Sir Ivan Lawrence MP commons speech explaining fluoride is a neurotoxin but NOT fillibustering 1985

The longest 20th Century House of Commons speech was made by Conservative MP Sir Ivan Lawrence, who spoke for four hours 23 minutes against the Fluoridation Bill in 1985.

https://politicsthisweek.gn.apc.org/2025/04/not-the-bcfm-politics-show-presented-by-tony-gosling-236/

Sir Ivan, a barrister, was an experienced enough public speaker to keep extemporising on the topic, although his efforts were not enough to prevent the motion becoming law.
"I don't think I even had any water with me," he recalls. "It was the adrenaline that kept me going.
"Unfortunately, everyone thought this was a great wheeze.
"There were various people interrupting me - 'Is my right honourable friend aware that he's promised me a lift home tonight?' and so on."
A friend later told Sir Ivan he kept Hansard's transcript of the debate by his bed to help him get to sleep at night.
FLUORIDATION IS A BAD MEDICAL PRACTICE
1) FLUORIDE IS THE ONLY CHEMICAL ADDED TO WATER FOR THE PURPOSE OF MEDICAL TREATMENT

In pharmaceutical medicines which possess marketing authorisations, fluoride is classified as a drug when used to prevent or mitigate disease. As a matter of basic logic, adding fluoride to water for the sole purpose of preventing tooth decay (a non-waterborne disease) is a form of medical treatment. This converts potable drinking water into a prophylactic medicine. All other water treatment chemicals are added to improve the water’s quality or safety, which fluoride does not do.

https://newfc.org.uk/50-reasons-to-oppose-water-fluoridation

Three Courts of Law since 1958 have ruled that fluoridated water is a medicine. (The Supreme Court of Canada, 1958; Scotland, 1983; The Supreme Court of New Zealand, 2018). In England, a piece of Primary Law, the Medicines Act 1968 s.130, defines a medicine and although fluoridated water is not specifically mentioned, the definition of a medicine in the Act matches the physical state and intention of the compound created when an active substance (fluoride) is added to a carrier (drinking water). Shaw (2012) writes: “Water fluoridation is currently permitted [in England and Wales] by the Water Act 2003, but this appears to contradict legislation and regulations governing food and healthcare in the UK and the EU. It is concluded that the status quo rests on the legal fiction that fluoridated water does not constitute a medication.”