The artistic imagination and the progressive imagination

Editorial // Gerry Hassan

Arts and culture under New Labour have seen increased investment, but an erosion of any sense of public ethos, and an opening to the mindset of acquisitive wealth and privilege.

Artists, government, and the public

Feature // John Holden

The arts community’s sympathy with New Labour has been tinged with exasperation at the need to justify themselves in bureaucratic policy-speak. The public must be included in the conversation.

Leading us into the twenty-first century

Feature // Roanne Dods

The people of the arts world are an example of the kind of people that will thrive in the complexity of this century and that we will need to lead, guide, and network us.

Creativity as ideology

Feature // James Heartfield

Our yearning for creativity is how we experience the problem of alienation in a highly individualised society. Previous generations defended skills through collective solidarity and politics.

The cultural economy

Feature // Neil Mulholland

While New Labour pride themselves in their cosmopolitan cultural credentials, they are fixated with the role that culture can play in developing the economy. Is the economy not part of culture?

The pitfalls of state patronage

Feature // Jan Bowman

Arts organisations would be wise to reject attempts to rewrite their goals as government mission statements, and artists should spurn attempts to turn us into cheap social workers.

Novelising New Labour

Feature // Stuart Kelly

A flurry of ‘state of the nation’ novels wonder how the enthusiasm of 1997 became the jaded disaffection of 2007. Blair’s legacy was not one of artistic inspiration, but artistic introspection.

Media power in an era of cultural chaos

Feature // Brian McNair

Exercising power through media ownership is increasingly difficult. The elite stranglehold on commentary and reportage is undermined by the transformation of spectators into participants.

A British national culture?

Feature // Arthur Aughey

British identity as a political statement about culture is about degrees of negotiation between the national and the multi-national.

An NHS for all: the egalitarian reform agenda

Commentary // Neil Churchill

Health inequalities will only be eroded with investment over the long-term. But many interventions we can make today offer quick wins, as well as saving money by preventing hospital admissions.

Poverty and class in the US elections

Commentary // Michael J. Boyle

Accepting the prejudice against the poor in American culture, progressive politicians using the coded language of the ‘middle class’ make it harder to champion the cause of the unemployed.

Julian Le Grand: The Other Invisible Hand

Review // Catherine Needham

Le Grand argues for more choice in public services, but his aims are avowedly social democratic.

Ben Jackson: Equality and the British Left

Review // David Coates

Labour’s founding egalitarians saw economic equality as the key to genuine community.