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Thursday, June 28, 2007
Greenery in Whitehall
Is the Department of Innovations, Universities and Skills the greenest department in Whitehall. If you click on its website HERE, you'll get your answer.
What an appallingly trendy, clumsy, meaningless title for a Government Department. If it has to exist at all, why can't it be called the Department of Further Education?
I guess it's a couple of holding pages waiting for some information to be added.
However...
"The Department will bring together the nation’s strengths in science, research, universities and colleges to build a dynamic, knowledge-based economy."
...knowledge based economies are not built by government departments. Enabled maybe, or more accurately not disabled, but not built.
I am beginning to see a trend in the Gordon Brown "2 years to save the world" approach...fantasy.
I heard that Gordon Brown wanted to reduce the funding Oxford and Cambridge get. If true, it may be time for both to become private institutions and call the government's bluff.
We used to have proper government deparments like Trasury, Foreign Office, Home Office, DTI, etc. They did what it said on the tin just like old school subjects such English, Maths, History, Geograpy, etc.
Now we have touchy feely government departments and touchy feely school subjects. Neither are worth having and no one knows what they are.
Who would head up the Department of Media Studies? The latest meme I keep seeing everywhere is the 'urgent' need for more Public Singing so maybe we need a minister of that too.
Is Gordon trying to cure unemployment by making up jobs for everyone?
ReplyDeleteWhat an appallingly trendy, clumsy, meaningless title for a Government Department. If it has to exist at all, why can't it be called the Department of Further Education?
ReplyDeleteNice graphics.
ReplyDeleteI guess it's a couple of holding pages waiting for some information to be added.
However...
"The Department will bring together the nation’s strengths in science, research, universities and colleges to build a dynamic, knowledge-based economy."
...knowledge based economies are not built by government departments. Enabled maybe, or more accurately not disabled, but not built.
I am beginning to see a trend in the Gordon Brown "2 years to save the world" approach...fantasy.
"..why can't it be called the Department of Further Education?"
ReplyDeleteBecause that's not what it's for.
They don't want to educate people; they want to spend money on processes and institutions (and frameworks, strategies, action plans, task forces, working parties, focus groups, deliverables, targets, assessments, interim reports, re-calibration, cross-cutting, peer reviewing...cup cakes....)
I heard that Gordon Brown wanted to reduce the funding Oxford and Cambridge get. If true, it may be time for both to become private institutions and call the government's bluff.
ReplyDeleteWe used to have proper government deparments like Trasury, Foreign Office, Home Office, DTI, etc. They did what it said on the tin just like old school subjects such English, Maths, History, Geograpy, etc.
ReplyDeleteNow we have touchy feely government departments and touchy feely school subjects. Neither are worth having and no one knows what they are.
Who would head up the Department of Media Studies? The latest meme I keep seeing everywhere is the 'urgent' need for more Public Singing so maybe we need a minister of that too.
ReplyDelete