Those who enjoy nothing better than spending their Saturdays in the company of like-minded political anoraks have been spoilt for choice recently. Compass, Catalyst and, of course, Progress have all held major conferences over the past few weeks. However, if you missed these or feel your jaw has not yet been sufficiently exercised, you may be interested in attending the Fabian New Year conference, The Unfinished Revolution?, at Imperial College in London in January. With speakers including Hilary Benn, Will Hutton, Tessa Jowell and Polly Toynbee, plus a ‘VIP ministerial speaker’, it promises to be an interesting event.
Professional conference-goers may recognise themselves in the new Demos pamphlet, The Pro-Am Revolution. According to authors Paul Miller and – the original New Labour guru – Charles Leadbeater, Pro-Ams – people pursuing amateur activities to professional standards – are an increasingly important part of our society and economy.
‘Pro-Ams are a new social hybrid who force us to rethink the way we think about work and leisure time,’ say Miller and Leadbeater. ‘In recent years, a variety of rather derogatory names have been used to describe real enthusiasts, including nerds, geeks and anoraks. We think a better term to cover all these kinds of activities is Pro-Ams.’
The pamphlet includes some startling insights into the Pro-Am phenomenon. According to a MORI poll conducted for the report, 18 per cent of the adult population in Britain are Pro-Am gardeners, six per cent are Pro-Am photographers and two per cent are Pro-Am alternative therapists. ‘Pro-Am astrologers have made a significant contribution to our knowledge of the universe,’ the authors enthuse.
Calling on the government to ‘invest in people’s hobbies as a way to build communities’, the pamphlet is another distinguished contribution to national debate from one of New Labour’s most prominent Pro-Ams.
Amateurs need not apply when it comes to improving the quality of life in the home counties, warns a timely report by ippr’s Commission on Sustainable Development in the South East. According to the report, written with the co-operation of the region’s seven county councils, the slowing rate of economic and population growth in the south east will not address the region’s environmental and resource shortages.
The report also examines public attitudes to the problems facing the south east. Not surprisingly, it finds that the top issues are the cost and availability of housing and traffic levels. In nearly all areas, people said affordable housing was a priority, but also said access to green spaces and low pollution and traffic levels were important.
‘A slower rate of growth on its own will not alleviate these problems,’ says report author Julie Foley. ‘What is needed are policies and practice aimed at getting more from less by encouraging individuals and firms to change their behaviour and use resources more efficiently.’
Finally, over to the Pro-Ams of getting more from less, Civitas, who are busy putting together proposals to abolish the CRE and the EOC. According to Professor Richard Epstein of the University of Chicago, author of Equal Opportunity or More Opportunity?, the entire statutory apparatus designed to guarantee human rights and protect against discrimination should be scrapped, because ‘they create more injustice than they solve by awarding special ‘‘rights” to one group of people.’
In their place he proposes a one page Human Rights Act (Revised), including the humane clause that,
‘Every individual and group may refuse to contract or associate with, or to otherwise discriminate for or against any other group or individual for whatever reasons they see fit, including without limitation, race, creed, sex, religion, age, disability, marital status, or sexual orientation.’
Another case of political incorrectness gone mad?