Ed Vaizey

I went to the Bodleian library the other day.  It was a memorable visit for all sorts of reasons.  I was there to present prizes to nine children, whose designs were being turned into gargoyles for the Bodleian.  Now that may not seem a big deal, but I suspect they are the first designs for 500 years, and may well be in place for centuries to come.  So to create a lasting monument to your existence on the world’s most famous library at the age of 11 is quite something.

There were other reasons why I loved the visit.  I got to look at and touch one of the Bod’s three copies of the Magna Carta - a major thrill.  In the Divinity Halls, I was able to look on the doorway that Wren created to provide a passage to the Sheldonian.  It was described at the time as a major piece of architectural vandalism, reminding us that great architects were criticised even in the sevententh century.  And in this case, the critics were right.  The door completely throws the symmetry of the building. 

The ceiling of the Divinity Hall is covered in the bosses (shields) of those who funded the building.  Again, a useful reminder that corporate sponsorship was alive and well half a millenium ago.  We should not be so precious about it today, providing it is done tastefully.

I went to visit a refurbished library in Hillingdon on Friday.  It may not sound the most exciting way to spend a Friday morning, but it was.  The new head of culture is a Tory councillor with the unlikely name of Henry Higgins, a man with an appropriately big personality and an ability to get things done.  In the last 18 months, he has knocked down an old library and rebuilt it.  He’s paid for it by putting 8 flats on top.  He’s put a Starbucks in the library, and some very nice Apple Macs.  He got a shopfitter to do the interior for a good price, and renegotiated the contract with the book supplier.  The library now opens from 8 in the morning until ten at night.  In two months, visits have gone up 80 per cent and book borrowings by 30 per cent.  He did it all on his own as well, with a consultant called Tim Coates (who used to run Waterstone’s) with no advice from the Government’s agency the Museum Libraries and Archives Council.  What is happening in Hillingdon is another good example of how you can refresh libraries in the 21st century, and yes, they still have lots of books in them.  Now Henry is going to tackle the other 16 libraries, and no, not one will close.  All for the same money.  It is a Tory council after all.

The Cleggmeister had his turn on the Andrew Marr show this morning.  Apparently the political divide is no longer between left and right (copyright: T. Blair) but between those who believe that the State does and interferes too much (that’ll be the Tories) and those who don’t (that’ll be Labour); those that take the environemnt seriously (that’ll be the Tories) and those that don’t (that’ll be Labour); and those that want to devolve power (that’ll be the Tories) and those that don’t (that’ll be Labour).  Guess which side the Cleggmeister is on?

I held a debate on the science cuts in my constituency and all over the country in Parliament yesterday.  You can read the text here http://pubs1.tso.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm080115/halltext/80115h0010.htm#08011594000003.

I told a few people this morning that the Cleggmeister would raise house prices at PMQs today.  And he did.  So every Wednesday, I will post at 11.55 my prediction of the Cleggmeister’s question.

New Labour’s favourite historian, and soon to be parliamentary candidate, Tristram Hunt, yesterday described Ken Baker’s proposal for a museum of British history as “deranged” in yesterday’s Guardian http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/heritage/story/0,,2240967,00.html.

Tristram thinks Ken Baker cooked this up to keep himself busy in his retirement.  In Fact the project was all ready to go in 1996.  Major had promised £50 million and a site had been found.  Then Blair, who hates history and culture, pulled the plug.

I can’t say I find anything offensive about a museum with a narrative history of Britain at its centre.  We could have some fine exhibits in one central place, and the history need not all be one-sided and Whiggish.  I like the idea as do many historians.

But perhaps I should take Tritram and new Labour’s views more seriously.  After all , they gave us that superb snapshot of Britain at the dawn of a new Millennium - the Dome.

Ummm….that guy I kept going on about…Mitt Romney…when you were all going on about McCain.  He just won Michigan, 39 per cent of the vote versus McCain’s 30 per cent.  Stick with me on this.  Romney vs Hillary.

Gordon and Sarah Brown, and Culture Secretary James Purnell, hosted a party to launch a catalogue of all the oil paintings held by the Government Art Collection (GAC).  The GAC supplies paintings to all Government buildings and embassies around the world, and it has in total some 23,000 works of art.  In typically British fashion, it was founded in 1898 to save money.  The view was that if the Government went out and bought a job lot of paintings, it could use them to cover the walls of Government offices and save on redecoration costs.  Needless to say it is now a pretty distinguished collection, although the catalogue allows you to play a parlour game of sorts to see who is included.  For example, there is only one Freud, very early, of a Welsh landscape; one Kossoff and one Hirst etc.

The catalogue was undertaken by the Public Catalogue Foundation, an extraordinary charity set up to catalogue all the oil paintings in public collections (80% of which are in storage).  In three-and-a-half years it has done 25% of the country.  If a Government body had been set up to do it, I am guessing not a single catalogue would yet have been produced.  

I see from yesterday’s Grauniad that the Labour party are advertising for a head of press (including final salary pension).  The job requires the applicant to have “first class communication skills, excellent political judgement and the ability to lead a busy team”.  Gordon Brown won’t be applying then!

(Cheap shot, but I couldn’t resist it.) 

We’re calling for a moratorium on the Arts Council cuts - you can read my piece here - on the Grauniad’s website, naturally.