Charles Clarke was not the only senior government politician opening up a very public debate on the future of Labour policy yesterday. Secretary of state Tessa Jowell, speaking at a Demos forum on a new role for cultural diplomacy was doing the same - possibly unwittingly. In the cavernous, even overwhelmingly impressive Raphael Gallery in the Victoria and Albert Museum, she spoke about a new approach to arts and culture as vehicles for Britain's "soft power" in the world as "a set of ideas whose time had come".
She described the fateful weekend when the London bombings immediately followed the news that London had won the Olympic bid for 2012 as a juxtaposition of "hard and soft power". In this, Jowell appeared to throw her weight behind the latter force as the way forward for the future. The best response to terrorism, she insisted, is to facilitate events where the world can come together in all its diversity and actively foster our connectedness.
Other members of the panel picked up her baton and ran with it. Referring directly to its implications for foreign policy, Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum called it a "pre-imperial idea for a post-colonial world". "Whereas, in the 18th century, we wanted to present Britain to the world. Today, our task as Britons is to present the whole world to the whole world". A typical British Museum project now is the recent introduction of Syrian Art to China.
Nobody mentioned the elephant in the room....
Recent Comments