www.smh.com.au/world/drug-company-says-s...-20120901-256rt.html

Growing up at the same time as many terribly stricken victims, as I guess many on OTF did, I have no idea whether this is any comfort or not, to those impacted.

Mrs. Sits is telling me they recently lost a court case and the apology is part of the fallout from this - apparently they knew of the birth defects but continued to promote the drug for another 18 months or so.

Fuckers.

"Thalidomide" was a common playground insult when I was at primary school, like "spastic". It was years before I knew what it actually was.

The high point of the Sunday Times, pre-Murdoch.

I am not sure what that last sentence means.

My only direct contact with thalidomide was a drummer in a band years ago. You would forget about until something like we couldn't borrow his drumkit because he had to have it set up specially, he had to keep his fags in shirt chest pocket because he couldn't reach them otherwise or him being the first person I knew with tattoos on his legs because his arms were stunted.

In the meantime, he has become a fairly well-known actor, performance artist,was drumming on "Spasticus Autisticus" at the Paralympics opening ceremony and has recently married a burlesque dancer. However, he was always a very strong-minded guy who was driven and focussed. I wouldn't say he was at all representative of all those with thalidomide, if anyone could be. I also obviously never asked him whether he would have preferred being born 'able-bodied'.

I am not going anywhere with this really but I will be interested to see if he mentions it on Facebook

The news has been showing old b&w film of children with thalidomide playing together - absolutely heartbreaking.
The BBC news said there were 2000 children born with it effects between 1958 to 1961, but only 470 are still alive.
So, over 75% under 50 years-old have died because of this. I hope this apology is the first step to a full compensation for all concerned.

Thalidomide:
The Sunday Times reports ...

The 'Insight' team had a real commitment to investigative journalism at the time. This did not involve phone-hacking or Hugh Grant.

As Mat Fraser once wrote

"talk to the flipper, cos the face don't care".

tee rex wrote:



I suspect Bored was suggesting that you can read "The high point of the Sunday Times, pre-Murdoch" as meaning the Sunday Times has had other notable highs, post-Murdoch. Which I guess wasn't what you were trying to imply.

No, I genuinely meant that I didn't know what it meant so thanks for the clarification

tee rex wrote:


One kid in my class's insult of choice was "flids". None of knew what the fuck it meant until we were about 17 or 18.

Dame Harold Evans's Insight team was eventually broken up with great glee by Murdoch's chief hatchet man of the time, the vampiric Richard Searby. Whether this happened because Murdoch simply wanted to save an extra couple of million pounds a year, or because ts investigations were pissing off too many of his friends, remains unclear.

Evans writes about it at length in his two memoirs, Good Times Bad Times and My Paper Chase. Both books are well worth picking up, even if he has sadly turned into a bit of a neocon in his twilight years.

Reclaiming the insult