Circles of Hell: researchers' nightmare or laps of the regulatory pentathlon?

Abstract

I doubt that personal spats between foot-soldiers will further solutions to the research governance problems unmasked by Paul Stewart and myself in the BMJ last year [1]. Almost 1 year on, I believe progress is unlikely until the monarchs with the money at grant foundations concede that their largesse is being wasted and take sanctions against the robber barons among regulators. What follows therefore is a mere exhibition joust, aimed mainly at our common and worst foe, RD their incompetence and intimidation were not fully manifest at the time of my article [2], but were exposed by the unanimous obloquy directed at them during the meeting of National Institute of Health Research Senior Investigators in April at the Wellcome Trust (http://www.nihr.ac.uk/files/pdfs/DismantlingBarriersWorkshop.pdf).