He was instrumental in the smoking ban, he would love to take the organs of deceased folk without permission, and he thinks he has the right to tell you how to live your life.
Yes, I am talking about Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer.
I would love to see a copy of his job description. Perhaps there is something in there that gives this man the confidence to make statements like this:
The first thing you see when you walk into a supermarket is a wall of cigarette packets, we need to do something about that, and let’s get the cigarette out of Kate Moss’s mouth.
Sorry Sir, but are you proposing to tell shops how and where they may display their cigarettes? Are there not laws already that inform shopkeepers of the sort of people to whom they may not sell cigarettes? Is that not enough? So long as the shopkeepers are selling to people who may legally buy, of what concern is it to you that the goods are displayed in a prominent place?
Or do you believe that the mere sight of cigarette packets lining a wall is enough to tempt us all into a lifetime of nicotine dependency? Would you rather the cigarettes were hidden under the counter and passed over to the customer in a brown bag?
And as for Kate Moss, please leave the girl alone. She can smoke wherever she pleases, within the limits of the (recently changed) law. So long as she is not smoking in a prohibited place, her cigarette may dangle from her lips with impunity.
And why pick on her at all? Surely you don’t buy into all that ‘role model’ nonsense as well? Do you think that she is a ‘role model’ and must therefore behave in a manner approved by yourself and other such well-meaning figures in authority? Do you not think that there is a problem with society if our children forsake all the worthy examples before them, and choose instead to look up to an inarticulate, scandal-ridden girl as deserving of their adulation? Rather than chasing such a girl down the street and ‘getting the cigarette out of her mouth’, would it not be better to educate people about the health benefits of not smoking, and then leave it to them to make up their minds?
Personal responsibility is one of the most empowering drugs out there. Why do you not advocate it more? Is it because a society of free and responsible adults is one in which there would be precious little for you to do, fewer opportunities to meddle in our lives, and no audience to whom you can preach?
July 22nd, 2007 at 12:29 am
Yes, I am somewhat bemused by the authorities’ fixation with Kate Moss. First it was Ian Blair wanting to hunt her down for alleged cocaine use and now this. Like she is the only person in this country who allegedly has done drugs or smoked a cigarette for crying out loud.
They do it because she is a woman and does not act as a nice girl should. They want to see her suffer consequences for her “wrongs”; and her celebrity makes her an easy target as the press act as co-conspirators in the witch hunt.
As for me, I could care less if she smokes, does or did drugs or dates unsuitable men. It’s a little thing called, “none of my business”.
I’m sick of these idiot men thinking that she is theirs’.
July 22nd, 2007 at 12:39 am
I’m sick of these idiot men thinking that she is theirs’.
Well said, kris. You should have seen the rage that welled up within me when I read his words.
July 22nd, 2007 at 3:08 am
He will not be getting my organs, not that he wants smokers filty organs anyway. So I torn my card up, and there was me thinking they had a shortage. Well they will have a bigger one now I think.
I will not be giving any more blood either.
July 22nd, 2007 at 3:09 am
Sorry I should have added, it is a witch-hunt, it is a disgrace
July 22nd, 2007 at 3:13 am
Sir Liam Donaldson is overstepping the mark just a little bit too much.
What gives this man the right to dictate to people what they do?
This is the man responsible for the smoking ban. When the idiotic government that we have wasn’t going fast enough to push through the ban he threw a tantrum worthy of a two-year old, through teddy out of the pram and threatened to resign. I wish he had then people who smoke wouldn’t have to stand out in the pouring rain and freezing cold. I feel so sorry for our pensioners being treated in such a callous way. It’s disgusting.
Now Sir Donaldson wants to put a tax on dairy products. Has this fool never heard of Ricketts once prevalent in the poorer sections of society which died out in the early 1960’s? No doubt his big pharma masters are just itching to start selling calcium supplements to make up for the loss from food sources. Utterly scandalous.
Then there’s Donaldson’s proposals to steal organs from deceased people without either their permission via donor cards or from next of kin. Outrageous! I speak as the mother of a son who is soon to get a kidney transplant, the kidney being donated from a close family relative provided that relative passes all the medicals. If not my son will be put on the transplant list. We both agree that what Donaldson is proposing is wrong. I carry a donor card and am on the donor register, not for kidneys as I have the same disease as my son to a much lesser extent, but for any other useable part of my body. Thanks to Donaldson I am taking my name off the donor list and tearing up my card. I know other people who have done this too or ceased to be blood donors.
