Comment: No fuss, we're British

Something is moving in middle England and it is about time too. An innate compulsion to play by the rules is a characteristic of the British psyche and it has worked against us for years.

The unstoppable rise of spin, litigation and regulation has left many people in this country flatfooted in their action to changing circumstance and we seem unable to kick up a fuss or act on emotion.

We watch impassively and inactively as French farmers wrestle with bird flu safe in the knowledge that the next duck breast we buy may have come from Perigord or Perpignan. It matters little to us what action was taken by our cordial cousins when the UK was struck by BSE, or how long it lasted. There are rules and we'll stick by them until someone tells us otherwise.

The optical profession fought long and hard to secure the regulation of spectacles and more recently contact lenses. This has been done not through some avaricious curtailment of competition but because it was the right thing to do for the benefit of the patient. It has been an open secret that the rules concerning the supply of spectacles and contact lenses on the internet are being flouted. You don't have to be an internet wizard to find cosmetic or prescription contact lenses and glasses freely for sale online with little clinical backup.

This week a group of practitioners objected to the GOC on this issue and laid out clearly the impact this will have on the standing of the profession (see News page 5). A spokesman for the group said it was about time someone took a lead and Optician applauds the group for that.

If it is any consolation, it isn't just optics that is undergoing a mood change. Fans of The Archers, an everyday story of country folk, will have heard Caroline Pemberton, the embodiment of Britishness, plead with her partner to 'stop being so British about it', over their failed house sale. How far will this trend spread to change the lives of everyday optical folk?