Political Theatre: Britain at Play

One week ago, Britain’s Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, left his office at 10 Downing Street and drove down the road to Buckingham Palace to ask the Queen to dissolve the House of Commons, the lower house of Parliament.

Even though this event had been long anticipated, its announcement triggered wild excitement among the press which reacted as if it had just been handed a new toy to play with.  All were now looking forward to four weeks of theatre that will culminate in a general election that everyone hopes will usher in a new government to guide the country over the uncertain terrain of the next few years. 

The excitement has been such that, sooner or later, someone was bound to get him or herself into a whole heap of trouble, as each candidate strives to outshine his/her opponent in making the extreme promises and extravagant gestures that they hope will work the magic with an apathetic electorate. 

And since this has been declared the first British general election in which campaigning finally entered the internet age, there is ample opportunity for candidates and cash-strapped parties to level an otherwise uneven playing field. But this age of opportunity also has its downside, and watchers have been sharpening their knives for the unwary who, out of an excess of fervor or a want of commonsense, inevitably trip themselves up. 

The first notable casualty is a candidate in a Scottish constituency who was foolish enough to twit that the elderly are “coffin dodgers.” Moreover, in another set of 140 characters he went on to say that when it came to bananas, he preferred the slave-grown and chemically enhanced variety rather than the fair-trade, organically-grown kind that, in his view, tasted like shit. With such strong opinions, never mind what he twitted about his own party colleagues and those in the opposition, it was not surprising, least of all to himself, that he was quickly disowned by the party to which he belonged  and told to seek his political fortunes elsewhere. 

So far, there has been little to differentiate the main parties from each other apart from the usual bluster and name-calling. However, one item that has generated quite a bit of frosh is the governing Labour party’s avowed intent to increase national insurance tax for workers in employment. The proposal has been roundly condemned by the other main parties, led by the Conservatives, which look upon it as a tax on jobs, a view that legions of business bigwigs have been quick to endorse. 

The major parties have now weighed in with their manifestos, slim volumes all, but containing material that the pundits have been quick to dissect and mock. But so far, there has been no hint of political murder or cries of potential electoral fraud. This is a great wonder, as those of us brought up on democratic processes in Africa look on with bated breath for the first signs of serious mayhem. Perhaps, the first ever TV debate between the three leading party contenders, which is to be held tomorrow night will see the first drops of blood being spilled. Metaphorically speaking, of course

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Tell Fren Tru

Finding a way out-Getting Serious about Research

I have recently returned from a long visit to Sierra Leone. Well, Freetown, if you want to be picky.

One of the things that bothered me while there was the appalling quality of the news reporting. My disappointment is against all sections of the news media, electronic as well as print. As for the latter, the least I say about it (for now), the better. I hope I shall find time to do a more comprehensive rant about it in the near future. For the electronic media, all that needs to be said can be distilled into a single lament: that even the BBC’s stringer in Sierra Leone’s second city, Bo, has been caught fabricating a story.


You might well wonder why I am starting a blog with a wail over the state of the press in Sierra Leone. In the best of circumstances anyone would have to have a whole bellyful of guts to take on the media. But I am not reckless. I feel forced to complain about it because of opportunities it so often loses in leading intelligent debate on issues of public importance. This time, the one that is being so badly managed is one affecting the public health; in particular, the government of Sierra Leone’s avowed intent to institute “free” health care for pregnant women, lactating mothers and children under the age of 5 come April 27 this year.


I am happy to state, however, that about the time when this initiative was beginning to cause serious difficulties for the government, a conference, addressing just this issue and others concerning why Sierra Leone has this terrible record on maternal and child health that has scarred the nation so these long years. The conference, organized by the Sierra Leone Health and Biomedical Research Group, brought together a number of researchers over a two day period at the Taia Resort Hotel, pleasantly situated along the sandy shores of the famed Lumley Beach, just outside Freetown.


Not distracted by the seductions of the blue waters and golden sands, the researchers, coming from places as widely dispersed as the United States National Institutes of Health, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the United Kingdom as well as Sierra Leone itself, tackled matters such as maternal and child health and other issues affecting women’s health. Other public Health issues that were discussed included cancers, malaria, epilepsy and some of the so-called neglected tropical diseases such as helminthic infestations, sickle cell and Lassa fever.


The most significant theme that ran through the symposium was a sense that an evidence-based methodology was essential for a rational approach to solving the myriad public health problems that face Sierra Leone, and that this was most likely to be achieved if research was conducted on a cooperative platform.


Many young students were present at the meeting and it was gratifying to note that their number included not only medical and natural science graduates and undergraduates, but also some in the social sciences as well. Perhaps a turning point may well have been reached for a multi-disciplinary approach that will incorporate the social sciences in the type of biomedical research that is going to be pivotal in solving our problems.

Tell Fren Tru