Dear Lynne,

I have just read with interest that Evan Harris is the Liberal Democratic MP for Oxford West and Abingdon is leading the sceptic anti homeopathy 10.23 campaign.
As a homeopath, a long term lib dem voter and a constituent I would be interested in your opinion on Evan Harris.

What is his role within the lib dems?
Will he influence your health policy if we have a hung parliament?
Does Nick Clegg understand what this Doctor is doing?

I am afraid that my long association with the lib dems is hanging in the balance.
I will campaign strongly against any lib dem denunciation of CAM medicine, as will my family.
I seek your assurances that the lib dems are not anti complementary medicine and would appreciate an honest take on Evan Harris.

This is an interesting link on Dr. Evans:
http://avilian.co.uk/2010/02/if-you-love-homeopathy-dont-vote-liberal-democrat/

I also note your signature on:
http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=33006&SESSION=885

Historic Liberals who supported homeopathy:

Herbert Henry Asquith, closely connected to loads of homeopathic supporters etc,

Joseph Albert Jack Pease 1st Baron Gainford, was an advocate of homeopathy, as was his first cousin Katherine Maria Routledge,

James Stansfeld, was on the Management Committee of the English Homeopathic Association,

Henry Charles Keith Petty Fitzmaurice 5th Marquess of Lansdowne, was on the Committee of the Association for the Trial of Preventative and Curative Treatment in the Cattle Plague by the Homeopathic Method,

William Ewert Gladstone, was a patient of homeopath James Manby Gully and Joseph Kidd

Culling Eardley Smith, was involved in the founding the London Homeopathic Hospital in 1849,

John George Edward Henry Douglas Sutherland Campbell 9th Duke of Argyll, laid the Cornerstone of the Henry Tyler Wing of the London Homeopathic Hospital on 30.6.1909,

George Henry Charles Byng 3rd Earl of Strafford, asked David Wilson to sponsor beds at St. George’s Hospital in return for conducting clinical trials into homeopathy at that hospital – an offer which was refused,

Lord Ronald Charles Sutherland Leveson Gower, a patient of Frederick Hervey Foster Quin, and he thanked Frederick Hervey Foster Quin for ‘saving him from the blue pills‘,

Henry Pelham Pelham Clinton 5th Duke of Newcastle under Lyme, was a patient of homeopathy, and his wife was a patient of Samuel Hahnemann in Paris, and he was a sponsor of Mary Jane Seacole,

Henry John Temple Viscount Palmerston, is listed in The British and Foreign Homeopathic Medical Directory and Record in 1853. Lord Palmerston’s wife was also a homeopathic patient,

Albert Edmund Parker 3rd Earl of Morley, and his wife were advocates of homeopathy (his father in law Robert Stayner Holford was a sponsor of homeopathy), and he was a patient of Allan Broman,

Granville George Leveson Gower 2nd Earl Granville, was a friend of Frederick Hervey Foster Quin,

Hugh Lupus Grosvenor 1st Duke of Westminster, was also a staunch advocate of homeopathy, he hosted British homeopaths in Grosvenor House for fundraising events (see The Convalescent Home in Eastbourne), and was an early Sponsor of the enlargement of the London Homeopathic Hospital, eventually completed by Henry Whatley Tyler, he became a Vice President of the London Homeopathic Hospital in 1878, and in 1894, he gave orders to his agents that none of his properties in the West End of London should be leased to allopathic physicians, for fear they will drive away his fashionable tenants,

Joseph Chamberlain, worked with homeopath, journalist and historian J Ellis Barker,

Interested in homeopathic history? see http://homeopathy.wildfalcon.com/

Evan is anti-homeopathy, but my MP, Liberal Democrat Mike Hancock remains firmly a homeopathy supporter, despite my efforts to persuade him otherwise. If you happen to be in my constituency and want to vote for an MP who supports homeopathy, it does not mean that you should not vote Lib Dem.

If people want to make homeopathy a voting issue either way, they could do worse than look at signatories of EDM 1240, supporting funding of NHS homeopathic hospitals. Amongst the signatories are some extremely prominent members of all three major parties – in the Liberal Democrat case here’s a few:
Mark Oaten, Lembit Opik, Chris Huhne, and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg.

Evan might be the Liberal Democrat science spokesman but that does not mean that the Lib Dem candidate in your constituency agrees with him at all.

Here’s a better idea than simply checking EDM 1240 – why not ask *all* your candidates if they support homeopathy? And then if that’s an important factor in your voting you can do so fully informed. As a skeptic it’s what I’d do, and I’d hope homeopathy supporters do it as well. Our democracy is important and we have to make sure we vote in an informed way to make it work.