Whither now for the Professions?

June 1, 2009

winding-road.jpg

Spada’s White Paper, British Professions Today: the State of the Sector, paints a revealing picture of the professions. It appears that its practitioners may sometimes take their role and influence for granted, that its critics bemoan an apparent self-interest, and that the professions’ ultimate regulator – the government – appears willing to ignore the voices of professionals at the same time as issuing policy statements recognising that social mobility is enhanced by better access to the professions.

And yet change is afoot. The very collaboration among diverse professional bodies in the creation of Spada’s report – the first of its kind – is indicative of a nascent recognition of the usefulness of cross profession co-operation. That this can only be a good thing is undeniable: the professions matter hugely to GB PLC, contributing 8% of total UK output and being the largest employer in the country, with 11.5% of total UK employment.

Spada’s White Paper contains many other facts and figures to bolster the headline points, and in the timing of its publication, coincidental with the global crisis in banking, amounts to a salient analysis of a sector which may be in transition, but which has everything to play for.

Image of a road which is winding, but may not be long, courtesy of Birdyboo on Flickr.

 

Comments

Please submit comments to Swordplay below.

From the inside of the maze, ethically outwards

February 9, 2012

Curious times in the media; strange days at The Times.

Would ‘Dacre Cards‘ – the system of licensing journalists proposed by Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre – have prevented the embarrassment now palpable at the Times over the NightJack story?

Times editor James Harding’s evidence to the Leveson Inquiry seemed heartfelt and contrite, albeit that the paper’s former long-serving and much-respected lawyer, Alastair Brett, seems to have been, er, rather dropped in it. Clearly, mistakes were made with regard to NightJack by young reporter Patrick Foster who, once he had hacked into NightJack’s account and thus discovered his identity, then embarked on a quest to expose it via legitimate methods. This, as Inquiry counsel Robert Jay QC put it, was “rather like working from the inside of the maze out”.

But had Foster been licensed via a Dacre Card, would this unsavoury episode in the Times’s history have been avoided?

We suspect not. A raft of laws were in existence at precisely the time when many News of the World journalists seemed to believe that they were entitled to hack any phone they liked. Those laws forbade them from doing so, and yet made no difference. Aside from the obvious objection to them – that they will squeeze out freelancers and citizen journalists – Dacre Cards would simply amount to something to circumvent.

What is really required is an ethical shake-up, from top to bottom. Society generally – not just journalists – needs a sense that some things are just plain wrong.

Supreme Court on Twitter

February 6, 2012

Something remarkable happened today. Yes, the Supreme Court launched its Twitter feed. It even has a Twitter policy, one of caveats, disclaimers and little by way of illumination but regardless: who would have thought that the successor body to the House of Lords would stoop to engage with the world of tweets, hashtags and retweets?

We look forward to the day when court business will be conducted via Twitter. Meantime, check out this link for an excellent blog on the Supreme Court.

Not so right said Fred

February 2, 2012
fred hat

So Farewell, then, Sir Fred Goodwin.

Now you are just Fred.

Not Right Said Fred, but plain Fred.

The Forfeiture Committee did for you.

No one had heard of it before,

But Dave said it had to act, and it did.

Trouble is that no one knows what to think.

Is it ‘Alas, poor Fred‘,

Or ‘Hurray! Sir Fred is dead!’?

We don’t know.

Do you?

By A. Mob, aged 1,378 and a half.