With an editorial stance has for a while been devoted to junk statistics and thuggery, the Lancet has long since ceased to be a publication that needs to be taken seriously. Numerous writers have successfully attacked the statistical bases of a Lancet article (obviously fast-tracked in an attempt to influence the US election) claiming that 100,000 Iraqi civilians had died in Iraq as a result of the invasion and subsequent fighting, and shown them to be nonsense.

Time, I think, for the editor to do the honorable thing, follow Dan Rather’s example, and resign.

Oh, Dan didn’t?