When Optician carries out subscriber research, one section that readers really seem to appreciate is Letters and a healthy Letters section can be seen as a sign of a healthy magazine. This was equally true when looking at the issue of Optician on March 10 1939.
The leader column points out that back then several first-rate debates were taking place in the columns on subjects from both the technical and opto-political spheres. In March of 2014, to date, Optician’s Letters pages have concentrated on a subject area that has truly struck a chord – LOCSU missing out on the DVLA contract. What we also share with our predecessor is a willingness to provide a forum for discussion across the profession and industry. As it was put in 1939: ‘The Optician is the organ of expression for the whole optical profession and for all whose interests and vocation are ancillary to the profession. Our correspondence columns are open to all honest expressions of opinion or statements of fact on any subject that concerns opticians.’
In some ways, little has changed in over 70 years. Look then to the concluding section from 1939 which speaks of an ‘urgent need of a truly representative body’. I will leave it up to present-day readers to answer whether that has been achieved in the intervening years. I suspect the 1939 writer, if viewing the profession today, would be surprised by the sheer number of optical bodies and organisations currently sitting. However, the assertion that ‘Distractions and artificial emphasis on affairs of relatively minor importance threaten the current project to create a truly representative body’ may no longer hold true.