I mean, how can a non-medic possibly challenge the views of a Doctor with a Knighthood, fellowship of a Royal College, and a first-name relationship with Royalty!
Even when he's expounding on issues he knows nothing about!
The delegates (about a dozen of us) included some of Europe's leading lights in healthcare systems development, and one oily little **** who was probably invited by mistake (yours truly).
Alas, my patience was as stretched as the elastic in Aegis's Calvin Kleins at the sight of a nude and coquettish nanny goat.
I felt obliged to respond. I started off OK (I think). I pointed out that one of his claims had been disproven in a recently published paper; published by his own Royal College at that.
I then went on to question whether he might restrict his more contentious observations to subjects within his own area of (undoubted and internationally renowned) expertise. I would not think of advising him on surgical procedures, so in turn, I did not welcome his garbled and ill-informed dismissal of my own particular field of work.
I pointed out that one of his more reactionary (wrong choice of word for the meeting, I now appreciate) statements contradicted research now universally accepted, and which had been carried out by one of the other delegates and my good self. He challenged (nay, dismissed) said research as 'poppycock'.
I now appreciate that at that point, calling him "a self-opinionated cUnt" could be seen as a lapse in self-control. The life-threatening, whiplash inducing turn of heads was a clue that I may have overstepped the mark. A bit. I was concerned that I may be turning red-faced at that point, but was pleased to see that he seemed to have lost the ability to maintain eye contact.
Being such a humble and sensitive type (Shuttup Darqflame!), I apologised for my inappropriate language, but maintained that his comments were ill-advised and inconsistent with his otherwise revered reputation as an academically sound professional.
We all waited for the sound of a soft breeze and the distant tolling of a bell. No tumbleweed was forthcoming to break the moment.
I had gone too far.
He then looked me full in the eye and said "Sir, you are the first person in over 40 years to call me a cUnt!".
A few seconds more of silnce.
Where was that fUcking tumbleweed when I needed it?!
He cleared his throat.
"Come to think of it" he said. "He was a cUnt as well"
His wink restored my heart-rate and the breath of the other delegates.
But he's still an cUnt!
