It’s been difficult being a determined blogger this last month or so.  Every time inspiration strikes, yet another government announcement, or news of an impending cut, or some further reorganisation sends me back to the drawing board.  Despairing of being able to coherently address some of these issues, at least until the politicians have departed for their bread and water style holiday at a rainy English resort, I’m therefore forced to fall back on basic principles.

Now, I will be the first to acknowledge that my views were formed in those far off days when my alma mater, the London School of Economics, was regarded as a radical establishment.  However, I’m not sure that they really are that controversial.

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A couple of weeks ago I published a blog on “Cuts – the outlook for university staff levels”.  It seems to have attracted quite a lot of comment, so I thought I would follow up by talking to some of the media, national and specialist, which carry recruitment advertising for the sector.

Interestingly, given the general mood of pessimism around, I once again ended up feeling more positive than I had anticipated.  There was a consensus that, at least in the short term, there was something of an upturn – or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the bottom had been reached, and year on year figures had started to improve, if only by a little.  In spite of what has clearly been a terrible twelve months for the media, one at least claimed to be on budget so far this year.

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Well, I guess the electoral excitement is now over, and reality will have to take over.  Personally, I welcome in principle the notion of parties working together (it has produced, in Germany, one of the world’s most successful countries, after all), and if it leads to politicians insulting each other rather less (in case they need a coalition after some future election) and concentrating on policies rather more, well I don’t know too many people who will regret that!

As far as Education goes, I’ve been impressed with what I’ve seen of both Michael Gove and David Willetts when I’ve seen them in relatively intimate surroundings – I’m not convinced that television is a great friend to either.  Policy is another matter of course, and it’s pretty clear that, whilst there are interesting proposals for increased funding in certain areas, education as a whole, and especially tertiary education, will not escape the inevitable cuts in public funding which lie ahead.

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