Julian Rhind-Tutt (Dr. Mac in Green Wing)
'It's a hot sunny May morning and your 6' 2" Scandinavian
girlfriend/boyfriend has suggested you spend the rest of the day
in bed. Should you lie back and think of England in its unparalleled
period of post-war stability and prosperity ... or, as I have
had to do at countless local and national elections, say: "No,
please excuse me, Eva, I must rush down to my local primary school
where a selection of eccentric, rosetted sociopaths are waiting
to beckon me into a cardboard cubicle, where I must mark a small
piece of photocopied paper with an X, in order to reduce an unstoppable
11,000 vote majority to 10,999."? Who knows, it may irrevocably
affect the colour of my recycling bags. It's a tricky one.
The dominant Channel 4 news story of the last two years has been
a war ... ostensibly to secure the fundamental human right of
a country to determine its own future. There are many compelling
arguments about the unjustness or illegality of the war and how
it was conducted. But I'm concerned here only with the larger
aspiration of helping others to achieve freedom and equality,
to eschew repression. This is a worthwhile struggle. Oddly, this
struggle is rendered almost completely worthless if you can't
be bothered to tear yourself away from Eva for an hour and stroll
down to your local primary school. It all seems a long way from
changing the world or defending democracy. But when apathy steals
in on a sunny afternoon, corruption and decay will surely follow.
I remember Eva once saying to me as she padded out to my roof
terrace, the silk sheet dropping behind her, and lowered her legs
for what seemed like an eternity into the warmth of the jacuzzi:
"It's only through the strengthening of our own democracy
that we can go on to defend the human rights of others"'
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