How’s this for a grave accusation that I’d love to have thrown at me?

The editor of the Lancet medical journal has launched a public attack on the British Medical Association.

Dr Richard Horton accused the BMA of being insulting and cynical towards the government, and failing to represent ordinary doctors.

Now, I’m not getting into the nuts and bolts of the government/doctors’ union dispute, but I will say this: insult and cynicism are two things which can never be in too great a supply when talking of the government. Not just this government, but any government.

Insult, because – let’s be honest here – it’s fun to insult the self important, power hungry, own-grandmother-selling, amoral, twunts that make up the average cabinet. And it’s important, too, because if we didn’t release our feelings towards our public servants verbally, I suspect that more of us would be releasing them physically. Which would provide a massive drain on our public services (medically in the first instance, and then on the police to prevent a second instance).

And cynicism because, even if the government today was a pure as the driven snow and had impeccable aims, you can’t guarantee that the next one will, or the one after that. You have to look at their actions with the view: how could this be abused in the future. That is, you have to look at it cynically, or you’ll be opening lots and lots of Pandora’s Boxes.

So, if someone like Dr Horton was to throw that accusation at me, I’d have to buy him a drink. Because I’d be massively chuffed by his claims; I’d print it out and wear it as a badge of honour.