Exec Blog

There was once a naughty king who decided that he wanted to create the best, most efficient country in the world. His name was King John Browne of Madingley.

King John decided that those of his people who could afford to go to University, of whom there were very few, would all study degrees that would help him build his new country. And so it was that there were many engineers, architects, scientists, economists, and business men and women, and people with other such great degrees.

King John declared that his newly educated population would then build roads; create wonderful new eco-friendly transport; engineer fantastic new railway systems; and build great new cities with fantastic buildings and booming businesses.

At the end of King John’s big build he stepped back and surveyed his kingdom. He thought it to be glorious. Transport links that were the envy of the world. Buildings that defied what many could believe possible. Cars and trains that could run on little more than carbon dioxide! And yet there was something missing in the naughty King’s utopia. The King’s people were nowhere to be seen.

The King was angered by this and so visited a lowly peasant called Stew Dent. ‘I have built you a fantastic new Kingdom; provided you with mind blowing cars and wonderful transport links; built incredible cities with towering buildings. Why aren’t you using all that I have provided you?’ roared and demanded the King.

‘Yes’, replied Stew Dent’ ‘you have provided us with ways and means of getting around and with buildings to rival all others for which we thank you. The problem is, we have nowhere to go. There are no actors filling your theatres with entertaining plays. There are no curators in museums or galleries telling us of great works of art. There is not a single musician filling our souls with glorious ballads and soul lifting tunes. Not a single philosopher providing us with thought provoking ideas or theologians enabling debate around the big issues of the time. There is nobody writing informed reviews of the non-existent great works of literature.’

With this the King saw the error of his ways. All of the funding in the world can go to ‘essential’ subjects that help build an efficient Kingdom, but without support for the arts and humanities any such Kingdom is doomed to be the dullest place in the world and a place that those of us like Stew Dent would rather not be a part of.