Give it another decade, and the people who are optimistic about the MRC Proposals, and about these Minutes of the APPG meeting , will have learned to read the double speak and rhetoric that has been spouted for the last two decades!
We have heared it all before - and learned to read the evasive-but hopeful scamming speech from the MRC and APPG
Maybe you have another decade to wait but I don't.
Those of us who have bothered to investigate and analyse the UK ME MRC ETC politics of the last decades are NOT impressed.... Just more evasiveness and double speak..
I heared Professor Holgate speak at the RSM Conference of August 2008 about his plans for ME research - these MRC proposals are nowhere near what was spouted by Prof Holgate in 2008.
Please wake up peeps and stop being so grateful for crumbs (especially when the crumbs are not spent on Neuro-ME) and try not to take what the MRC/APPG/ETC state at face value.
Do research the MRC/ME history and the history of the APPG - to identify where we are being scammed again, fudged again, and lead up the garden path, again!
I don't think that any of us are under the impression that everything is rosy, Wildcat.
The MRC funding isn't nearly enough to make a difference. The funding should be in the region of 100's of millions to make a difference to our lives.
But Steven Holgate did promise us some ring-fenced biomedical research funding for ME, and he's delivered some proper biomedical research, even if they're not absolutely perfect studies.
They've said that they will continue to fund ME research, and based on their recent actions, it seems that's what they mean.
Maybe I'm being naive and overly optimistic, but I'm just judging the situation by what I've witnessed.
This situation seems like a transformation from the total lack of funding over the past few years, and the funding of the PACE Trial.
And I don't think what they are currently saying is a scam... They've done exactly what they said they would do...
And they seem to understand what needs to be done when they say:
"Work is now being done to establish the pathogenesis, disease pathways and biomarkers of M.E."
That's not a case of fobbing us off with psycho-babble or double-meanings, although I do agree that everything is not perfect.
A couple of odd things were said, such as about the NICE guidelines, but the most important thing is that they are funding appropriate research, although not all the funded research is what we want and need.
I'm in no doubt the these establishment people don't really understand the world of ME, and they often have twisted views about ME and ME patients.
But the most important thing with the MRC is that they are funding biomedical research.