Despite all the furore that Chancellor George Osborne’s controversial first budget caused last week, there’s one area which the British Medical Association (BMA) have conclusively agreed should be the subject of government expense no more: homeopathic remedies.

Homeopathy, a 200-year-old system of treatment, works on the basis that substances which cause certain symptoms can also – once diluted – be used to cure those very symptoms. So, because onions make your eyes run, they’re also a fantastic cure for hayfever.

At least, that’s what homeopathy would have you believe.  The truth is that, as a number of studies have shown, homeopathic remedies are useless beyond their placebo effect. In fact, they may even be a source of danger. One GP, Dr Mary McCarthy from Shropshire, believes that such “remedies” can actually “do harm by diverting patients from conventional medical treatments.”

By James Kemp