The lay of the case: Simon Amstell's hair

OK, now here is how a hung parliament works…

No, we've had enough of that for today. Unlikely as it seems, our nascent blogging is rooted in Simon Amstell's hair. This story from former colleague David Hyde's wonderful design blog makes the connection clear.

Here is Simon's hair a year or two back…

And here is ID's circa 1968…

But there is a political point to be made here. There am I at school in Barnsley in the 60s doing arty top-lit self portraits to try to get into art college or university, and two years later I'm at Reading University on a full grant. That kind of social mobility was only made possible by the Labour government of that time, and these days hardly anybody gets the exit velocity to leave the black hole. A big thank you to Michael Twyman is due, and also to Terry Frost who at the interview thought he might be getting someone with spinner's fingers for the art department cricket team.

 

Since the story is also about the lay of the case, the next link is that the blonde and I fed ourselves and our daughter by printing letterpress wood-type film society posters on an Albion Press.

 

 

We came out of University in 1973 with no money but no debts and a record collection. Now the average student debt is tens of thousands of pounds and Universities are going on strike.

 

Comments

[Mike]

"That kind of social mobility was only made possible by the Labour government of that time, and these days hardly anybody gets the exit velocity to leave the black hole."
But that was a country which then valued intellectual and cultural life and knew the importance of passing such traditions on to the new generation. Nowadays it's the bottom line that counts and a stupid one at that - if only one in ten students become job creators, they've enriched their nation manyfold. Loading them up with heavy debts is just barbarian stinginess, leading to an ever more divided society. Look at other, poorer European countries with great university traditions, where tuition is still free or inexpensive - their graduates are doing important work in their own countries and in others. Here endeth the Mikesrant!