Sixth-formers of the future will gnaw on their cyber-pencils as they puzzle over Britain’s response to the economic earthquake of 2008.
The crisis toppled financial truths and taught us not to put our trust in the pin-striped generals of the banking sectors or the mathematical wizards they had lured into their oak-panelled lairs.
A nation witnessed the overnight intellectual decapitation of an ancien régime, but it did not respond by electing radicals determined to carve out a brand new economic order. Instead, the country’s citizens rushed to the polling stations and sent to Downing St – albeit via a quite unprecedented coalition – the leader of a party that has roots dating back to 1678.
It is possible that the British electorate – or at least its large English segment – truly does subscribe to Edmund Burke’s idea that the best way to hold a revolution is to manage change by preserving institutions. Or perhaps no credible alternative was on offer on the ballot paper?
When the future’s sixth-formers go to university they may write dissertations on why the Left, at the very moment when their arguments about the ultimate inviability of liberal capitalism were apparently proven spot on, could not create a popular mass movement. Sure, left-of-centre economist Paul Krugman won a Nobel Prize, but when the bankers started drinking champagne again it was to celebrate their restored bonuses.
In previous decades, Methodist and other nonconformist preachers urged tens of thousands of people to demand radical social change. Sofas and television have largely replaced the time-slots once occupied by sermons and pews, so this could be one reason why public anger was not funnelled into political change.
But it is interesting to look across the Irish Sea where the voters of Donegal SW have elected Sinn Fein's Pearse Doherty.
The near-collapse of the Irish economy has spurred the electorate to back a party that has never succeeded in ridding itself of the whiff of gunsmoke. Doherty is considered a rising star, and party president Gerry Adams has high hopes of entering the Dáil in the next election.
Irish republicans of different shades, such as the explicitly socialist Éirígí, sense that the crashing failure of Ireland’s romance with unfettered capitalism means there is an opportunity to revive the vision of leftist rebels such as James Connolly.
It is unlikely that the country across the water will become Europe’s answer to Cuba, but the fluidity of its electoral system means – even with the financial constraints of the terms of the bail-out – we could see governments emerge which look nothing like those in the House of Commons.
A Saturday column
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
The Student Contribution
The argument marshalled by politicians of different stripes to defend tuition fees is that it is only right that students make a “contribution” to the cost of their university education.
Fine. But why are we only talking about a financial contribution?
Charging students £6,000 to £9,000 a year will not solve the funding challenges faced by our universities. The best are competing in an international market where an Ivy League powerhouse such as Harvard can charge $34,976 (though its $26bn endowment means it can offer financial aid to 70% of students).
For decades, there was an assumption that UK university education would be free – just as no-one expects to be charged to use the NHS. Sure, people might earn more as a result of using their skills in professional life, but they would also pay higher levels of income tax.
But at a time when well-paid jobs that do not require a university education have almost vanished and our economy is competing against the graduate-factories of China and India, debt-ravaged Britain appears to have accepted that students and not just the state should pay for post-18 education.
However, rather than asking students to go into their working lives with a dark cloud of debt hanging over their heads, can we not find a more imaginative and truly profitable way of asking undergraduates to make a contribution to society?
What would happen if a Government waived fees but in return asked all students to give five hours a week to community service arranged by their local authority?
Thousands of students already volunteer each week to support fantastic causes. They do not have the skills of qualified teachers, but they can make a transformative contribution to homework clubs, sports groups, community arts activities and environmental projects.
We are constantly told many young people lack role models who can encourage and inspire. Here is a real opportunity for friendships to form and for stereotypes to shatter.
Such activities would be of as much value to the students as the people they will try and help.
If an accountancy student spent five hours a week with a social enterprise, think of the skills they would take back to college. A future medical professional would gain a priceless perspective on hospital life if they worked as a volunteer in a non-clinical role.
A sense of purpose would be injected into student life and the experience of gaining and sharing skills would be a welcome balance to the stress and isolation which sometimes dogs study. Such a scheme would end the era of universities as ivory towers and lay the foundation for a truly big society.
A Saturday column
Fine. But why are we only talking about a financial contribution?
Charging students £6,000 to £9,000 a year will not solve the funding challenges faced by our universities. The best are competing in an international market where an Ivy League powerhouse such as Harvard can charge $34,976 (though its $26bn endowment means it can offer financial aid to 70% of students).
For decades, there was an assumption that UK university education would be free – just as no-one expects to be charged to use the NHS. Sure, people might earn more as a result of using their skills in professional life, but they would also pay higher levels of income tax.
But at a time when well-paid jobs that do not require a university education have almost vanished and our economy is competing against the graduate-factories of China and India, debt-ravaged Britain appears to have accepted that students and not just the state should pay for post-18 education.