I hope Sir Liam Donaldson is proud of himself. Because of him, people are turning against the medical profession and seeing it now as an interfering quango that has the brass neck to preach to the public while having hospitals that are rife with superbugs!
The best thing that could happen is Donaldson gets sacked and the sooner the better for everyone.
July 22nd, 2007 at 3:21 pm
If organ donation becomes an opt out rather than an opt in I will indeed opt out, despite having been on the register for thirty years.
Sacking is too good for him, I think 100 hours community service would be in order.
July 23rd, 2007 at 10:58 am
It is about time that this guy was hauled up in front of a public inquiry and forced to justify his figures. According to a recent Newsnight program regarding ‘opt out’ organ donation he says that “it’s what the public want, it is what they have asked for” - OK Liar Donaldson show us the figures and method of collection. I for one certainly haven’t been asked.
I have written to my GP to make a note on my medical record that under no circumstances are my organs to be taken without my written consent and that I do not want my medical records uploaded to any national medical database and would strongly urge others to do the same.
July 23rd, 2007 at 11:03 am
…I would love to see a copy of his job description…
Yes, I would too.
July 23rd, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Maybe he could be the first to have his organs donated
July 23rd, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Maybe he could be the first to have his organs donated
July 23rd, 2007 at 6:49 pm
I agree.
And I’m getting tired of the smoking ban already.
Nevertheless Bel, I would take the point here to its logical conclusion. Would you?
July 23rd, 2007 at 11:33 pm
How dare this jumped-up twerp presume to instruct free adults, and presume ownership of our vital-organs? I’m not his employee, and cerainly not his slave. The man’s employed and paid for out of our taxation; his job is to inform and advise, not to command.
Pity he can’t even do the informing and advising in a balanced way, preferring a dishonest and nasty puritanical agenda, as recommended by sociopathic control-freak vested interests like ASH.
I think your closing paragraph just about sums it up. In a truly free society, Mr. Liam Donaldson would be out of work.
July 24th, 2007 at 3:20 am
If it were me (and thankfully, it’s not) I’d be more worried about Kate Moss’s “heroin chic” phase.
Remember that?
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:10 pm
Why is it presumed by Liam Donaldson & other high ranking Civil Servants wanting to make a name for themselves (& a great fat pension), that the majority of the British Public give presumed consent to having their organs removed after their death. Where is the evidence for this, and who did they exactly ask during this detailed & well sampled survey (what a joke!).
No one in their right mind would be insensitive enough to say outright that they wouldn’t like the idea of presumed consent if the survey was dressed-up in such a way as to make the participant feel cruel & mean hearted to those desperate people currently in need of a transplant (especially if the whole thing was conducted on the street & in full view & ear shot of every passer-by).
It’s a modern marvel to be in a position to save another’s life with a volunteered legacy of a kidney, heart, or lung etc; but to extricate organs by rule of law could be a return to the days of those infamous body snatchers William Burke and William Hare.
It’s just another mark of the time we live in I suppose, who would have thought that it would be possible to having never committed a crime or been charged & prosecuted, that our DNA can be retained by the Authorities for some unexplained reason; not to mention the escalating abortion rates of otherwise healthy children should they’d had the chance of going to full term. [why don’t we just give-up the idea of being human altogether, forget that being so accommodates unique frailties & special qualities that are exhibited by all in our society, and just breed what Government Policy dictates – that’s right!......drones fit for purpose that give their soul out to the hierarchy that rule from the top].
This all might have seemed some how trite & distasteful to have suggested but how is it morally right that someone leading a wholesome life whilst avoiding cigarettes, alcohol and loose living be expected to accept any justice in having their remains fiddled with after their death; just so the likes of those that didn’t do so live even longer! I know people do genuinely need organs for conditions & ailments not of their own making, but in the last few years we’ve seen well known figures take this same donor legacy & then have the gall to continue in the same vain as before; if this is to be the case “I’m going to say hell with the consequences and live my life to the fullest too” [Just a thought!]
January 29th, 2008 at 11:18 am
the man has a right to his view, just because you dont want to change from opt-in to opt-out, dont get on his back come up with a better solution to the organ shortage that is killing thousands of people, and the organ black prisions!