It hasn't.

In looking at the present government, they promised 'mission-led' government. The five missions, each with associated end goals, are:

1. Kick-start economic growth
   
2. Make Britain a clean energy superpower
   
3. Take back our streets
   
4. Break down barriers to opportunity
   
5. Build an NHS fit for the future.
   

Already these missions are in serious trouble as life comes at you fast. So the missions are looking questionable.

The same would apply to any future government as besides their manifesto commitments, they also are bound by the promises of previous governments as enshrined in the legislation passed. So part of time, if not most, will be trying to undo the spaghetti that is UK law with all the interrelatedness with treaties and international relations. Those with little self-control can't wait for the changes and complain when change is not instantaneous viz Brexit.

It will take many parliaments to make meaningful changes in UK law including the drag that inherited EU law on our institutions. All we can do is sit and wait for the changes we want to appear, hopefully in your lifetime. If it seems like Groundhog day, it probably is.

Actually, I think there are things that could be done relatively easily, in particular around criminal justice (i.e. reclaim the streets) and planning reform. (The latter of which would go a long way to kick starting economic growth.)

Get rid of Natural England, get rid of the retained EU law. Say goodbye and please don't stay in touch to their Stalinist stranglehold on British life.

Getting rid of retained EU law is a good example of why parties who promise the moon on a stick, often fail.

T. May when faced with the problem of how to separate EU and UK law decided there wasn't the bandwidth within government to separate the two (very different) legal systems so rolled EU law over into UK law. The idea was to unpick it over a period of time when it could be done at leisure. It hasn't.

In looking at the present government, they promised 'mission-led' government. The five missions, each with associated end goals, are:

1. Kick-start economic growth
   
2. Make Britain a clean energy superpower
   
3. Take back our streets
   
4. Break down barriers to opportunity
   
5. Build an NHS fit for the future.
   

Already these missions are in serious trouble as life comes at you fast. So the missions are looking questionable.

The same would apply to any future government as besides their manifesto commitments, they also are bound by the promises of previous governments as enshrined in the legislation passed. So part of time, if not most, will be trying to undo the spaghetti that is UK law with all the interrelatedness with treaties and international relations. Those with little self-control can't wait for the changes and complain when change is not instantaneous viz Brexit.

It will take many parliaments to make meaningful changes in UK law including the drag that inherited EU law on our institutions. All we can do is sit and wait for the changes we want to appear, hopefully in your lifetime. If it seems like Groundhog day, it probably is.

Rubbish. A parliament cannot bind its successor.

This comment misses the point. Parliament is sovereign and can legislate freely. However any government as it starts a ministry has a country to run. The gigantic legal infrastructure under which it is run - from law relating to murder to planning applications for Heathrow Airport - is already in place as they begin, and has been in continuous and uninterrupted organic development from parliament and courts since the reign of Henry II (r 1154-1189). Government is absolutely bound by it, unless and until it legislates to change it. Lots of changes are always urgent, as there is so much of it to sort. Political opportunism requires still further worthless bits of law making. Parliamentary time is finite, and MPs are mostly quite dim about the law. Vast amounts of legislation exists mostly to give lawyers opportunities to challenge, quite properly, any government decision. It will be fascinating to see what happens when a Reform government discovers that all this is quite hard, unless of course you abolish the separation of powers, the rule of law, and govern by dictat, as is happening across the pond.

Get rid of Natural England, get rid of the retained EU law. Say goodbye and please don't stay in touch to their Stalinist stranglehold on British life.

Getting rid of retained EU law is a good example of why parties who promise the moon on a stick, often fail.

T. May when faced with the problem of how to separate EU and UK law decided there wasn't the bandwidth within government to separate the two (very different) legal systems so rolled EU law over into UK law. The idea was to unpick it over a period of time when it could be done at leisure. It hasn't.

In looking at the present government, they promised 'mission-led' government. The five missions, each with associated end goals, are:

1. Kick-start economic growth
   
2. Make Britain a clean energy superpower
   
3. Take back our streets
   
4. Break down barriers to opportunity
   
5. Build an NHS fit for the future.
   

Already these missions are in serious trouble as life comes at you fast. So the missions are looking questionable.

The same would apply to any future government as besides their manifesto commitments, they also are bound by the promises of previous governments as enshrined in the legislation passed. So part of time, if not most, will be trying to undo the spaghetti that is UK law with all the interrelatedness with treaties and international relations. Those with little self-control can't wait for the changes and complain when change is not instantaneous viz Brexit.

It will take many parliaments to make meaningful changes in UK law including the drag that inherited EU law on our institutions. All we can do is sit and wait for the changes we want to appear, hopefully in your lifetime. If it seems like Groundhog day, it probably is.

Actually, I think there are things that could be done relatively easily, in particular around criminal justice (i.e. reclaim the streets) and planning reform. (The latter of which would go a long way to kick starting economic growth.)

Inadequately radical planning reform is a real missed opportunity from this Labour government.