In an attempt to escape the never-ending barrage of political news this week, I decided to seek refuge in a podcast or two. Perhaps a comedy programme? Too much satire, I thought. Even the comedians have gone Brexit crazy. What about a science discussion, I mused? No such luck as the topic was the statistics of election polling. I took a deep dive into the archive to find an episode on Lucretian poetry in the first century bce.1 Wonderful! I silently exclaimed, 2000 years is just enough distance from contemporary politics to escape.
I was transported to the collapse of the Roman Republic, where Epicurean philosophy was being extolled in poetic verse.
‘Leaders seemed more concerned about competing with each other, than uniting for the stability of Rome’, explained the presenter.
‘During a time of political turbulence, when powerful, wealthy people were willing to create chaos just to achieve their personal ambitions.’ Blimey, had I accidentally switched to The Today Programme? Oh no, wait, this was still the podcast.
‘The elite groups cared little for the ordinary people until it came time to buy their votes with promises to increase the “dole” of grain; just enough to seem generous.’
I gave up and accepted that this clearly is the nature of things, then and now. So, what is the increased ‘dole’ of grain this election? Surely it is the same as every post-war election: the NHS. This election campaign, however, the medical community seems quieter than usual. Perhaps because the main political parties are offering to increase the budget for the NHS, just enough to seem generous.
- © British Journal of General Practice 2020
