I have a piece in today's Times on Dr Hamish Meldrum and the BMA. Here's an extract:

...When we think of bloody-minded unions, it's the likes of Jack Jones and Bob Crow that usually spring to mind. But when it comes to feather-bedding, screwing the public and a rigidly focused protection of its members' interest at the expense of everyone else, no other union comes close to the the British Medical Association.

Yesterday Hamish Meldrum, the BMA's chairman, added another string to its bow: cruelty. Speaking about the current rules governing co-payment - patients forced to pay privately for drugs denied by the NHS are then deemed non-people and refused any further NHS treatment - Dr Meldrum said the NHS should not treat patients who have paid for drugs themselves: