State regulation of the psychologists, quis custodiet ipsos custodes

The Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments now has an Order to consider which, if passed, will put 13,000 psychologists onto the register of the HPC in July. This order is called The Health Care and Associated Professions (Miscellaneous Amendments and Practitioner Psychologists) Order 2009. It is simultaneously laid before the Scottish Parliament.

The Order relates to the General Dental Council, the Health Professions Council, and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of GB.

It includes governance changes which will effect the Council of the HPC. At the moment, HPC Council is made of members who are elected by the 13 professions already on the register plus 13 lay members who are appointed by Privy Council. This Order will remove the elected members and all will then be appointed by the Privy Council.

The power is moved (yet again) away from the people who practise, to a private group appointed by the Sovereign.

The explanatory memorandum puts it like this:
it is "to ensure that purely professional concerns are not thought to dominate its work"
"Regulators must be seen to be independent and impartial..."
"Doubts based on a perceived partiality have threatened to undermine .. trust"
"The regulators may be seen as partial ..."
"The composition is central to .. these perceptions"
"Regulators may be seen as partial to their professionals because [they] form the majority of their council or may be seen to be partial because their councils are thought to be elected to represent the particular interests of health professionals. Hence the moves to parity of membership and having independently appointed councils rather than professional members being elected by the profession." (Clause 7.1) [emphasis added]

There's a few things to note: these excerpts are all about manipulating an image rather than reflecting or establishing a system grounded in reality. It would be valuable to ask 'not thought by who?', 'perceived by who?' 'seen by who?', and 'on what occasion'? The vagueness does not encourage clear thinking. Second, the idea that purely professional objectives are a bad thing is odd. It sort of implies that the particular interests of health professionals are primarily against, and dangerously against, the interests of someone else. The vagueness leaves a nasty taste and encourages suspicion - abstract suspicion. Thirdly, the structure of the HPC is already predisposed towards destabilising the knowledge and practise of each of these groups of people, which makes it more likely that a group would to try to act in its own favour, to protect its boundaries, and to redefine its speciality - and all these things have already been insinuated as bad. An effective self fulfilling prophecy has been put in place which this new Order can only add to.

Couple this with the realisation that 13000 new people could be added to the register in summer, and that these people are working with other people's minds, and you have quite a prospect.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes - who will guard the guardians of the psychologists? The question has an infinite regress, remedied here by ... the Queen.

Philip Pullman and Fergal Sharkey at the Convention on Modern Liberty

Yesterday was the Convention on Modern Liberty - an extraordinary thing that happened in many cities in the UK and that brought together a very mixed bag of Brits. Lucky enough to live in London I was able to get a seat to see Philip Pullman deliver his 10 minutes worth of political poetry. He spoke from the heart - literally a voice of courage, speaking of courage: to act kindly, with good judgement, thinking of the long term, and not afraid of headlines in the Daily Mail. He said many memorable things:

"Joy does not flourish in the garden of anxiety."

"Acquiring modesty would give a proper sense of position in this world and remove the self-importance of politicians who think they are fighting an extensional war to defend western civilisation, when they are actually throwing their weight about behind the bike shed like playground bullies."

"When there came a threat from external nations a courageous nation would take a clear look at the danger and take realistic steps to avert it not take up a machine gun to defend itself against a wasp."

and most delightful of all:

"A modest Kingdom would have to think for a moment whether or not it was a republic, because its Royal family would be small and its members would be allowed to spend most their time in interesting careers as well as being Royal, their love affairs would remain their own business and people would always be glad to see them cycling past."

At the end of the day a small panel of writers and artists addressed those remaining. Fergal Sharkey was amongst the speakers, he is now Chief Exec of UK Music. He read out a clause from the Licensing Act 2003 which requires venues to fill in form 696 (or 57, or something) which insists on a risk assessment for any forthcoming performance of belly dancing, or live music etc. Two things stuck in my mind: first, the form required that names and addresses and other personal details of all of the performers be submitted to authorities two weeks in advance of the act. The second thing is that this law was passed into the practice of the majority of London Borough Councils seemingly without close scrutiny. Sharkey is now writing to various Councils asking them what on earth they think they are doing. His letters so far have received no reply.

I thought that his work exemplified the kind of courage Pullman calls for, once adored as a popular singer, he doesn't shirk from doing mundane work - reading through pages of legal documents, and following up the consequences and their preconditions. I think this way turns blunt acts of power into situated stories and re-introduces joy into a garden that might otherwise be overrun by anxiety. Inspiration, really.