The role of English and Welsh Law in the suppression of scientific debate has begun to be noticed by the popular press. Simon Singh is embroiled in a dispute with the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) for daring to suggest that they may have no evidence of benefit for their ‘treatments’ but indeed there is evidence that they are positively (?) harmful. Hot on the heels of this affair, Nick Cohen, a commentator in the Guardian, has written a piece suggesting that mathematicians are being frightened into silence about city shenanigans through the threat (implicit I assume - little if any evidence is provided) of legal action if they point out some of the obvious flaws in investment and trading policy - namely that few understood these complex instruments, in fact some of them might well cost more to understand than they were worth.
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