The Liverpool Biennial Spider Hovers Over Exchange Flags
This spider, set against the austere statue of Lord Nelson and a backdrop of Liverpool’s historic Town Hall, has so much more to offer than La Princesse, the monster mechanical arachnid costing millions which scoured our streets a short while ago.
La Princesse was piece of engineering; Ai Weiwei’s bejewelled spider is a work of art. It trusts us to see in it what we will – it’s magical, creative and beautiful all at once, leaving the imagination to work its fancies.
More information: Liverpool Biennial 2008 plus The Observer Review of ‘Web of Light’ and the Liverpool Biennial.
See more of Hilary’s photographs here: Camera & Calendar; and read more articles about Cultural Liverpool.
PHSE Becomes Core Curriculum – At Last!
After much debate the Government has finally announced that Personal, Health and Social Education (PHSE) will be compulsory in schools at a level appropriate to each child’s age. This decision has been widely welcomed – though strangely not quite by everyone. All children need to understand their own bodies and relationships. But only a few years ago some of us, as educators, were still battling to save this entitlement and embed it into the curriculum.
In 1990 the Cambridge University Press published a book entitled The New Social Curriculum. Edited by Barry Dufour, it was intended as a ‘guide to cross-curricular issues’, for teachers, parents and governors. I wrote the chapter on ‘Health Education: Education for Health?’.
How different things were such a relatively short time ago.
Quotes from another era
Even as recently as 1990 I find, looking back, that I was obliged to write as follows (please forgive the self-plagiarism.):
[My first thesis is] that health education is far too weighty a matter to be left to the varies of visiting speakers, odd sessions, leaflets, films, etc… and the whims of individual teaching staff…
[The second thesis is] that meaningful (or even plausible) Education for Health can only be achieved in institutions where the teaching staff as a whole have a competent grasp of [these] curricular issues and where the mores of host institutions themselves support an alert and sensitive response to the social and personal needs of learners. Isolated ‘lessons’ on the ‘nightmares of adults’ (to use Chris Brown‘s apt term) are unlikely to meet effectively the aims of an informed and humane programme of Education for Health [where] health can be viewed as a positive feeling of well-being….
Any institution which means what it says about Education for Health will recognise the necessity for:
1. a curriculum which acknowledges the overlap between different aspects of social and personal experience;
2. an adequate allocation of resources – financial and personnel – to develop and deliver such a curriculum;
3. careful attention to the dignity and welfare of all who are involved in work or study within it….
But the majority of developments in Health Education continue to occur outside the context of the mainstream curriculum, and certainly outside the professional remit of those who manage formal educational organisations [which..] may account for the lack of impact which many health messages appear to have on their intended recipients.
Contentious issues
It has to be remembered – or retrospectively understood – that this was written in the context of what amounted to moral panic and the Victoria Gillick campaign on the subject of ‘Sex Education‘, which had become the almost singular ‘topic’ focus of the then-Conservative Government’s educational legislation.
Teachers had to contend with, and at their peril remain within the requirements of, the Education Act (Number 2), 1986, the DES Circular 11:87, and, until it was clarified, Section 28 of the Local Government Act, 1988. All these legal frameworks had the effect of putting teachers of anything to do with sexual education, not to mention student counsellors dealing with issues such as homosexuality, at personal and professional serious risk.
A wait eventually worthwhile
Much water has flowed under the bridge since then. In 1990 I ended my chapter by remarking that, whilst much good work was being undertaken, there was ‘as yet little evidence to encourage the hope that national educational structures, combining the experience of health promotion personnel, health educators and classroom teachers firmly within the context of the National Curriculum, will soon emerge to encompass and consolidate this good practice.‘
Now however the Government has at last announced that all pupils will Get Healthy Lifestyle Lessons, including age-appropriate information on sex and drugs, and a review by headteacher Sir Alasdair MacDonald will be carried out into the best way to shape and deliver this essential new core curriculum.
A positive step forward for children
This development, in the context of Every Child Matters, is enormously to be welcomed by anyone who wants every child to receive what is surely their basic entitlement – to understand, in ways suitable for their age and maturity, their own bodies and behaviour. How else can small people grow up to be sensible big people?
Across age, gender, social class and marital status, most adults have recently been found by a BBC survey to support this initiative. It’s been needed for a very long time and at last nearly everyone seems ready for it.
Read more about Education & Life-Long Learning.
See also: ‘Where do baby rabbits come from? Sex education to begin at five in all schools’ (Polly Curtis, The Guardian, 24 October 208).
