Martin J. Walker on the UK GMC Hearing: This Contemptuous Hearing
By Martin J. Walker
This Contemptuous Hearing
Monday 23rd to Tuesday 31st March
I mean that quite sincerely folks
Catch phrase of Hughie Green
British talent show host of the 1960s and 1970s
On Monday 23rd March Miss Smith continued her closing speech. Tuesday 24th was a non-sitting day; Wednesday was to be half a non-sitting day in the afternoon but at the last minute on Monday the hearing heard that Dr Kumar had to attend a funeral, so the morning hearing too was called off. On Thursday and Friday Miss Smith picked up steam again.
Monday set the tone of the hearing for me when I was once again 'told- off' by the legal assessor, whom I was unsurprised to hear this week is known amongst his judicial brethren as 'Mr Pink the Enforcer'. When Miss Smith wants to have someone told off, Mr Pink, quickly combs his hair and then takes on the opposition. Apart from these 'high-horse' demonstrations, the legal assessor has been mainly silent for the last 125 days of the hearing - the expression money for old rope is often heard on the landings and in the lifts - although to my mind people should remember that old rope is firstly useful and then can be recycled.
My latest GMC report had gone up on the Cry Shame web site the previous night and as I walked in to take my place in the public 'gallery' - a roped off floor level area of five rows of chairs - I was acutely aware that something was about to happen. I was the only person in the public gallery and no one in the room would look at me. Feeling thoroughly isolated I tried to catch the eye of a member of the defence team, but no one would share even a glance with me. After a few minutes the whole gaggle of lawyers sauntered out of the far end of the hearing room, when they came back ten minutes later they all sat again without catching my eye and the proceedings were handed over to the Legal Assessor to do his hatchet job.
The prosecution’s ability to get absolutely everything wrong is, as young people say nowadays, 'awesome' although not at all 'cool'. I learned later that the attack on me had been provoked by one of the defence counsel mentioning their considerable annoyance at the abusive articles by Brian Deer in the Sunday GlaxoSmithTimes. Utterly unprepared to react rationally to this complaint, and unwilling to criticise the complainant Deer, the prosecution had sought to attack me for my last report of the hearing.
The legal assessor's route to me was like Miss Smith's route to Dr Wakefield; tortuous in the extreme. According to the legal assessor, my reports on a web site 'that should remain nameless', had again made inaccurate reports of the proceedings and voiced personal things about Miss Smith and one of the lay panel members. The fact that Dr Wakefield also had things posted on the CryShame campaign site apparently prompted a panel member to ask 'who is behind this'. In answering this question, Miss Smith and even the defence team, made the mistake of telling everyone that the web site was in fact my web site and that it was me who had posted Dr Wakefield's defence papers and other information from the hearing on the site. Ipso facto I was responsible not only for the dastardly personal remarks about Miss Smith and the lay member's injuries, but also Machiavellian scheming and disclosure of defence papers on behalf of Dr Wakefield. Neither the defence nor the prosecution seemed to understand that the CryShame web site represented a quite separate organisation, and its contents were independently moderated.
While it was all complete bunk, and yet another example of the bias of the prosecution, it was to me another example of the odd airless bubble in which the prosecution inhabits. They actually do think that the people are buying their story, that the thousands of parents fulminating beyond the GMC do not exist; that this is no movement against the vaccine programme and that these prosecutors will not actually be brought to book for their crimes.
Read Martin J Walker's full article HERE. .
Martin J Walker is an investigative writer who has written four books about aspects of the medical industrial complex. He started focusing on conflict of interest, intervention by pharmaceutical companies in government and patient groups in 1993. Over the last three years he has been a campaign writer for the parents of MMR vaccine damaged children covering every day of the now two year hearing of the General Medical Council that is trying Dr Wakefield and two other doctors. His GMC accounts can be found at www.cryshame.com, and his own website is, www.slingshotpublications.com.
Medicine has always been particularly cruel to innovators. One recalls that Servetius who discovered blood circulation was burned alive by Calvin (from whom the Calvinists derive their name). Up to that time, a human was regarded as a bag filled with blood, and blood circulation was regarded as heresy.
Andy Wakefield must be glad if the British do not catch and burn him. And similar things happened in all nations, so this is not specifically British or Swiss. Medicine is highly resistant to change.
BTW, I still chuckle about the GSK chicken. Didn't we always suspect it was one of the big pharmaceutical firms who paid for this exercise?
Hans Raible, Stuttgart, Germany
Posted by: Hans Raible | April 06, 2009 at 06:34 AM
It's more tham just power and greed. The entire medical system is at stake here, and they know it. Vaccination for the prevention of infectious disease is the foundation upon which allopathic medecine is built. If that crumbles, what will be left? When they began using vaccines they neglected the flip side...what happens once the vaccines enter the body. I seem to remember learning in high school science that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Our most brilliant medical scientists forgot to check for that or they chose to ignore it. Mother Nature can be a very hard teacher, indeed.
Posted by: CT teacher | April 04, 2009 at 12:46 PM
The chickenosis part reminds me of Charlie Chaplin playing the chicken in his unforgettable film. Both Chaplin and Martin Walker are equally funny.
Hans Raible
Posted by: Hans Raible | April 04, 2009 at 06:42 AM
God bless you for going through this and for keeping us informed!
Posted by: Amanda Blinn | April 04, 2009 at 03:13 AM
So much time and money wasted protecting a digusting vaccine. This is more than about money, this is about power... Which scares me more.
Posted by: power corrupts | April 03, 2009 at 11:40 AM
For now, in the persecutor’s words, Dr. Wakefield’s scientific pursuit of vaccine safety questions is Newspeak “dangerous.”
Posted by: sdtech | April 03, 2009 at 09:01 AM
“Miss Smith's closing speech was stuffed with references to MMR and the great danger that Dr Wakefield was to the public health.”
The prosecution repeats the world wide corporate mantra that any scientific inquiry into vaccine damage is “dangerous.”
In fact, even talking about it is deemed “dangerous.”
A local grass roots organization recently supported a state legislative effort to provide informed consent to parents regarding mercury in vaccines. They were promptly informed that it is very “dangerous” to go down that road because there is no “solid science” and no “factual information.” In other words we must not talk about it with parents lest they become aware.
“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end, we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.” George Orwell, 1984.
For now, in the persecutor’s words, Dr. Wake’s scientific pursuit of vaccine safety questions is Newspeak “dangerous.”
Posted by: sdtech | April 03, 2009 at 06:26 AM