Archive for category Family, Marriage and the Culture
When I hear the word culture, I reach for my wallet
Posted by David Merlin-Jones in Economics, Family, Marriage and the Culture, Politics on 28/10/2010
This has not been a good week for culture. A pincer movement has been occurring, with rumours that the state of Qatar is looking to buy Christie’s, and the decimation of the Arts Council. While of course unrelated, both have the potential to undermine Britain’s status as a cultural standard-bearer, the former through over-emphasising culture as a product and the latter through understating its value. In the so-called ‘Age of Austerity’, it appears that culture has stopped being a priceless necessity and become just another luxury good that can be accrued or done without. Read the rest of this entry »
Real action for children
Posted by Annaliese Briggs in Family, Marriage and the Culture on 15/10/2010
On occasion, I arrived at school after the registration bell. My hair was a mess, my uniform rumpled and my lunchbox nearly empty. By today’s standards, I would have qualified as a neglected child.
Pregnancy pains: will EU maternity pay hurt the UK?
Posted by Claire Daley in European Union, Family, Marriage and the Culture, Tax and Spend on 14/10/2010
In February, the EU proposed extending the Pregnant Workers’ Directive so that all member states provide 20 weeks of maternity leave with full pay, writes Natalie Hamill. Now, with one week to go before the European Parliament votes on the proposals, the debate has been reignited, with the UK Government criticising the EU for forcing states to increase spending in the midst of tough economic times.
‘Job (almost) done’, admits EHRC
Posted by Nick Cowen in Family, Marriage and the Culture, Human Rights on 12/10/2010
The Equalities and Human Rights Commission called for a moment of national mourning and teeth gnashing yesterday. They declared that progress towards closing the gender pay gap had ground to a halt. But the details of their triennial report reveals why this is so. It is because a discriminatory gender pay gap no longer exists.
Minding Maisie
Posted by Annaliese Briggs in Family, Marriage and the Culture on 01/10/2010
‘It was the fate of this patient little girl to see much more than she at first understood, but also even at first to understand much more than any little girl, however patient, had perhaps understood before,’ writes Henry James of his young, responsive subject in a polemic contribution to a fin de siècle canon with striking contemporary relevance.
Cool Britannia™
Posted by David Merlin-Jones in Economics, Family, Marriage and the Culture on 30/09/2010
As abstract concepts go, ‘coolness’ has to be one of the hardest to define. The uncool Oxford English Dictionary has had a go, suggesting: ‘informal, fashionably attractive or impressive’. While this is rather ambiguous, suffice it to say that the idea that being cool is a state of mind, a quality based on a person having a touch of je ne sais quoi, has been replaced by a focus on shiny things. The company CoolBrands has drawn up a materialistic list of, unsurprisingly, the coolest brands in Britain. And what a lot it says about us. Read the rest of this entry »