The ballad of ... dammit, please don't sue me

Now here’s a tale to make you sweat
Which as you sleep may nightmares bring
A drama you won’t soon forget
The trial of Dr Simon Singh

A man who stood his beliefs
Who for science and reason fought
And for those views he came to grief
At the mercy of the libel court

As he researched his latest work
On chiropractor’s health careers
He found diverse, unproven quirks
And some claimed quite bizarre ideas

(If your kids suffer chronic ills
Like earache or asthma attack
Forget those nasty drugs and pills
It’s helped by massaging their back?)

And so he wrote of what he found
In order to start free debate
Discussion based on data sound
To reason and deliberate

But when this reached the BCA
Instead of defending with grace
They found a way to make him pay
And hit him with a libel case

The High Court Judgment then decreed
His written statements were of fact
He would need firm proof to succeed
This ruling had a huge impact

A verdict that would stifle speech
Allowing quacks to ply their trade
It limits open debate’s reach
No chance to argue, weigh, persuade

And though that’s now been overturned
(A task which cost 200k)
The lessons have not yet been learned
The law on critics still can prey

If libel laws are still so strict
To stifle science in it’s tracks
And don’t allow reasoned conflict
Well, surely then, that law still lacks?

But while there are before the court
More cases lined up, in a string
This verdict gives them some support:
The victory of Simon Singh