the public, and who it is protected from

The phrase 'to protect the public' gets bandied around a lot, but even with only a small pause one is confronted with a number of problems. What is it - this thing so readily and easily called the public? What must it be protected it from - what is the threat that is imagined?

In the fitness to practice hearing for the absent Mr S (see blog below), I had occasion to ask Mr W how the HPC understood what they meant by 'protecting the public'. Although he had no ready answer for this he did me the courtesy of improvising. 'We don't survey the public to discover a meaning, it's a kind of ideal I suppose; we have lay members, that's what they are for, and everyone is also, of course, a member of the public'. Everyone is also a member of the public. Yes.

More than once I have had the impression that I am in the presence of the invention of some kind of a new religion. Conjuring up an idea of 'what the public will think if they saw this' is rather like "what would god think if he saw me do this?" There are important differences, of course, but the functioning of an Ideal in order to govern behaviour is a very large part of the work of these FTP panels.