Given the ardently pro-science views of David Willetts, and the announcement of very tight spending controls on science over the coming period, it is reasonable to ask if he will also be supporting demands for the closure of the London Homeopathic Hospital, that stain on the rational reputation of the health service in the UK.
The last refit cost the country £20 million and the country subsidised this completely irrational nonsense. During a time of financial pressure, surely one of the most obvious cuts that would both improve budgets and the medical care of those who are deluded into attending it, the ending of funding for the London Homeopathic Hospital would be a positive step.
It's early days but Willetts has a respect for science, so he can be expected to be sympathetic to the rational case against irrational alternative medicine. But he is keen to help meet the demands of the government for £6 billion cuts and that means that he will expect science to lose a share of its funding. Just whether he will exert any influence he has on those in the Department of Health remains to be seen. But this is an excellent opportunity, with justifiable spending reduction arguments, to rationalise away the nonsensical use of homeopathy in the National Health Service.
