the occasional uses of troops whenstrikesstop essential public services such as
the ambulance or fire brigade services. A more controversial case, which has
sometimes been threatened by the government, would be the sending in of
troops to run prisons during a prison officers’ strike. The most serious cases,
rare in recent history in mainland Britain, are when troops are used to back up
policein controlling public disorder; the most celebrated example of this was
during the General Strike of 1926. These situations are intensely disliked by
the military because of the strains of loyalty placed on troops who may be
ordered to fire on civilians with whom they have great sympathy. Aid to the
civil power differs frommartial lawin that the civilian authorities retain legal
control. The troops operate under instruction from civilian officials, most
usually a senior police officer, and their conduct is regulated by ordinary civil
and criminal law. Thus an officer might, for example, be charged with murder
after giving an order to fire when it was later judged that a lesser degree of force
would have sufficed. The long-term use of the army to assist in policing
Northern Ireland is, in most respects, an example of troops being used in aid of
the civil power, though with somewhat more autonomy from civilian instruc-
tion than is usual (seeIRA).
AIDS
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), which is caused by con-
tracting the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), was first recognized as a
major problem in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It has become an important
political issue in the USA and, to a lesser extent, in Europe for several reasons.
Firstly, if some of the predictions of its likely rate of increase are true, AIDS will
present an enormous strain on health service resources within a few years. Not
only will the number of cases be very large, but the length of hospital care
before eventual death, and the need for extreme caution to avoid infection,
makes AIDS patients unusually expensive to treat. Secondly, fear of AIDS has
led to demands for very intrusive testing and quarantine measures which are
offensive in various degrees to many conceptions ofcivil liberties. All of these
factors would apply whatever the cause of the disease. However, because AIDS
is primarily a sexually contracted disease, and has disproportionately affected
the malehomosexualcommunity, it has highlighted the ever ambiguous state
of tolerance for alternative life styles. While some right-wing elements use the
fear of AIDS to attack the legal tolerance of homosexuality, homosexuals
themselves argue that governments would have been far more positive in
dealing with the crisis were it more common among heterosexuals. Many
policies to combat the spread of AIDS, as for example providing free hypo-
dermic needles to drug users and urging the use of condoms, or even providing
AIDS