Public spending cuts to the arts damage society as much as the arts themselves, argues Jenny Hughes. In his book, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea, Mark Blyth summarises an economic policy of austerity as “a morality play, one that has shifted the blame from the banks to the state. Austerity is the penance […]
Is the local government party really now over?
After crying ‘wolf’ for several years, councils are now faced with very real difficulty in balancing their books, warns Nick Clifford. More than 50 years ago, in 1962, there was a hit for Lonnie Donegan called ‘The Party’s Over’. 40 years ago Tony Crosland, then Secretary of State for Local Government, gave a speech to […]