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	Book Review by Anthony Campbell: The March of Unreason, by Dick Taverne
		Taverne's general approach is to look critically at certain ideas that are fashionable in "progressive" circles, including alternative medicine, organic farming, hostility to genetically modified crops, and "eco-fundamentalism", by which he means environmentalism of the kind that refuses to listen to counter-arguments of any kind.
		Taverne is aware that homeopaths have frequently pointed to hormesis as evidence for the effectiveness of the highly dilute medicines they use.
		Taverne is good on the absurdities of postmodernism and on the denigration of science "because [science] represents reason and reason has gone out of fashion in parts of academia".
	www.accampbell.uklinux.net /bookreviews/r/taverne.html (790 words)

	Balliol College - History - Past Members - Richard Hare - A Memoir
		Dick was right to cut undergraduates down to tutorial size and to focus on crucial issues, but the effect was to shift the focus of concern from the pupils' thoughts to the tutor's.
		As we came to know them both, we attributed Dick's rehabilitation to Catherine, and sometimes said that it was she who enabled him to be human in spite of what had been done to him.
		Dick was sensitive to these, and hoped, like Kant, that the principle of universalisability would provide sufficient guidance to lead us to the one correct prescription.
	www.balliol.ox.ac.uk /history/miscellany/hare/memoir.asp (1772 words)

	AEGiS-NV: Uganda: UK Lords Debate Uganda's Population
		During the debate held on October 19, Lord Dick Taverne, who sponsored the motion, asked what steps the British Government was taking to contribute to the stabilisation of Africa's population growth.
		Taverne said although AIDS in Africa was now top of the agenda, stabilisation of population growth was more important.
		Taverne cited Ghana, where more women are likely to die from unsafe abortions than from AIDS, yet funds are being diverted from family planning to fight AIDS.
	www.aegis.com /news/nv/2006/NV061022.html (428 words)

	Popular Science Review - The March of Unreason
		Medical evidence was horribly tarnished in the UK by the BSE affair, and Taverne puts that alongside the rise in alternative medicine, the rejection of the MMR vaccine (hopefully now squashed), the children's body parts scandal and the shameful rejection of the medical treatment of AIDS in South Africa.
		Taverne presents both sides of the argument but shows how the hysteria and media manipulation that have dogged the subject totally clouded the real issues.
		Taverne is trying so hard to point out the real problems with the anti-science regime that he forgets that profit-driven industrialists have repeatedly proved capable of putting out harmful products if they can get away with them.
	www.popularscience.co.uk /reviews/rev159.htm (716 words)

	Ignoring science at our peril - The Washington Times: Books - May 01, 2005 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		Taverne, a Queen's Counsel (an especially learned barrister appointed to advise Her Britannic Majesty), former member of the British Parliament and currently member of the House of Lords, offers a spirited defense of science and its evidence-based approach to public policy.
		Taverne argues compellingly that the conflict over gene-spliced crops is the most important battle of all between the forces of reason and unreason, both because of the consequences should the forces of darkness prevail, and also because their arguments are so perverse and so consistently and completely wrong.
		Taverne deplores the "new kind of fundamentalism" that has infiltrated many environmentalist campaigns — an undiscriminating "Back-To-Nature" movement that views science and technology as the enemy and as a manifestation of a mechanistic, rapacious and reductionist attitude toward nature.
	washingtontimes.com /books/20050430-103259-8593r.htm (1122 words)

	Lord Taverne - SourceWatch
		Lord Taverne - Dick Taverne QC - is a Liberal Democrat Peer in the British House of Lords.
		Taverne believes that opponents of GM are "eco-fundamentalists, followers of a new kind of religion, to whom evidence is irrelevant" [2]
		Dick Taverne, The costly fraud that is organic food: Its main contribution will be to sustain poverty and malnutrition The Guardian, Thursday May 6, 2004.
	www.sourcewatch.org /index.php?title=Lord_Taverne (383 words)

	GMWatch.org
		Despite his preoccupation with the accurate reporting of science Taverne told his fellow peers in the House of Lords, 'The Pusztai saga and the GM food scares are a shameful indictment of British journalism.
		Here Taverne gives two contrasting examples - the 'public discussion that took place in a largely non-adversarial atmosphere before the parliamentary votes on the use of human embryos for stem cell research was an example of effective consultation.
		Such claims are dismissed by Taverne as baseless, yet five separate studies, two of them by the Ne w York Department of Health, showed that children at Love Canal suffered an excessive number of major and minor birth defects, chronic illnesses, and stunted growth.
	www.gmwatch.org /profile1.asp?PrId=127 (1474 words)

	Liberal Democrats : Lord Taverne
		Lord Taverne – Dick Taverne QC – was born in 1928, and educated at Charterhouse School, then Balliol College, Oxford, where he gained a First in Greats.
		Outside politics, Dick Taverne’s wide-ranging interests have led him to become a Director of AXA Equity and Law Life Assurance Society plc, and of the BOC Group plc.
		In that period, from 1989 for 10 years, Dick was also Chairman of OLIM Investment Trust, in addition to becoming Deputy Chairman of the Central European Growth Fund in 1994, and Chairman of Alcohol and Drug Prevention Treatment Ltd. in 1996.
	www.libdems.org.uk /party/people/person.html?id=198 (497 words)

