A few weeks ago, The College of Chiropractors, a Company Limited by guarantee, was given a royal charter...From my perspective, this begs numerous questions; here are just some of them: 1) Have UK chiropractors truly been promoting "high practice standards and certifying quality and thus securing public confidence"?  I would argue that they have been doing the opposite. They made bogus therapeutic claims by the hundreds on their websites, and when Simon Singh had the courage to make this public, they sued him for libel. Call me old-fashioned, but I fail to see how this maintains "the highest possible standards of chiropractic practice for the benefit of patients" nor how this might "promote the art, science and practice of chiropractic."  2) Is it truly for the benefit of the people that so many chiropractors deny the considerable risks of spinal manipulation? I would have thought that this is a serious disservice to the people and the health of the nation and believe it reflects an irresponsible disregard of the precautionary principle in health care.  3) How can we accord the high aims of the College with the fact that UK chiropractors demonstrably violate fundamental rules of medical ethics, e.g. informed consent, and that their professional bodies must be aware of this fact, yet have so far failed to do anything about it? I think there is a discrepancy here that needs explaining. 4) Does the College truly "advance the study of and research in chiropractic?" We have shown that UK research into chiropractic has not increased but decreased since statutory regulation. This leads me to suspect that regulation is being abused as a means of gaining recognition and not as a mechanism to protect the public.  Considering all this, I find that the status of the other Royal Colleges has been de-valued by the ascent of this organisation."   Edzard Ernst (1st March 2013)