From Mr R. I. Hughes, MRPharmS
SIR,—Mr Fox’s letter (PJ, August 28, p321) makes for bleak reading, the more so when one considers that he is writing of our own senate, parliament, duma, congress, synod — call it what you will. His words rekindle the smoulder of earlier, fiery letters and I might be forgiven for wondering if, with all this smoke about, there might indeed be something of the wrong sort of fire in the belly of our Council.
I would hesitate to guess at whatever it is that troubles Mr Fox the most.
He raises so many issues — but in his conclusion he focuses the lens of common sense and sanity most acutely and quite accurately upon the very heart of pharmacy’s woes. He says “at least half of the Council chamber should be made up of Council members elected regionally”.
In these 16 words Mr Fox expresses the means by which the Royal Pharmaceutical Society might enter the 21st century in parallel, at last, with just about every other senate, parliament, duma, congress or synod on the face of this globe. For over a century, our august body has somehow imagined that it might achieve and maintain a stable, reputable, progressive and dynamic presence in society governed itself by a totally unrepresentative body.
How can we ever have imagined that a group of individuals picked like rabbits out of a hat might provide the strong, accountable and representative leadership that we so sorely need? Not one of your readers, Sir, can point to any member of Council and say “this is my representative” or, “this is the member who will address the issues that I and my local colleagues have raised” or, “this is the member we can call to account”. Not one member of our Council can listen to or address a group of pharmacists and say “these are the people who elected me to office” or, “these are the people to whom I am directly accountable”.
“We”, the body of the membership, are not a collective entity that is able to lobby “them”. “We” are a large, disparate, scattered and disorganised collection of members and voters. “They” are a central, self-focused and unstructured body. Their own cohesion is absolute because there is no representational subdivision. “We” put them there as a whole unit and we, as individuals or as a group of like-thinking individuals, cannot lay claim to any of them individually. Each of us has to make our own weak and isolated appeal to the whole of them. Regional representation would at least start to put this right.
My arguments are imperfectly expressed; they are themselves imperfect for want of detail. I know for sure, however, that many of my colleagues will hasten to paint in that detail. I contend most strongly that it is this imperfection of the system that contributes more than any other to pharmacy’s blight. Without a truly representative and accountable leadership we are all but leaderless.
R. Idris Hughes
Trefriw, Gwynedd