THERE BUT FOR FORTUNE

By Lesley Morrison
Contact the author by e-mail at christopher.johnstone@ntlworld.com

Out of our papers last week stared the dark sad face of a man in Niger crouched in front of two dead animals in a barren landscape. The caption read, "Sorry to bother you. Any chance of turning that thermostat down a degree?" The message? We can make a difference to climate change. "No-one ever made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he thought he could only do a little".

The text of the ad, funded by Christian Aid, went on to encourage readers to go to their website (www.climatechanged.org) and download posters giving actions for our workplaces. "Want to do something? Good, we need people like you" In other words, join the club. We're all in this together. Through the environmental crisis there's a good chance we may discover our sense of society and shared responsibility. As Phil Hanlon, professor of public health at Glasgow University, said in a recent Glasgow Herald article about poverty, "During the Second World War people pulled together and changed because there was a bigger threat. The ecological challenge is going to bring change. You could imagine a more even and cooperative society emerging". Today's BMJ editorial, "Our unequal society", states that, "reducing inequity is a global responsibility". There's a gathering tide of energy for belonging to this movement, this worldwide club.

There's another club of which we, as British citizens, are members of which we should not be so proud, the nuclear club. A club where possession of nuclear weapons earns you a place at the top table. Where you are seen to have international power and influence. Where dealing in death is the membership fee. Trident is a ticket to this top table. Worse, as Polly Toynbee recently wrote, "Trident is nothing about the defence of the country, it's about the defence of Blair". There's a high price to pay for this "defence", for our club ticket. An estimated £70 billion, loss of our national integrity by breaking international law. Also the loss of credible, hypocrisy -free influence in the world. How can we reasonably aim to deprive other states of club membership when we so value ours.

The message that a group of doctors and health professionals took to Faslane 365, the year-long protest at Faslane naval base, home of Trident was, "Treatment not Trident". The prescriptions for disarmament which we distributed offered "dialogue for disarmament". As doctors, we have the capacity and the right and the responsibility to speak out about health issues that are affecting our patients. Trident is a major public health issue and we should be speaking about it. Medact has been doing so for years. The BMA did it in 1983 when it published its report, "The medical effects of nuclear war".

The underlying issue is about democracy and the erosion of our democratic rights. The government is making major decisions on our behalf without any proper public or parliamentary debate. We see it in the health service, in nuclear power (thank you, Greenpeace, for achieving the legal judgment that the public "consultation" on nuclear power was severely flawed, lacked adequate information and needs to be repeated) and in nuclear weapons.

But it's changing. There is a growing reaction to inappropriate government control. The ecological threat, including that of nuclear weapons, is pulling people together. There are grounds for hope that a sense of society and shared problems, and potential shared solutions, is emerging. Selfishness may be going out of fashion. As Joan Baez said in her Usher Hall concert the other evening, "There but for fortune, go you, go I".

Medact, Britain's new nuclear weapons; Illegal, indiscriminate and catastrophic for health", www.medact.org

Faslane365: www.faslane365.org

Our unequal society BMJ 2007;334:432

Other hoolet online articles by Lesley Morrison can be found at:
hoolet edition 49 - Review: Reflective Practice Writing and
Reflective Development
hoolet edition 49 - Enjoyable Journeys
hoolet edition 45 - Read All About It
hoolet edition 43 - Whistle-Blowing
hoolet edition 38 - Hope For Palestine?
hoolet edition 36 - Letter To The Editor
hoolet edition 32 - Letters To The Editor
hoolet edition 27 - The Bag Lady
hoolet webextra - Edinburgh Restival Review

Other hoolet reviews by Lesley Morrison:
Reflective Practice Writing and Reflective Development

hoolet is the magazine of RCGP Scotland. It is supported intellectually, financially and emotionally by RCGP Scotland.

This issue maintained by Robert Hallam.