Dan Hind, author of The Threat to Reason and The Return of the Public, makes a number of important  interventions concerning the Coalition spending cuts and the need for an alternative programme.

Writing for the Guardian he highlights the threat posed to the British Library by 15% real terms cuts to its budget over four years, which will lead to the loss of 200 jobs:

Libraries bring employment, enjoyment and useful knowledge. To the extent that there is such a thing as British civilisation, it is to be found in our libraries. And if we are to recover in reasonable order from an economic disaster incubated in the private conclaves of the City, we will do so through public deliberation made possible by the British Library and by libraries elsewhere.

Visit the Guardian to read the article in full.

On his blog, Hind argues that the inspiring movement of students and tax justice campaigners who have protested at Topshop and Vodafone stores needs to connect with wider sections of society and develop a positive counter-agenda to that of the Coalition:

The program we develop now will determine the range of political options open to the government that replaces the Coalition. In 1968 the students used to say ‘be reasonable, demand the impossible'. Let us take as our watchword ‘be irresistible, demand what is entirely possible'. The more that the general public start to think that substantive reform is possible and sensible, the sooner we will win. Resistance is all very well, but it is reactive and can become exhausting. The crisis is not ours, it is theirs. The governing powers have been revealed as intellectual bankrupts. They can do nothing now but try to change the subject with talk of austerity. We, on the other hand, we have it in our power to begin the world over again. (h/t Tom Paine) If in the face of economic crisis Britain chooses social democracy over financial oligarchy, the world will take note.

Visit Dan's blog The Return of the Public to read the post in full.

As part of this alternative programme Dan suggests the use of public commissioning, whereby the public decides how to allocate funds to different media projects—or scientific research:

I propose taking a portion of the money that subsidises private industry and giving it to new bodies set up to allocate resources on the basis of a democratic vote. Scientists could apply to these bodies for funding and we could all have a say in what research is given support.

Visit the New Scientist to read the article in full.

More in #Articles