See The Dawn, Enjoy The Sunset: The No.10 Petition For Daylight Saving
This is the day and date when the clocks go ‘back’. We have an extra hour in bed on Sunday morning, and then… darkness an hour earlier until next Spring. And most of us will miss the dawning of the day as well, since the majority of people in the UK no longer keep agrarian hours. So let’s do something about using daylight in the best way, in the modern world: Sign the No 10 Petition for ‘better use of sun’.
The petition for ‘Daylight Saving’ – i.e. keeping British Summer Time (BST) all year long – is here [http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/betteruseofsun/].
We have already discussed in detail on this website the safety, energy, health, leisure and other benefits of not going into the grimness of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) every Winter. Let’s make it clear that (as is in fact the case according to surveys *) most of us would welcome a continuation of ‘summertime’ hours.
Watching beautiful sunrises and sunsets offers aesthetic reasons for keeping summertime hours. But there are many hard-headed reasons too; and if you still doubt this, just check out for yourself with bodies such as RoSPA – or indeed read the views of Sir Stuart Hampson, who, as chairman of the John Lewis Partnership from 1993 to 2007, surely knows a thing or two about looking carefully at the facts.
Who can really argue, when the evidence is so clear? In Sir Stuart’s words,
Daylight is precious. Let’s stop wasting it. If we didn’t put the clocks back we could cut crime, keep fitter – and reduce carbon emissions.
And enjoy more sunrises….
* 4,215 people took part in an online vote on RoSPA’s website between 24 October and 2 November 2006. The vast majority (86%) supported this change. Of those who voted, 3,625 voted ‘Yes’, 548 voted ‘No’ and 42 voted ‘Don’t Know’.
Dates for 2008 – 2011 when at 2 a.m. the clocks go back (October) and forward (March) by one hour in the UK are:
In 2008: the Sundays of 30 March and 26 October
In 2009: the Sundays of 29 March and 25 October
In 2010: the Sundays of 28 March and 31 October
In 2011: the Sundays of 27 March and 30 October
Read more about BST: British Summer Time & ‘Daylight Saving’
Financial Regulation Is Strengthened By Diversity
The current financial chaos is producing a lot of debate about regulation. On one hand we’re told that very tight scrutiny, emboldened by severe legislation, is a must; whilst others say more ‘good, moral people’ from the City are the answer. Both positions have merit. But urgent action to widen the pool from which Board Directors is drawn is one essential and immediate option, insisting that many more women become directors of the most influential companies.
Few would deny that, as Andrew Phillips said recently in The Guardian, a ‘welter of regulation’ cannot in and of itself avoid further catastrophe for the Threadneedle Street and City of London and Wall Street.
Of course ‘good, moral’ people are a pre-requisite of effective reformation of the financial system; and of course this must include people of ‘all talents’.
Diversity improves scrutiny
What Lord Phillips might also propose, however, is that none of this is likely to deliver unless the talents involved are those of a truly diverse lot, in background, ethnicity, gender and otherwise.
The best way to secure proper scrutiny is to ensure, however well meaning they might be, that decision-making groups are not also a collection of people with much, beyond the necessary skills and expertise, in common.
Diversity improves business performance too
We already know that diversity at the top makes for successful business. Group members of different sorts, from a variety of backgrounds, aren’t an optional extra when it comes to effective group working. They’re essential.
And the UK workplace equality legislation to deliver this – applicable as much in the boardroom as on the shopfloor – is already in place.
Read more about Business & Enterprise and about Gender & Women.
DIUS Science And Society Consultation
Summary: The UK Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills has just conducted a consultation on Science and Society. What follows is a version of my submission to DIUS on this subject, covering issues such as the role of scientists in the service of government, the use of social science, the need to develop regional science strategies, engagement and stakeholding, the iterative way science evolves in its inevitably social context/s, and how different sorts of people feel about and become active (or not) in this process.
A full version of this paper is available on Hilary’s professional website, here.
Making Liverpool Prosper Beyond ’08 – The Debate
Regeneration has been headline news in Liverpool these past few weeks, as the debate continues about Dr. Tim Leunig and his Policy Exchange report, Cities Unlimited, in which it is suggested that Liverpool’s time is over. This evening Prof. David Robertson of Liverpool John Moores University and Dr Leunig of the London School of Economics presented their opposing views on Liverpool’s future in Liverpool Cathedral.
True to the demands of academic candour, both speakers offered evidenced-based if very different understandings of the harsh reality of modern day Northern city economic prospects.
There was no contest in terms of the evidence presented in Cities Unlimted; the debate promoted by Dean Justin Welby this week, on Thursday 16 October 2008, was about what the established socio-economic data on Liverpool means, and whether it alone can tell us what is likely to happen to Liverpool as a city.
