Open letter to:

Ms. Alice Green
Essex Centre for Neurosciences
Oldchurch Hospital
Waterloo Road
Romford
Essex  RM7 0BE

Dear Ms. Green
 
I would like to make a couple of comments in this open letter concerning your presentation to the current parliamentary inquiry into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.  
 
The first point is your qualification which you have described as a Highly Specialist Counselling Psychologist.   From a grammatical point of view,  the wording is questionable and suggests the self-awarding of a non-existent qualification. 
 
Even allowing for a language that is full of exceptions to the rules,  your presentation belies anything vaguely resembling specialist knowledge of the ME field.  At a very basic level, you are not even aware that ME is listed as a neurological disease by the World Health Organization and has been for about 40 years.   Those who have died were as usual, ignored,  as indeed were those who are currently terminally ill due to complications such as heart failure.   
 
The inability to read and understand scientific literature has been demonstrated repeatedly by those who push the mental disorder barrow,  and while I do not suggest that you have conflicts of interest, your presentation does demonstrate the same lack of intellectual acumen which plagues all who do.
 
There is only one point for which I could award one star, and that is the simplicity with which you presented your views.  Unlike others who use the hey-presto method of trying to persuade the public that black is white,  the parliamentary lay persons whom you addressed, will not be confused by the usual contrived and meaningless jargon favoured by Wessely, White, Sharpe et al.  
 
That aside,  the views you presented came directly from the Wessely school of thought on ME.   It was disappointing that you chose to adopt the role of a parrot in such a serious situation.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Gurli Bagnall  
Independent Patients' Rights Campaigner
P.O. Box 717
Blenheim
New Zealand
 
Phone:  (03) 579-1106