Quack Medicine
Here's an news article from the BBC archive which highlights an occasion - not that long ago - when quack medicine came face-to-face with quack politics in the Scottish Parliament.
Now I knew when I was reading news reports about the terrible measles outbreak in south Wales - that Tommy Sheridan was one of the shameless politicians only happy to exploit the MMR scare by calling for a change in vaccination policy - even though there was no evidence linking the MMR jab to autism.
After all, passing bandwagons are often impossible to resist for a certain brand of demagogic politics - in the fashion of UKIP and its unprincipled hostility to the European Union, for example.
But what I didn't remember is that the SNP were daft enought to join forces with the Scottish Socialist Party all those years ago - back in 2001.
How embarrassing - but well done to Malcolm Chisolm (Health Minister) and the Labour/Lib Dem coalition government of the day - for facing this nonsense down..
Sheridan MMR reform defeat (8 February 2001)
An attempt by Scottish Socialist MSP Tommy Sheridan to give parents the option of single vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella has been defeated.
The Glasgow MSP urged single vaccines to be made available on the National Health Service for at least five years, to allow a detailed study of possible links between a combined MMR jab and autism.
In the Scottish Parliament, Deputy Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm rejected the argument, saying that medical experts had concluded there was no link between the MMR vaccination and the disease.
In a vote on the motion, Mr Sheridan was defeated by 62 votes to 49.
Mr Sheridan, speaking during parliamentary time allocated to him for a debate of his choice, said the most "heart-rending" stories he had heard as a politician were on this issue.
He said: "The cases have risen markedly over the last 10 years and almost without exception those parents believe the triple MMR vaccine has been the causal link in the development of autism.
"I have to be honest, I don't know for sure whether or not the triple MMR vaccine is a causal link.
"But I have got to say in the midst of so little research and understanding of autism and its marked increase in incidence, who can really be sure that there's no causal link?"
The leader of the Scottish Socialist Party said that his motion was not against vaccination, but was seeking the return of single vaccines to allow parental choice.
Mr Chisholm quoted from the chairman of the British Medical Association's Scottish Council, Dr John Garner, who concluded that the world's largest study into the triple vaccine had found "no evidence of any causal link".
He dismissed Mr Sheridan's call for research saying that the Medical Research Council was already conducting a study into the causes of autism.
The Scottish National Party's shadow health minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said there was a danger that concern over the MMR jab could lead some parents to not vaccinate their children.
"I believe that the answer is to give people the choice of single vaccines," she said.
Conservative deputy health spokesman, Ben Wallace, called for confirmation that the Scottish Executive would act on the recommendations of the Scottish Parliament's Health Committee, due to report soon.
