Should there be drug advertising?

Root of most evil

While at school in south London I was a communist. I sometimes imagine myself explaining what that means to my grandchildren, which, as far as I know, I don't yet have. It will seem as strange as having believed in the phlogiston theory. I do have the excuse that one reason I joined the communists was to meet girls and even kiss them (that's all we did before sexual intercourse was famously invented in Hull in 1963 and even later in south London). But I did care passionately about world poverty and injustice, racism, and colonialism. I read Regis Debray's notes on guerilla warfare, learning how to keep my gun dry in the jungle. I believed that big business - as symbolised par excellence by pharmaceutical companies - was the root of most evil.

At medical school I swept into political power on a slogan that would have made Peter Mandelson envious: “Don't be thick, vote for Dick.” I sat on committees with other rebellious youths like Gordon Brown, illustrating that this …