This morning began, as usual, with a large mug of coffee in my hand, my laptop on my lap and a cat on my shoulder. I like half an hour or so of peace & quiet before the rest of the family wakes up.

My gentle start to the day was interrupted, though, by reading the latest updates on the Autism Hub, in particular this comment about the MMR & Autism controversy:

But there can be no debate if one side not only refuses to listen to its opponents but is also deaf to relevant facts from independent sources that do not support its point of view.

Once again, all I can say is that both sides of the MMR debate have lost their minds. Both sides are so hell-bent on slinging mud at each other, destroying each others’ credibility and reputations, smearing each other until they are pointed at in the street and laughed at, that they make me sick.

The less said about the anti-MMR lobby, the better. I’m not interested in contributing to that bit of the debate.

But as for the “scientific” pro-MMR lobby, which has used the smokescreen of its own sanctimony to remove from the agenda the one or two valid questions about the MMR that they should be addressing – how bloody dare they imply that they are independent, disinterested and objective? They have exploited the MMR-Autism hysteria in order to silence any and all criticism of the triple MMR vaccine, and some of that criticism is valid.

The fact that a criticism is expressed by a discredited source, or a problem incidentally discovered during the course of a professional’s misconduct, does not make the problem go away. And if a scientist was really independent, disinterested and objective, then the pursuit of the truth would not be sacrificed in order to crush the dissenter.

So that little irritation got me in the ‘school mood’ this morning. Darling Wifey has been running around the house this morning, preparing for the imminent arrival of her mother – who is babysitting the kids during the training days. This involves doing things like hiding the school shirts we bought from the official uniform supplier last week, because grandma insists that the ones from Gateshead market are just as good and doesn’t want to know that school sends us letters of disapproval when our kids’ shirts aren’t exactly the same shade as their classmates’ shirts. So Darling Wifey is ‘in the zone,’ too.

Hi-ho, hi-ho…