	Review: The March of Unreason by Dick Taverne \| Review \| Guardian Unlimited Books
		Dick Taverne inveighs against the doomsayers in The March of Unreason.
		Taverne envisions them as threatening green crusaders driving out the pure-minded, inspired scientist and crippling the future of techno-innovation.
		The most risible absurdity is the reverential way in which he speaks of "the critical analysis to which political party manifestos are subjected at election time", as if they were the gold standard of detached, unbiased truth to which all scientific treatises should aspire.
	books.guardian.co.uk /review/story/0,,1449524,00.html (753 words)

	spiked-science \| Article \| How can we halt the 'march of unreason'?
		Taverne later joined both Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, and in the mid-Seventies - to make his 'small contribution to cleaner air' - gave up owning a car in favour of a bicycle.
		Taverne is concerned that irrational practices - 'eco-fundamentalism' and fundamentalist religion - are flourishing, and undermining the health of civilised society.
		Taverne has no illusions about the motivations of such corporations, warning that they have to be watched, 'like all organisations with an agenda'.
	www.spiked-online.com /articles/0000000CAB13.htm (1402 words)

	Archive
		Dick Taverne is a former barrister (QC), was an MP and Minister (Financial Secretary, Treasury), launched the Institute for Fiscal Studies in 1971 and founded Sense About Science in 2002, to promote good science and the evidence-based approach to public debate about scientific issues.
		Dick Taverne is a former MP and Treasury Minister, who now sits in the Lords as a somewhat maverick Liberal Democrat.
		In the last few years Dick Taverne's main preoccupation has been the growing suspicion of science and the fashion for modern myths and superstitions, as manifested in the popularity of alternative medicine, organic farming, blind hostility to GM crops and a near hysterical preoccupation with safety.
	www.skeptic.org.uk /pub/archive/index.htm (5694 words)

	Tolerance International - About TI
		Dick was a member of the National Committee of the SDP between 1981 and 1987.
		Dick Taverne, The costly fraud that is organic food: Its main contribution will be to sustain poverty and malnutrition (http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4917541-103526,00.html) The Guardian, Thursday May 6, 2004.
		Dick Taverne, Believe in facts not fads (http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/lastword/story/0,,1438870,00.html) The Guardian, Thursday March 17, 2005.
	www.toleranceinternational.com /aboutti.htm (1653 words)

	Prince told to relinquish throne over GE
		Earlier in the week Lord Taverne was reprimanded in the House of Lords after he called for the Prince to be made to relinquish the throne if he made any more statements critical of GM crops!
		Lord Dick Taverne QC, journalist, politician, and rabid biotech supporter, is keenly concerned to prevent "media distortion".
		As part of his "media distortion" crusade, Lord Taverne served on the SIRC Forum which laid down a Code of Practice and Guidelines on the Communication of Science and Health issues in the Media [http://ngin.tripod.com/scisale.htm].
	ngin.tripod.com /210702b.htm (1532 words)

	Common Ground Common Sense
		Dick Taverne is a British politician and independent social democrat.
		Dick Taverne's book, The March of Unreason, will be published in April 2005 by OUP.
		In The March of Unreason, Dick Taverne takes as his starting point his concern that irrationality is on the rise in Western society, and argues that public opinion is increasingly dominated by unreflecting prejudice and an unwillingness to engage with factual evidence.
	www.commongroundcommonsense.org /forums/index.php?showtopic=24195 (5163 words)

	spiked-central \| Letter \| Dick Taverne
		Taverne says that corporations must be more rational than pressure groups who attack them, and he's right.
		I suppose it's cause for celebration of rationality when, as Dick Taverne and Helene Guldberg proudly point out, the company that manufactured thalidomide disappeared.
		The eventual triumph of science is assured, so long as we don't have institutions approximating to a world government, since those nations which adopt progress (China, India) will continue to supplant those who adopt luddism (the European Union).
	www.spiked-online.com /Articles/0000000CAB2F.htm (641 words)

	EIR Volume 32, Number 18, May 6, 2005
		President Bush is reported to be so dysfunctional that Vice President Dick Cheney has assumed virtual control over all policy initiatives.
		Taverne is a member of the House of Lords in Great Britain.
		A former member of Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, he realized that the attitudes of his past associates are geared toward anti-science.
	www.larouchepub.com /eirtoc/2005/eirtoc_3218.html (448 words)

	The Scientist : Creationism: from the US, with love
		Plans for a fourth college were abandoned late last year after vocal opposition by a group of teachers and local parents.
		On Jan. 31, 2005, in the House of Lords, Dick Taverne, of the Liberal Democrat party, asked the government whether the national curriculum will exclude the teaching of creationism in schools.
		Taverne shot back: "Since the Government is in favor of allowing choice between sense and nonsense, will it also allow children to be taught that the earth is flat and that the sun goes around the earth?
	www.the-scientist.com /2005/2/28/12/2 (584 words)

	The Scientist : The Organic Food Placebo
		A peer in the British House of Lords, Taverne has enjoyed a long career in politics, the law, business, and lobbying, so he's no stranger to a good lunch.
		While Taverne, others, and myself at least have our explanations for what appears to be silliness on the grandest scale, the discovery that the benefit of organic food is a figment of consumers' imagination doesn't seem to have broken the charm.
		Taverne D: "You have to be green to swallow the organic food,".
	www.the-scientist.com /2004/10/11/6/1 (518 words)

	Strange Bedfellows
		Like Lord May, Sense about Science’s Chairman Lord Dick Taverne argues that journalists are far too easily led on issues like GM by those who "have committed themselves to beliefs which have assumed the status of dogma." The media's "sloppiness" on GM, he warns, is actually "undermining the health of our democracy."
		Sense about Sciences Chairman Lord Taverne was among the Forum’s members, as was David Boak of the Royal Society and Living Marxism-stalwart Dr Michael Fitzpatrick.
		According to Lord Taverne, even organisations as mainstream as the National Consumer Council base their opposition to GM "on ideology".
	ngin.tripod.com /190303d.htm (2565 words)

	Deltoid » Spreading the DDT hoax (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		Kristof at least has the excuse that he has to bang out a column a week and doesn’t have the time to properly research them.
		Taverne does not have that excuse since since his column is an extract from what would seem to be a rather poorly researched book.
		Oh god please make it stop … this is worse than the tide of Lancet denialists.
	timlambert.org /2005/03/ddt5 (2036 words)

	Are Genetically Modified Foods Safe \| Lord Dick Taverne \| Biotechnology and the Environment \| Genetically Modified Crops
		very beneficial to the environment,” says Taverne, a former member of Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, who is excited about the link between biotechnology and the environment.
		Lord Taverne is founder of the charity Sense About Science, which promotes an evidence-based approach to scientific issues and the public understanding of scientific research.
		He is the author of The March of Unreason: Science Democracy and the New Fundamentalism.
	www.monsanto.com /biotech-gmo/asp/experts.asp?id=LordTaverne (977 words)

	syngenta cuts (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		Lord Taverne -- Dick Taverne QC -- currently a member of the House of Lords' Science and Technology Committee, speaks out on the proven benefits of genetically modified (GMO) crops following a decade of commercial use on more than one billion acres worldwide.
		But it's got to be based on evidence," says Lord Taverne, who expounds on those views in a new video at biotech-gmo.com.
		And, if it reduces the amount of farmland you have to use, it can actually be very beneficial to biodiversity.
	www.checkbiotech.org /blocks/dsp_document.cfm?doc_id=12061 (244 words)

	UK Peer Speaks Out on GM Crops : ArriveNet Press Releases : Industry (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		LOUIS, MO -- (Market Wire - Jan 19, 2006) -- Lord Taverne -- Dick Taverne QC -- currently a member of the House of Lords' Science and Technology Committee, speaks out on the proven benefits of genetically modified (GMO) crops following a decade of commercial use on more than one billion acres worldwide.
		"The evidence is fairly clear on certain points," Lord Taverne, a former member of Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, continues.
		Lord Taverne's exclusive interview can be found at Monsanto's "Conversations About Plant Biotechnology" website: www.monsanto.com/biotech-gmo
	press.arrivenet.com /industry/article.php/742310.html (315 words)

	Believe in Facts not Fads
		If the new religion spreads, much of the progress that science brings could be jeopardised.
		· Dick Taverne is the founder and chair of Sense About Science.
		He is the author of The March of Unreason, published this week by OUP at £18.99.
	www.monsanto.co.uk /news/ukshowlib.phtml?uid=8732 (719 words)

	Essays: 'Political climate' by Dick Taverne \| Prospect Magazine August 2005 issue 113
		It is possible to accept the findings of the intergovernmental panel on climate change that global warming is a reality, and has a big man-made element; and also to believe that Kyoto is not the right answer
		Dick Taverne is a Liberal Democrat peer and the author of 'The March of Unreason" (Oxford University Press)
		To most of the media, and even some senior scientists, the debate about global warming is over.
	www.prospect-magazine.co.uk /article_details.php?id=6970 (399 words)

	Mnet :: Lord Dick Taverne Says Biotech Crops Create Environmental Benefits
		Taverne QC -- currently a member of the House of Lords' Science and
		Taverne, who expounds on those views in a new video at
		Lord Taverne is founder of the charity Sense About Science which
	mpelembe.blogware.com /blog/_archives/2006/1/19/1714703.html (446 words)

	Dick Taverne Books - Signed, used, new, out-of-print
		Dick Taverne Books - Signed, used, new, out-of-print
		In The March of Unreason, Dick Taverne expresses his concern that irrationality is on the rise in Western society, and argues that public opinion is increasingly dominated by unreflecting prejudice and an unwillingness to engage with factual evidence.
		Discussing topics such as genetically modified crops and foods, organic farming, the MMR vaccine,...
	www.alibris.co.uk /search/books/author/Dick_Taverne (164 words)

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