Interpreting the evidence
For Tim Leunig – an economist and authority on the history of the cotton trade – the essential message was, ‘Liverpool’s time is past’. He was, he said quite obviously sincerely, very sorry about this, and he didn’t wish anyone to be upset, but that’s how he believes things are.
For David Robertson – a policy adviser to the Government on life-long learning – the message was rather more upbeat, ‘Liverpool’s fate is in its own hands; everything’s now up for grabs.’
And of course for some people, though probably not so many of those in the audience, the real issue might well have been, ‘What’s your problem? Liverpool’s great anyway.’
An opportunity to make a point
A similar debate, also chaired by Roger Phillips, was held in the Cathedral just last year, as part of the farewell events organised by the then Dean, Rupert Hoare, when he and leading local expert John Flamson invited us to debate The Future of Liverpool’s Economy at a well-attended seminar on Saturday 27 January 2007, in the Lady Chapel…. and this event in turn followed in the footsteps of Dean Hoare’s illustrious predecessor, Dean Derrick Walters, a man for whom, alongside his calling, hard-headed and warm-hearted regeneration was a way of life.
As last time, the current debate offered an opportunity for those who have considered Liverpool’s prospects carefully to make their point. Even the most optimistic were agreed that a step change is required in how plans for progress should be viewed.
… and to face up to the facts
The message of hope, for those who wish to hear it, is – as indeed we have consistently argued on this weblog – that things can change. History tells us what’s already happened, not what will happen.
Currently, Liverpool isn’t that good at creativity and innovation (it doesn’t feature in the Intellectual Property or patent stakes) and there are many challenges for educational, health and other major features of the local population. But with a will to achieve, things can be done.
We need to make a frank assessment of where Liverpool’s going. History is in the past, not a predictor of what is yet to come about. To quote David Robertson:
What we’ve inherited can be unpacked for the future.
The moment of truth has arrived for Liverpool… We need to understand the limits of what we can do, to understand our strengths and focus on how we can succeed.
An enduring analysis
This was the message in the Cathedral last year, it’s the message now, and it will continue to be the message.
I just hope enough people in this city are beginning to listen.
Read more about The Future of Liverpool.
For further commentary on this debate see Larry Neild’s article, a report in the (Liverpool edition of) the Daily Post and the account by Adrian McEwen.
Monday Women Meet At Heart & Soul, Liverpool
Monday Women (Liverpool) has been going for more than five years now, so it was really encouraging to see such a good turn out for the first meeting of Autumn ’08. There’s clearly a continuing enthusiasm for a (free, open access) ‘space’ for women in our city to meet friends old and new, and just to catch up on the news. It’s fun; so come! Please note: future meetings now at Everyman Bistro, 5 Hope Street, Liverpool L1 9BH.
Please note: Sadly, subsequent to this great meeting in October 2008, circumstances at Heart & Soul changed. We were however pleased to find a temporary place to meet, in Starbucks on Bold Street (thanks for making us so comfortable), before eventually being able to return to our original home, the Everyman Bistro Third Room, at the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral end of Hope Street; same times (5.30 – 7.30 pm), same dates (first Monday of the month), same lovely MW people….
These Monday Women are amongst those who arrived earlier on for this friendly, lively meeting at Heart & Soul bistro in Liverpool, after work this evening (6 October ’08). Monday Women meet between 5.30 and 7.30 p.m. on the first Monday of the month. All women, from Liverpool or just visiting, are welcome to join us. There’s no joining fee or any other membership process; if you turn up you’re a ‘member’.
There are also two completely free email goups * which women in Liverpool and further afield can join, for the exchange of news and views and to chat with everyone about events, business opportunities, courses, arts activities, good causes and anything else with which people may be involved.
Monday Women is free and it’s fun
The sole reason for the group, whether the actual meetings or the e-groups, is to give us all a no-cost avenue to keep in touch and to make friends and find other women with similar interests! If you like, it’s a sort-of zero cost social enterprise. The only ‘capital’ in this ‘enterprise’ is social capital – the friendliness and fascinating interests of Monday Women themselves.
Our very special and warm thanks to Monday Women member (and ‘social secretary’) Chumki Banerjee of Heart & Soul, who has been our kind host for meetings over the Summer of 2008.
* The egroups are on Facebook and at Yahoo. For either, just log in and search ‘Monday Women Liverpool’, then click to say you’d like to join. We only ask that people ‘apply’ to be on these e-groups in order to avoid spam, so as a real woman you’ll be warmly welcomed.
Can Meat Be Eco (Or Even Zero Carbon)?
Recent advice is that, to ‘save’ the planet, we in the developed nations should eat meat at most four times a week; but we should also recognise the current fundamental economic centrality of meat in many parts of the developing world.
