Julian Huppert, David Howarth’s successor as MP for Cambridge, has been elected to the party’s Federal Policy Committee (FPC). Julian is rather in the Evan Harris mode in that he’s very interested in (and knowledgeable about) scientific issues, keen to see evidence properly scrutinised, likely to be an active participant in the FPC’s work and, in as much as the labels make sense, rather more of a social liberal than an economic one.
You can follow Julian on Twitter at @julianhuppert.
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8 Comments
Who are the other MPs elected onto FPC?
Norman Lamb and Jenny Willott
This is very nice to hear, and I’m sure Julian will prove a valuable member of the FPC.
On the subject of Evan Harrising the supporters of woo, David Tredinnick MP (who tried to claim expenses for an astrology DVD and believes that the lunar cycle interferes with blood clotting) has got on to the Health Select Committee and has been promoting some EDMs on homeopathy.
Fortunately Julian has written four amendments to Mr Tredinnick’s EDM’s fisking the cherry-picked studies he uses. Please write to your MP to ask them to sign Julian’s amendments and not to sign Mr Tredinnick’s EDMs.
(On that note, Mike Hancock and Gordon Birtwistle are the two Lib Dem MPs – so far – who have signed Mr Tredinnick’s homeopathy EDMs so anyone in their constituencies please write to them!)
This makes me happy 🙂
I’m already a fan on the basis of his EDM amendments.
He is already showing himself to be a terrific Lib Dem MP.
Whilst I am not aware of any evidence to support Tredinnick’s assertion that the lunar cycle interferes with blood clotting, people should not dismiss the possibility so lightly. If you do, that makes you the closed-minded one who does not require evidence before making decisions
Many cycles in nature are connected to the moon. The linked article below gives a couple of starting points for possible connections between human biology and the moon, not least our monthly fertility cycle, which, as you will be aware, involves blood loss. There is a decent exploration of the evidence in the article over several pages.
http://www.biology-online.org/articles/lunar_cycle_effects_human/summary.html
How much evidence a person needs before drawing conclusions will vary. For me there is insufficient evidence to reach firm conclusions either way. As a strong supporter of evidence-based policy in the Evan Harris mould, my advice to anyone who will listen is that more evidence is generally better. Do not laugh at someone with whom you disagree, for the last laugh may be on you.
Oxford should be ashamed that Cambridge now has the best MP!
I may even be prepared to drive there to defend him from the inevitable onslaught from the religious right (It is nearer to me than Oxford!)