Influencing power: ‘small p’ politics

For our 2024 ARC fringe, we hoped to stimulate discussion – among CSP delegates, council members and staff – about why an awareness of politics is important. This is true not only for our profession, but for our patients, community, and everyday lives.

So, what does ‘small p politics’ mean? Essentially, it’s the micropolitics of our daily lives. The everyday choices we make and how they shape who we are, how we identify with others, and the connections we have with our local community.

We opened with a quote from novelist, writer and journalist Martha Gellhorn:

People often say, with pride, I’m not interested in politics. They might as well say, I’m not interested in my standard of living, my health, my job, my rights, my freedoms, my future, or any future. 

‘If we mean to keep any control over our world and lives, we must be interested in politics.’

Kenryck Lloyd-Jones, CSP public affairs manager, outlined how active engagement by members has already influenced local healthcare decision-making. This in turn has impacted the lives of members’ families, friends, and others in their own communities. 

CSP regional steward Claire Craig continued by exploring where we look for political information. 

We considered the reliability and biases of the information we find, and how this in turn influences our thoughts, beliefs, and actions.

Delegates had a lively discussion about the power of simple political actions, such as generating conversations within our own staff rooms, writing to our local MPs, and raising issues through our workplace stewards and safety reps, regional and diversity networks, country boards and CSP Council. 

The session demonstrated we can all be politically aware with a ‘small p’, and how working together can influence change. 

Getting involved, on whatever scale we can manage, enables the activist hiding within us all.