In the interim he would have had time to gain, with a little intellectual application, a plethora of qualifications. Unfortunately, he is still operating on gut instinct, and it is making fools of everyone. What was the Sunday Times doing? Only on Inspector Clouseau principles would you appoint a journalist to investigate scientific fraud who did not have a basic grasp of the data. But that is exactly what has happened.

He has not understood that the statement that the twelve children were normal before vaccination does not mean that they had no prior medical history, but that they did not have the symptoms that they subsequently acquired. Nor does he understand that you would not go to their basic medical records (which he should not have) to find out whether the children had had adverse reactions to vaccine, because routinely GPs do not write these things down.  Or that Asperger Syndrome is an Autistic Spectrum disorder, and can be regressive.  And, incidentally, it should be noted that according to the 1998 study in 11 out of 12 cases the medical histories were compiled not by Wakefield, but by John Walker-Smith.

And yet the medical and political establishment has been constructing its case against Wakefield on Deer’s reporting for the last five years. It was on the back of his first report that Wakefield was held to be “discredited” and the world was brow-beaten into believing it was so. UK National Health Service websites link up to Deer’s website, and the longest medical disciplinary hearing in British history was launched on the basis of his complaint. It is a game in which everybody hides behind everybody else, pretending they can’t be seen – but actually they are all standing there, and their trousers are down.

It is time, finally, to call a halt to this nonsense.

John Stone is a member of Cry Shame, has an autistic son and lives in London.