Concerned Bloggers Association: I Predict a Riot

Yeah, it's direct. But you clicked the adult content filter, so don't get bent out of shape, k?

So the incoming English Baccalaureate probably isn't going to include the arts as core subjects. It's all stuff that makes money in the short term.

This is unbelievably short-sighted, of course: and while Tracey Emin, quoted above, might not be on the money exactly, Sian would like the reaction to the work of Education Minister Michael Gove who is, by any sane reckoning, a colossal gaping asshole, to be comparable.

You bring back the conception of art as the work of the amateur, the person who has the time and space to do it as a hobby, you take it away from the people. It becomes once again the preserve of the privileged and, limited only to the very few, ceases to matter at all. You take away the arts from the people, you impoverish education and you impoverish society. 

Yes, Sian is angry. But it matters. It matters a lot. We have to do something about it. Write to your MP. Sign (or start) a petition (like this one or this one - why the hell does the one on the British Government website have so few signatures?) and maybe even take to the streets. Sian doesn't support smashing things, but wants you to get angry.

This message was once again brought to you by the Concerned Bloggers Association.