New Head of RCGP provokes an angry Twitterstorm

This was the title of a Times Article  that appeared on Christmas Eve

''Put vaping under medical control, says GPs’ leader '' 

Dick Puddlecote immediately covered this in his own inimitable style here 

There's A New Idiot In Town  

I for one expected that would be the last we heard about this from the new head of the RCGP(Royal College of General Practitioners)  and here  .

But no, thanks to interventions from the likes of Lord Hunt (also President of RSPH) and presumably behind the scenes anger from RCGP members. 

A mini retraction was issued by the lady 

If one looks at her original quotations in the Times 

and 

Irrespective of whether one word was a mis-quote, taken out of context,the nature and tone of the quotations are perfectly clear to any reader,and what prompted my blog..Helen has badly misjudged here, and a speedy retraction and clarification is most definitely required. Whether through Chris Smyth the Times journalist, or via her own RCGP blog to confirm the agreed policy,either avenue needs pursuing asap.

The recent RCGP policy position was announced less than one month ago,and was commented upon in a previous blog which noted that every single respected Public Health body was e-cig supportive,with the exception of the BMA and a few noisy renegades.

''To vape or not to vape? The RCGP position on e-cigarettes'' 

The timing of this article in the Christmas- New Year  peak resolution period to Stop Smoking is particularly unfortunate,specialists in this field of study will be dismayed at the apparent naivety displayed.I could fling further mud at Helen, regarding her recent forays into the mass media.However that would be counter- productive,but I strongly suggest that she takes the wise and honourable step of a full retraction to clear this particular sorry mess up.

To conclude this,I leave this short but very cutting comment.

PS***

 My commentary assumed naivety and inexperience from Helen, and thus was of a charitable nature.However,there was a clear similarity in her commentary with that of the Public Health renegade element I mentioned earlier.If Helen has fallen under their influence, I suggest a rapid rethink is called for, as they are becoming increasingly isolated,so back the righteous and winning horse,....'You decide' !  

As another update this confusion at the RCGP resulted in this video from BBC South on the 4th January  the in video commentary was annoying, the accompanying general public comments truly mind-numbing in their ignorance and lack of empathy. 

**** noticed 26/7/17
Further updated , the RCGP website has removed any reference to the policy position from November that was 'reasonable' and any search on the website => fault page,..... thus leaving the commentary from Helen as the ONLY resource from RCGP covering the topic of Vaping. Does this adequately cover the complexity of the topic :- 'You Decide' 

'Moments' on Twitter :- An Aid to Info Gathering?

If like me you don't always spot what Twitter and Facebook 'updates' have actually done,please read on.

Once again a twitter conversation piqued my interest with a feature that has been on the twitter dashboard for months Moments wtf are they ? I had occasionally glanced through at the feature and decided(incorrectly) that there was nothing there of use.

Many thanks to Moments (read link)guru Norbert Zillatron  for his subtle guidance to allow me to scratch at the surface of what is actually possible with this feature. Within 24 hours I was producing this as an example of a quick 3 hour collection of anything I could locate on Battery Safety 

 The virtue of  any Moment that you produce, is that it updates itself in real-time when you add or edit it, entries can be moved up/down or removed at any time..

Ho hum I hear some of you saying .

What else is possible to build upon that , Neil Robinson suggested curated research links were possible :- accessible to anyone eg using a # like

#MomentsResearch or whatever, but endless possibilities are possible see here for my effort so far

There exists much knowledge out there on Social Media, google search,google scholar....etc etc Bill Godshall gives a comprehensive weekly update regularly published by Chris Price , there are Daily updates from Nicotine Science and Policy can we have too much information. Most of us bookmark pages and generally store away information on an individual basis on our devices.

What I see here is the germ of an idea that could result in a 'twitter persons library' and I advocate that we all embrace this notion of creating 'Moments'

****
 SEE  #CollectionOfVapingMoments - This is a very powerful feature that has the germs of an idea to create a central library accessible to anyone! At the moment about 10-12 moments exist in that collection #

IMPORTANTLY anyone can add their own Moment here on a topic that may be of General  Vaping Interest. We all have strengths+ weaknesses along with many varied interests, as long as the content is Vape related eg from DIY mixing up to high-powered research anything is fair game for inclusion.

The Library creation feature seems well-worthwhile pursuing, and may be a useful addition for any of the major Vaping Forums, where they could readily take away the useful links that are contained within. Maybe they could encourage their members to add their own Moments to the #CollectionOfVapingMoments? <<< Please examine the current content 

I hope this is a Sir Francis Drake moment of returning home with tobacco or potatoes from the New World rather than a blind-alley of fruitless effort. So some feedback would be more than welcomed

***
This was heavily modified on 16th December and may be updated again in the future

Two years ago a Fb group examined the feasibility of establishing a Library,some good thoughts but not actions were the fruitless result of that. Could the more computer literate readers examine the possibility of transferring all of these Moments elsewhere to a website that would allow a search function (or is that an impossibility?) Or examine other avenues to utilise these Moments??