Two days ago, I published a blog that I have just deleted. The backstory involved turned out to be extremely complicated, far more complicated than I could have imagined, and having received an explanation for what happened, which was that one publication led to another that led to another and both were criticised, and then both amended their texts to try and correct problems with each of them, back and forth several times. I had only seen the two original pieces. Not unusual, probably, for newspaper and e-newsletter readers, but I wrote the blog based on the originals, and so created a problematic interpretation of my own and ended up throwing yet another flawed understanding into the pot.

I’ve decided not to try and explain the issues or comment further, so I have deleted the blog entirely. I hope those of you who read it will simply take it from me that I didn’t get it right either, and that I do not want anyone to be misled by what I said. In short, forget you ever read it. I can’t share the letter I received about the whole story, but it taught me a lot about being really careful when writing summaries of other people’s work, because they involve not just repetition of what someone else wrote but rewording of it and probably inevitably interpretation of it, and how that can go wrong when: a) a lot of people are involved, b) there isn’t necessarily evidence for everything that was said, and c) the subject is highly controversial. Whew!

If you didn’t read the blog, it’s just as well. Don’t ask!!