Discussion of these recommendations has produced some interesting ideas about what might constitute almost zero carbon food, even zero carbon meat. Hill grazing sheep, jellied eels and lobster aquaculture are amongst the food items and techniques proposed.
Liverpool’s ‘Sage’ Of Sefton Park
Is it Merlin, or is it some other mystical creature, whose likeness arose silent and unannounced from the lone long-topped tree trunk in the heart of Sefton Park? One August morning, in the midst of the more expected park renovations of 2008, there ‘he’ was, the beautifully sculpted Sage of Sefton Park, the beginning, we can only hope, of a serendipitous array of creations in the park, for us to enjoy and create further in our imaginations as we wish.
It’s heartening that, even so long after it was first suggested, a tree sculpture has now appeared in our park, a place subject, for many months now, to less engaging and sometimes jarring disruption.
Who sculpted our ‘Sage’ and why or how, we don’t at present know [later: or at least we didn’t then]; but perhaps that mystery can be resolved [please see Comments below]? Is ‘he’ Merlin the wizard or some other mystical creature? Does he have a message, or is he simply there to lift our imaginations and to add some fun as we stroll by, or as we pop into the cafe with the kids for a little treat?
May this be the start of much more creativity and friendly magic for the imagination, in this special urban green space right by the centre of our city.
Read more about Sefton Park, and see more photographs at Camera & Calendar.
John Willman, Tim Leunig And North West England
John Willman is UK Business Editor of the Financial Times, so his take on the UK economy was an important contribution to the NWDA 2008 Annual Conference in Liverpool. His message, whilst analytically cautious in the present market chaos, came over as generally upbeat. Would that Tim Leunig, the academic who advised the economic emphasis should Go South, had seen things in the same light. Better surely for the North and the South of England, if we face the UK’s regional (and centralist) challenges, than if we run away?
The headline message from John Willman‘s talk came over to me as: Tim Leunig is mistaken. And the UK economy is fundamentally strong.
Leunig’s recent staggering judgement (in the report Cities Unlimited, by the free market leaning independent think tank Policy Exchange) that in general developers should abandon the North of England for the delights of the Golden Triangle – he suggests more development around Oxbridge, which will supposedly realign the North-South markets – in my view takes some beating for silliness. John Willman appeared to be of a similar mind.
The great Victorian cities
Far from suggesting, as Leunig seems to, that Greater London should become even more overheated, Willman made the case that the ‘great Victorian cities’ are the best equipped for the new ‘global living’. There is, he said, a Kit: some combination of conference centres, art galleries, a four-star hotel, some culture and festivals, and maybe a port.
In these respects the major English cities of the North (of the Core Cities, only Bristol is South) have the edge on continental European cities such as Bordeaux and Porto. They’re also great and fascinating cities (as I too can attest), but they’re probably 15 years behind their parallels in Britain: Their docksides have yet to be developed for the new leisure economies, for instance.
North-South divide: London ‘vs’ the rest
The debate about the North-South divide, Willman told us, is sterile. It’s useless to ‘blame’ London. The UK capital is a truly global city; in this, the North can never expect or even hope to compete. It’s just not a realistic objective to close the gap.
And London, with the mayoral model which elected mayor Ken Livingstone provided, showed how a ‘get things done’ city can operate.
The national and global economy
Despite the panic, only 3% of UK mortgages are in default. Willman judged that Britain is still doing pretty well as the sixth largest manufacturer in the world, a supplier of very high quality products.
In these respects the UK economy is well placed for the globalised world; as is North West England, with its emphasis on the service economies, life sciences, media and creative products and the current / forthcoming energy industries (including nuclear energy) .
The Wimbledon effect
The UK is an open economy, which in some senses punches above its weight. Britain demonstrates the ‘Wimbledon effect‘: we don’t necessarily take the headlines, but we do host the event.
In fact, the consultants Saffron Brand recently reported that perhaps the UK sells its story ‘too well’ – some of our cities are actually more highly rated than cold analysis suggests they might be.
A strong basic economy
Willman’s overall judgement at the NWDA 2008 Annual Conference was that UK economy is ‘so much stronger than 30 years ago’.
Perhaps some of us continue to see the elephant in the room – climate change and environmental sustainability – as an critically important challenge, still to be adequately (and very urgently) addressed.
Whatever… Would that Tim Leunig and others like him were as willing as Willman, on the basis of the evidence over many decades, to recognise that people everywhere have to believe in themselves to make their economies work effectively at all.
Read more about Regions, Sub-Regions & City Regions
and about Economics Observed.
Dreaming Realist 