However, rather than asking students to go into their working lives with a dark cloud of debt hanging over their heads, can we not find a more imaginative and truly profitable way of asking undergraduates to make a contribution to society?
What would happen if a Government waived fees but in return asked all students to give five hours a week to community service arranged by their local authority?
Thousands of students already volunteer each week to support fantastic causes. They do not have the skills of qualified teachers, but they can make a transformative contribution to homework clubs, sports groups, community arts activities and environmental projects.
We are constantly told many young people lack role models who can encourage and inspire. Here is a real opportunity for friendships to form and for stereotypes to shatter.
Such activities would be of as much value to the students as the people they will try and help.
If an accountancy student spent five hours a week with a social enterprise, think of the skills they would take back to college. A future medical professional would gain a priceless perspective on hospital life if they worked as a volunteer in a non-clinical role.
A sense of purpose would be injected into student life and the experience of gaining and sharing skills would be a welcome balance to the stress and isolation which sometimes dogs study. Such a scheme would end the era of universities as ivory towers and lay the foundation for a truly big society.
A Saturday column
Saturday, November 13, 2010
The Next Cory Booker
A year ago politicians vied to be the “next Barack Obama” but today they might bristle with irritation at the title.
With sonic boom-inducing speed he has gone from being an international icon of hope to the protagonist in a cautionary tale about the burden of unreasonable expectations.
However, this has not stopped Marco Rubio, the 39-year-old son of Cuban immigrants who is now Florida’s Senator-elect, from being dubbed the “Republican Obama”.
Of course there is a still a fighting chance that the real Obama will follow the example of Bill Clinton and recover sufficient ground to win a second term and leave office on a relative high.
But in a culture where pundits are on a constant search for the “heir to Blair” and a new Reagan, any minority American politician who crackles with possibility and the potential for continent-crossing appeal will trigger memories of the Obama of 2008.
One such Democrat who has a CV which reads like that of a West Wing character dreamt up by screenwriter Aaron Sorkin is Newark mayor Cory Booker. He was recently hit by a tidal wave of publicity when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg pledged $100m to transform Newark’s schools.
He is already one of the most famous African-American politicians in the country, but what is most exciting and intriguing about the 41-year-old’s electoral adventure is that by running one of America’s toughest cities he is gaining the crucial experience of steering a supertanker of state that Obama has so manifestly lacked.
There are many streetfighters in governors’ mansions across America who would like a bid at the White House, but Mr Booker also has the luminous intelligence of the president and a similar ability to connect with different groups.
After graduating from Stanford he followed in the footsteps of Clinton by winning a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford. But instead of also whiling away his time there in a bookish but bohemian haze, this American Football-playing Baptist made UK headlines when he was chosen as the president of the Jewish L’Chaim Society.
Mr Booker is not from the ghetto. His parents were among the first African-American executives IBM.
But after gaining law qualifications at Yale he set out on one of his most intense periods of study by moving into Brick Towers, a set of now-demolished apartments famed for drugs and decay.
Back in 2006 he cautioned against describing him as the “great black hope”, saying: “When something goes wrong, people will be motivated to write the story that I’m not.”
But the time may come in the not radically distant future when the Democrat kingmakers see him as the great American hope. And a little after that, journalists might be talking about the "next Cory Booker".
A Saturday column
With sonic boom-inducing speed he has gone from being an international icon of hope to the protagonist in a cautionary tale about the burden of unreasonable expectations.
However, this has not stopped Marco Rubio, the 39-year-old son of Cuban immigrants who is now Florida’s Senator-elect, from being dubbed the “Republican Obama”.
Of course there is a still a fighting chance that the real Obama will follow the example of Bill Clinton and recover sufficient ground to win a second term and leave office on a relative high.
But in a culture where pundits are on a constant search for the “heir to Blair” and a new Reagan, any minority American politician who crackles with possibility and the potential for continent-crossing appeal will trigger memories of the Obama of 2008.
One such Democrat who has a CV which reads like that of a West Wing character dreamt up by screenwriter Aaron Sorkin is Newark mayor Cory Booker. He was recently hit by a tidal wave of publicity when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg pledged $100m to transform Newark’s schools.
He is already one of the most famous African-American politicians in the country, but what is most exciting and intriguing about the 41-year-old’s electoral adventure is that by running one of America’s toughest cities he is gaining the crucial experience of steering a supertanker of state that Obama has so manifestly lacked.
There are many streetfighters in governors’ mansions across America who would like a bid at the White House, but Mr Booker also has the luminous intelligence of the president and a similar ability to connect with different groups.
After graduating from Stanford he followed in the footsteps of Clinton by winning a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford. But instead of also whiling away his time there in a bookish but bohemian haze, this American Football-playing Baptist made UK headlines when he was chosen as the president of the Jewish L’Chaim Society.
