Anti-homeopathy: could it be fatal?

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It could simply be that I haven’t properly comprehended it, but my understanding of homeopathy is that a substance known to be harmful is added to water and then repeatedly diluted until there’s no trace of it left, at which point the water somehow retains a memory of the substance, and that memory, by being drunk, cures the original problem. It would be fair to say that opinions differ as to its efficacy. Science has, to date at least, been unable to explain how water retains a memory of a substance, let alone how that memory can then cure anything. Others swear by it.

The UK Labour government seems to be adopting a form of reverse homeopathy, whereby repeatedly strengthening the dose of the poison is deemed to be a cure. They are committed, for instance, to getting rid of the blight of child poverty, but their approach so far has been to increase the number of children in poverty by retaining the two-child cap on benefits, and now talking about withholding benefits from people deemed able to work, whether work is actually available to them or not. They are also opposed to pensioner poverty, and are tackling it firmly by deliberately reducing pensioner income. The scientific basis for the assumption that increasing poverty is the route to reducing it is even less clear than that for homeopathy, but at least drinking water, with or without a memory, isn’t actively harmful in itself.

The belief in what we might call ‘anti-homeopathy’ isn’t restricted to the governing party. The current main opposition party is suffering from its own version of the same affliction. In their minds, the best way to cure the problem of people not voting for them is to double down on all the reasons why people rejected them. The dose of ideological fervour on offer from Sunak simply wasn’t strong enough, apparently. There were reports yesterday that an opinion poll conducted by Electoral Calculus showed that a Conservative Party led by Robert Jenrick would win rather more seats than one led by Kemi Badenoch. Some foolish commentators have interpreted this as a boost for Jenrick, but they are not taking account of the anti-homeopathy which is currently rife amongst the dwindling number of party members. If what he has to offer might increase the likelihood of people voting for his party, then the dose he’s offering isn’t strong enough. It will surely be Badenoch’s chances which were boosted yesterday.

As to the real cure for this strange affliction currently infecting both parties, it appears there isn’t one. It will just have to work its way through the bodies of both parties until it reaches its conclusion. If we’re lucky, it might even turn out to be fatal.