Soundbite propaganda

It would be helpful if those who believe they are entitled to instruct others on policy paid attention to their own words. Dr Peter Swinyard - no doubt an esteemed professional - being one such individual (‘Top GP backs checks on whiplash claims’).

Dr Swinyard appears blithely unaware of the implications of his words when he says that, while he always wants to believe his patients, ‘you sometimes have a hunch things are not as they seem’. There is a certain irony in a doctor’s ‘hunch’ being a determinant of policy, when at the core of the debate on the reality (or otherwise) of whiplash injury is the medical expert’s preparedness to endorse injury when there is no ‘objective evidence’ to prove it - at least so Jack Straw MP frequently tells us.

Policy arising from such soundbite propagandising will result in as many flaws and unintended consequences as the existing mess causes.

John Holtom, managing partner, Legal Solutions Partnership, Luton