Mr Booker is not from the ghetto. His parents were among the first African-American executives IBM.
But after gaining law qualifications at Yale he set out on one of his most intense periods of study by moving into Brick Towers, a set of now-demolished apartments famed for drugs and decay.
Back in 2006 he cautioned against describing him as the “great black hope”, saying: “When something goes wrong, people will be motivated to write the story that I’m not.”
But the time may come in the not radically distant future when the Democrat kingmakers see him as the great American hope. And a little after that, journalists might be talking about the "next Cory Booker".
A Saturday column
Monday, November 08, 2010
Obama's Maria Callas Days
Barack Obama has 2,000 songs on his iPod but there is little doubt what he's now playing.
A short while ago, he said: “I’m not a big opera buff in terms of going to opera, but there are days where Maria Callas is exactly what I need.”
But could even that soprano soothe the nerves of a president whose majority in the House of Representatives has just been swept away by a red tide?
We shouldn’t count him out. In a sign that he remains a sculptor of the zeitgeist, he revived a wonderful word by describing his drubbing as a “shellacking”.
Shellac, we soon discovered, is a varnish based on a resin secreted by the lac beetle.
The image of giant Republican beetles oozing chemicals over the dome of the US Congress is now planted in the imagination of the Democrat warriors he will need to rally for the 2012 presidential fight.
But when he pulls out the iPod earplugs and looks at his mantelpiece, he may notice that 2009 Nobel Peace Prize he was handed to the surprise of everyone, including himself. He now has the chance to earn it.
With Congress gridlocked, there is little chance of him getting to pass bold legislation. Past presidents have responded to domestic quagmires by throwing their energy into foreign policy.
He knows that the sight of Air Force One landing in foreign capitals will trigger accusations that he is ignoring US workers and their economic woes. But if he had followed the logic of this argument he would not have touched healthcare reform until his second term; instead, he chose to act as if this was his one shot at the presidency and passed transformative legislation which even a Republican House is unlikely to be able to unravel.
A new push for peace in the Middle East would not be a guaranteed bellyflop into diplomatic disaster. Recent efforts to secure a lasting settlement between Israel and the Palestinians have taken place in the second term of a presidency, when the office-holder is considered a lame duck and intransigent parties can sit back and wait for his successor to arrive.
But, when even the British Foreign Secretary is warning that the window of opportunity for a two-state solution is closing, fresh action would not be an indulgent adventure but an urgent act to prevent a new chapter of catastrophe.
Just as President James Polk (1845-1849) served just one term but acquired California and made the US a continent-crossing nation, Obama now has the chance to secure a lasting legacy that will provide greater solace and comfort in retirement than even a personal recital from Ms Callas could achieve.
A Saturday column
A short while ago, he said: “I’m not a big opera buff in terms of going to opera, but there are days where Maria Callas is exactly what I need.”
But could even that soprano soothe the nerves of a president whose majority in the House of Representatives has just been swept away by a red tide?
We shouldn’t count him out. In a sign that he remains a sculptor of the zeitgeist, he revived a wonderful word by describing his drubbing as a “shellacking”.
Shellac, we soon discovered, is a varnish based on a resin secreted by the lac beetle.
The image of giant Republican beetles oozing chemicals over the dome of the US Congress is now planted in the imagination of the Democrat warriors he will need to rally for the 2012 presidential fight.
But when he pulls out the iPod earplugs and looks at his mantelpiece, he may notice that 2009 Nobel Peace Prize he was handed to the surprise of everyone, including himself. He now has the chance to earn it.
With Congress gridlocked, there is little chance of him getting to pass bold legislation. Past presidents have responded to domestic quagmires by throwing their energy into foreign policy.
He knows that the sight of Air Force One landing in foreign capitals will trigger accusations that he is ignoring US workers and their economic woes. But if he had followed the logic of this argument he would not have touched healthcare reform until his second term; instead, he chose to act as if this was his one shot at the presidency and passed transformative legislation which even a Republican House is unlikely to be able to unravel.
A new push for peace in the Middle East would not be a guaranteed bellyflop into diplomatic disaster. Recent efforts to secure a lasting settlement between Israel and the Palestinians have taken place in the second term of a presidency, when the office-holder is considered a lame duck and intransigent parties can sit back and wait for his successor to arrive.
But, when even the British Foreign Secretary is warning that the window of opportunity for a two-state solution is closing, fresh action would not be an indulgent adventure but an urgent act to prevent a new chapter of catastrophe.
Just as President James Polk (1845-1849) served just one term but acquired California and made the US a continent-crossing nation, Obama now has the chance to secure a lasting legacy that will provide greater solace and comfort in retirement than even a personal recital from Ms Callas could achieve.
A Saturday column
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