BMJ Group on Twitter

Normally, I find Twitter and those who follow me quite fascinating. I have Yoko Ono following me and numerous people - famous and not so famous. I have never quite cottoned onto microblogging probably because I am such a big mouth with too many things to say. Brevity was never my strong point as my English Teacher once told the class. 

This afternoon, I found the BMJ Group skulking around and following me. After my routine yearly scrap with them, I am surprised they even bothered. Yes, it put me in a very bad mood and I wasn't really impressed. I really wish they had not followed me because I really don't care what they do or say. They are vaguely a minor trinket to play silly games with when I am inordinately bored. I wrote for them once as well - having nipped under the radar to BMJ Careers and ended up with the lovely Graham Easton who had no idea who I was. Of course, hell broke loose when they did discover who I was. It had me howling with laughter and they were not impressed. They never are. In their tiny mind, I am a little Asian girl who always dares to challenge them in every forum. Not the done thing in most cases. Of course, the BMJ wonder why I dislike them - well, their behaviour has something to do with it - purposefully missing and deleting my name of  a paper I wrote with Bolsin, telling Neil Bacon that it was a mistake to hire me etc etc [ yes, I have the internal documents] then backing down on the point of libel, banning my Rapid Responses repeatedly so that they can have some cosmetic control over my apparent "unreasonable behaviour" then accepting the rapid responses under a different name. The BMJ are a joke. Then again, they have always been a joke.

My friend Rakesh Biswas - well, possibly ex friend now is currently in BMA House as some kind of editor for some kind of  BMJ section. This is so he can proudly write it in his CV so that people pat him on his back and tell him what a bright boy he is.  The good thing about friends is that you can delete them whenever they prove to be too much of an embarrassment to my world view. Rakesh decided some months ago not to become involved in a controversial case because he felt that his position with the BMJ had to be preserved. I went along with him of course. He ended up at the BMJ but decided that he would not admit to knowing me. This I can understand, we have only been friends for 8 years. Whats 8 years in the grand scale of the world.

Apparently, to certain Indians, the BMJ still holds the kind of Kudos and admiration. It is the kind of grovelling admiration that some Indians have for all things about the British Establishment. They feel that they have to bow and scrape as they used to do before the Last Days of the British Raj,

Some have not been able to accept the view that they are equal, if not better than the British Establishment.  From a completely different perspective, some Indians have not been able to break away from the fact that they are no longer subordinates to the British Raj. Independence happened for a reason. I cannot believe that so many people gave their lives for freedom only for a number of Indian doctors who continue this sickly grovelly attitude to publications like the BMJ. What is the BMJ? The BMJ is a mouthpiece for the British Establishment. It has failed hardworking British doctors and endless members of the ethnic minority. Despite all this, a large proportion of doctors pay the BMA to publish the BMJ.Why? If the ethnic minority had any self respect they would stop paying the BMA immediately. I stopped paying them in 1999. I reasoned that I wasn't going to pay an organisation for stabbing me in the back and representing my consultants.

Someone once suggested a new trade union with a new publication. For years, I have felt that this was a great and wonderful idea. Our problem is that many ethnic minority doctors have sold themselves to the British Establishment and effectively act as shoe shiners. The British doctors are too scared and gibber away under the scaremongering of the British Establishment. So, we all remain in a status quo - inactive and inert. Most doctors from the ethnic minority are largely like Rakesh - quite happy to watch their fellow colleagues and junior doctors being badly represented by the BMA and being blocked from the BMJ. 

In the end, this really is further evidence that Self Preservation rules most doctors. The status quo will never change as long as people remain shoe shiners for the establishment.