Over the past few years, I’ve given more than 100 free talks to Skeptics in the Pub groups, humanists, students, conferences, degree courses and comedy festivals – including my talks: Adventures in pseudoscience – a fun journey through almost a decade of my skeptical activism and investigations Diluting NHS Homeopathy until it’s just a memory – a look at Good Thinking’s campaign to investigate and challenge NHS funding for homeopathy Circular Reasoning: The Rise of Flat Earth Belief – investigations into the Flat Earth conspiracy movement, and why people fell for the belief Bad PR – how and w ..read more

The Professional Standards Authority (PSA) has announced new Standards for voluntary registers of healthcare providers, causing the Society of Homeopaths (SoH) to withdraw from the accreditation scheme. The PSA – the government body which oversees and accredits healthcare bodies – has included in their new Standards a ‘public interest’ test, which will weigh up whether the evidence for the benefits of a treatment covered by a register outweigh any risks. The new Standards come after a public consultation on the scope of the Accredited Registers programme, to which Good Thinking made a su ..read more

This year, it was decided that the Good Magic Award, worth £2,000, would support a new and innovative project that promotes the art of magic. We received many impressive applications and after careful consideration, the judging panel selected James Green to receive the award. James Green runs a blog researching and reporting amazing stories of magicians during World War Two, including those involved in entertainment, espionage and code breaking. He would now like to carry out additional and in-depth research into little-known stories of magicians who became POWs, including the dramatic events ..read more

Earlier today, the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) announced it had suspended the accreditation of the Society of Homeopaths (SoH). The PSA, the government watchdog who regulate healthcare regulators and registers, found that the SoH “did not appear to have prioritised public protection over professional interests in its handling of complaints or governance processes, which undermined confidence in its ability to ensure its registrants were compliant with its own Code of Ethics and position statements.” According to the PSA, the SoH’s failings in this regard “led to risks to the public ..read more

The Omnia Radiation Balancer is a small sticker claimed to harmonise and balance the radiation from wireless devices. According to Omnia’s website, it is vital that you apply one sticker to each of your devices, “because each device is bringing you into contact with the imbalanced energy of microwave radiation”. The stickers start at £54 for a pack of 3. Omnia’s claims are misleading, unsubstantiated and utterly implausible, seeking to perpetuate and profit from unfounded fears regarding wireless technology. When an Omnia ad appeared in the Guardian newspaper, we reported it to the Advertisin ..read more

Following the exposé of thermography clinics giving dangerously false information to cancer patients, MPs Anthony Browne, Maria Eagle and Barbara Keeley have backed our calls to strengthen the Cancer Act and to better protect vulnerable patients.  ..read more

The Telegraph looks at how crowdfunding campaigns for health treatments can have a sinister side, and how the pandemic has caused a surge in “scammers” who are copying the accounts of cancer sufferers in order to take the money for themselves.  ..read more

A month after saying a dietary supplement could prevent Covid-19, Orewa psychic Jeanette Wilson now claims a bluetooth device she’s selling can dose vitamins “vibrationally”. But Medsafe, the Commerce Commission and a physicist are warning consumers to be wary of the claims. A self-proclaimed spirit medium, healer and “psychic surgeon” who recently said a dietary supplement could prevent Covid-19 now claims she can digitally dose people with vitamins using a bluetooth device with a $780 starting price ..read more

Astrology’s claims that the position of the sun, moon and planets at our birth informs our character and future are without evidence, and yet horoscopes continue to be published in national newspapers ..read more

Over the past few years, I’ve given more than 100 free talks to Skeptics in the Pub groups, humanists, students, conferences, degree courses and comedy festivals – including my talks: Adventures in pseudoscience – a fun journey through almost a decade of my skeptical activism and investigations Diluting NHS Homeopathy until it’s just a memory – a look at Good Thinking’s campaign to investigate and challenge NHS funding for homeopathy Circular Reasoning: The Rise of Flat Earth Belief – investigations into the Flat Earth conspiracy movement, and why people fell for the belief Bad PR – how and w ..read more