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Highs and lows

11:24am Thursday, 20th December 2007
Everyone else is doing lists of the highs and lows of 2007, so how about a participative Demos version?

To get you started, here's one of each:
  • High: Kevin Rudd winning the Australian election. No one quite knows what he stands for yet, but the fact that he's not John Howard counts for a lot.
  • Low: Gordon Brown's conference speech. A thoroughly lacklustre performance from the new Labour leader which presaged his complete political collapse in the Autumn. Brown's got some very clever people and they've had a lot of time to prepare. So where are the big ideas?
Any more?

Comments

Posted by Duncan O'Leary  at 2:25pm on Thursday, 20th December 2007
2
Well, on the cultural front, there have been some encouraging signs, like the new Foreign Secretary recognising the importance of culture in how we relate to others, and a positive settlement for the DCMS in relation to other departments come CSR.  There have also been some individual pieces of good news ...

... But we still saw incidents Big Brother and 300, which only demonstrate the need for more integrated and coherent policies with regard to culture, education and how we relate to one another.  In this light, recent cuts in local arts funding can only have lasting and negative consequences that will have impact in far wider areas than many might think.  Bad news as it is, the current crisis over the RA's Russian Exhibition  only serves to underline the significance of culture in the global picture.  In 2008, I hope that we take steps towards a more holistic approach to the importance of culture in a range of policy areas.
Posted by Sam Jones  at 9:53am on Friday, 21st December 2007
3
Whilst there are many lows which are arguably of wider and greater social importance, one which is close to my heart is the changes to physics funding in the UK and the resulting £80m shortfall for university physics departments and associated projects.

The highs are even more personal, and include getting a PhD and finding employment with some think-tank or other near London Bridge.
Posted by Sarah Marr  at 12:20pm on Friday, 21st December 2007

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