Arts and Humanities in Higher Education

The Observer today carries a letter from prominent academics under the heading 'Don't ditch the arts in favour of science. They're vital to us all' This is along with an article and an editorial piece on the subject.

I think that Labour since 1997 could have been considerably more positive about the arts and humanities in education in general. In compulsory education, STEM and vocational options have been favoured - partly for good reasons and partly to boost supposed attainment. The arts and humanities are not the major problem why people are not going into STEM subjects - league tables do not help and neither does the longstanding shortage of teachers in those areas. Obviously putting higher education under the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills was never going to help the subjects deemed to be 'non-vocational'.

Education should be about the long-term not the short-term and the maintenance of learning opportunities at all levels is not a luxury for the United Kingdom, or indeed any other country.

Alternative Vote

Obviously Parliament voted in favour of a referendum on AV. Were they right?

I am strongly in favour of PR for all sorts of reasons - most notably that I think it is fairer system and is clearly more representative, but AV could be even more disproportionate.

However, on balance I would support AV as it gives voters a chance to list candidates in the order they would want them. So where I live Labour have almost no chance of getting in, but under AV voting for them would not be a wasted vote. I could vote Labour then Lib Dem or Green and then almost everyone before the BNP.

But Brown's conversion at such a late stage does owe more than a little to political opportunism. Labour should have adopted AV+ or AMS or best still STV a decade ago.