The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7255 p888
28 June 2003

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Letters to the Editor

Onlooker

Is Onlooker appropriate?

From Mr P. A. Hardy, MRPharmS

I wish more people would read Onlooker, then perhaps more people would want to write in and complain about it. My latest irritation comes from his or her piece "Making a habit" (PJ, 14 June, p838). Onlooker decries the modern "habit" of two working parents in a household. He or she goes on to describe this practice as a parental "shortcoming." Since these comments appear in the final paragraph, perhaps Onlooker shares my instinct about his or her readers and their endurance.

Perhaps Onlooker should imagine a pharmacist in "modern society", starting a career with a young family, still shouldering debt from student loans, and trying to gain a toehold in the housing market. Would Onlooker then think maintaining two wages was a capricious "habit"?

My last paragraph shows that I assume Onlooker is older than me. If I am wrong I do not apologise — in spirit, if not in fact, Onlooker is middle-aged.

The two big questions I would like to ask are who is Onlooker and what is his or her remit? Is this "roving brief" with a tenuous scientific link appropriate in the news organ of pharmacy? I realise a broader view on life than just pharmacy is essential. To paraphrase C. L. R. James (Onlooker always enjoys a quotation), "What does he know of pharmacy, who only pharmacy knows?" But Onlooker's view is not broad; it is narrow, self-satisfied, and rather patrician. The column's themes — arcane prose, classical allusions, concern for rural England, a suspicion of working mothers, distaste for political correctness, etc — root it in "Middle England" territory.

The time has come to reconsider this column's place in The Journal. Although reliably providing a page of copy for the editorial team, it does not hold a grip on the membership. On the other hand, this section is probably more accessible to the casual, non-pharmacist reader than almost any other. Is this really how we want the rest of society to see us?

P. A. Hardy
Wakefield, West Yorkshire

Occupation not liberation

From Ms S. Tibi, MRPharmS

Although I often turn straight to the Onlooker page for the fascinating bits of information it contains, I do take objection to reference to the "liberation" of Iraq (PJ, 7 June, p800) when what has taken place is no more nor less than occupation.

Selma Tibi
Oxford

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