A Tory MP has said the NHS could use astrology to treat its patients, while branding anyone that doesn’t believe in it "racist" (that’s astrology – as in the belief that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world).
David Tredinnick (who sits on both the Health Select Committee and the Science and Technology Select Committee) said on Tuesday that divination could have a "role to play in healthcare" and that employing prophecy in 21st century medicine could relieve "pressure" on doctors". In an interview with the Astrological Journal, the MP for Bosworth in Leicestershire said: "I do believe that astrology and complementary medicine would help take the huge pressure off doctors."
"Ninety per cent of pregnant French women use homeopathy," he said. "Astrology is a useful diagnostic tool enabling us to see strengths and weaknesses via the birth chart. And, yes, I have helped fellow MPs. I do foresee that one day astrology will have a role to play in healthcare," though he admitted "there would be a huge row over resources" were the pseudoscience employed within the NHS.
The controversial Conservative said that people unconvinced by astrology – that’s the predicting of terrestrial events from celestial observations – were "bullies", adding that the practise was "based on thousands of years of observation".
He continued: "I think it is a great pity that so many scientists today are dismissive of right-side brain energy, such as intuition. People such as Professor Brian Cox, who called astrology 'rubbish' have simply not studied the subject. The opposition (to astrology) is based on what I call the SIP formula - superstition, ignorance, and prejudice."
'Mystic Tred': "Astrology is a useful diagnostic tool enabling us to see strengths and weaknesses via the birth chart'
Tredinnick said: "It tends to be based on superstition, with scientists reacting emotionally, which is always a great irony. They are also ignorant, because they never study the subject and just say that it is all to do with what appears in the newspapers, which it is not, and they are deeply prejudiced, and racially prejudiced, which is troubling."
In response, Liberal Democrat Michael Mullaney, who is opposing Tredinnick in May's General Election, said: "Will Mr Tredinnick ever stop? With all his talk about astrology he is letting local people down by denying them a voice in Parliament on the big issues."
He went on: "We need an MP who will speak up on the importance of employment, decent wages, pensions, improving the education system, transport issues, saving green spaces. What we don't need is an MP who is making our area a laughing stock with his utterly ridiculous obsession with astrology."
It is not known whether Tredinnick's Tuesday horoscope predicted the savage backlash he was about to endure on Twitter.
Here are 6 other policy ideas David Tredinnick might like to suggest:
- The treasury to employ an alchemist to restock Britain’s gold reserves.
- Foreign policy to be shaped by an analysis of the bumps on Putin’s head.
- Unemployment to be reduced by mapping job centres according to Feng Shui.
- Ukip’s non-immigration policies to be located with divining rods.
- The national debt to be reduced by rubbing it with a potato.
- Russell Grant to be unveiled as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions