OK Mr McCabe, you think that homeopathy does work. Well prove it to the standards required of conventional medicine. That really is the root of all this arguing over homeopathy. There are plenty of people out there who have argued that homeopathy may have a harmless, if not entirely valid, role to play in healthcare as a form of sympathetic placebo. The problem they have with homeopathy is that it makes grand claims without sufficient supporting evidence. Where are the proper controlled trials on homeopathy? Where are the ethical debates over its appropriate usage? Where are the organisations demonstrably ensuring that professional standards are upheld and dangerous actions and advice punished? If these concerns are addressed you may find that criticisms are reduced to a background grumble from sceptics like me rather than a stream of negative reports in the press.

Perhaps the debate has become overly emotional and occasionally strays into the realm of the personal but if only the homeopathic profession was to apply the rigour of the scientific method to its studies then we might not be arguing like this.