Chameleon Magazine

You can’t book an appointment, you can’t find a GP—and now, you can’t even spot one on the picket line. Has absenteeism become a strategy?

🪧 Strike Lite™: Now With 90% Less Presence

Remember the miners’ strike? Wall-to-wall picket lines, chants echoing down the valleys, union leaders with megaphones welded to their hands. It was full-on, gritty, industrial action with the visual impact of a Cold War documentary.

Now compare that to the medical strike scene of 2025:

• A lonely placard on a folding chair
• A Starbucks cup resting on the base of a picket sign
• Maybe one doctor in a Patagonia fleece waving at passing traffic before nipping back into a Prius

Where is everyone?

Are they at home?

Are they inside the hospital, quietly working?

Or are they unionised in shifts, strike action by rota—one stethoscope at a time?

It’s hard to get behind a movement that feels like it’s been outsourced to a WhatsApp group and a passive-aggressive email footer. You’d half expect to see:

“Out of Office: Currently striking. Will reply within 5-7 working days, unless the rota says otherwise.”

And this is not to belittle the cause. Doctors are overworked, underpaid, and buried in admin. But if you’re going to strike—strike like you mean it. Because right now the optics say: “We demand justice… after brunch and a well-earned nap.”

🔥 Challenges 🔥

Does the GP strike lack teeth, or is this the modern face of protest in a gig economy world? Have we replaced picket lines with polite disapproval and out-of-office messages? Vent your confusion, frustration, or support—right in the blog comments below. 🧠💬

👇 Like, comment, share—and if you spot an actual doctor on a picket line, post a picture before they vanish again.

📝 The wittiest takes and sharpest burns will be featured in the next issue of the magazine.