Ian Lamb writes: ‘
The rest of this newsletter is devoted to the full text of an article written by “Jock” Sutton (I am indebted to Alan Trinder for forwarding it to me). I was going to to edit it, to make room for another feature, but as I read it time and time again, I had to accept that it was as lean a piece of writing as one could achieve and I could not find a single word which could properly be discarded.
Jock was a great influence in and on my life. I still remember much of a term devoted by him to having his class listen to a play by Sean O’Casey, “Juno and the Paycock”, if my memory serves me: my introduction to to 20th century theatre at a time when the the A Level set books were no more recent than the 19th century. More than that however, was the enormous importance of his teaching for A Level overcoming my natural intellectual laziness and enabling me to achieve a grade A.
That in turn just managed to get me an interview at university, resulting in a conditional offer, which I managed to fulfil after a third year in the 6th form. A law degree followed and then a career in the law as a barrister and a judge. It is not an exaggeration to say I owed it in part to Jock. Perhaps he got through to me because my father was a Scot, with a broad Aberdonian accent, and these were the only two Scottish accents in my life, both of them influential and beneficial.
A further reason for including the whole article is that it could have been written yesterday, certainly in respect of the discussion of the NHS; and the reference to the harmful effects of cars will resonate with those who live in and around Oxford! How ironic, given the the economic benefits to Oxford of the car industry…’
Ian Lamb 2025
‘Time to ask what work is for – and how to make it more fulfilling
The link between science and public health is not always as direct as may at first be thought. Social progress such as improvements in diet and housing may bring more health benefits than progress in medicine. Nonetheless it is the spectacular medical breakthgrough that hits the headlines – antibiotics, transplants, new techniques of diagnosis and surgical procedures using lasers and computers, and the latest ‘wonder drug’ to remedy our ills. Undeniably these have brought benefit to many and the demand for them is growing, and with the demand the cost, so that today’s NHS is staggering under the strain.
Well-wishers of the NHS will want to see these costs reduced, which should be possible if demand is reduced too. It is amazing to hear politicians boasting that, when they were in office, more operations were performed and more prescriptions issued than was the case under the previous regime. Surely, a main task of any government is to promote the health of the nation! And health is not just freedom from the diseases listed in a medical dictionary; it is a positive sense of wellbeing and fulfilment. Probably the heaviest demands on the NHS are made, not by the killer diseases such as cancer and heart disease, but by mental illness – the host of depressions, anxieties, phobias, and vaguely defined psycho-somatic disorders widely prevalent.
These can and should be alleviated by pills and, where appropriate, should be; but it is important to recognise the their roots lie largely in our lifestyle, particularly in the world of work. Just what are the effects of being thrown out of work, or feeling that this may happen at any time and that one’s work is trivial, pointless and inadequately paid? These are matters as open to scientific enquiry as the effects of coal dust on the miner or the radiation on the worker of a nuclear plant. We must begin to ask what work is for and how it can eb more fulfilling. A less insecure and less demoralised work force will be a healthier work force.
Further reduction in costs will be possible if progress continues in two somewhat similar campaigns; the drive against smoking, whose harmful effects science has established beyond all reasonable doubt, and the drive to freer cities as much as possible from cars. It is good that smoking is in decline among the population generally but ti is disturbing to learn of its increase among teenagers.
A ban on all tobacco advertising would be a step in the right direction, but more than this is needed. The problem mis admittedly a difficult one. It is not much use telling teenagers that they risk dying in middle age, for to teenagers middle age is unimaginably distant and teenagers are not adverse to risk anyway. Some novel approach is needed . Any suggestions?
Freeing cities from cars is an equally difficult problem but the rewards would be considerable; the elimination of the noxious fumes that exacerbate, if they do not directly cause illnesses such as asthma and bronchitis, the opportunity for people to enjoy the health promoting activities of walking and cycling, and a reduction in traffic accidents that make so great a demand on hospital and ambulance services.
But it won’t do to leave it all to the politicians; people must accept some measure of responsibility for their own health.
Here, some understanding of the working of one’s body and what is needed for its health can be a help. Motorists are usually interested to learn what goes on under the bonnet of their car but recent surveys have shown that most people have a very hazy idea of the location and function of the major organs of their own body. Few men, it seems, know where their prostate is, or what it does. Some are not even aware they have got one. Knowledge of what constitutes a balanced diet is not as widespread and it ought to be. Food fads and all sorts of unevidenced therapies abound and it is symptomatic of our scientific illiteracy that, to judge by the tabloids, millions of people know more about astrology than astronomy. It is reasonable to believe that a better informed public would be a healthier one.
So how can a basic understanding of such matters be obtained, particularly if someone like me in my ninth decade. and many others in the upper age groups have no education in biology? I warmly recommend recourse to the public library, a mine of information on science and social topics generally. At the time of writing, these valuable institutions in Oxfordshire still exist – if precariously.’
F W (Jock) Sutton 1998
This article won “Jock” the annual Science Writing Competition organised by the University and the Oxford Times in 1998