Imagination barrier

A very important contribution from Geoff Mulgan in view of our current difficulties (“Why politics needs more imagination”, Prospect online). Nostalgia— including intellectual nostalgia—is to be expected on the right and I am happy to leave them to it, but the lack of bold yet practical thinking on the centre-left is a real problem. It may cost the left its next chance to move the country forward in the way in which great reforming governments have in the past.

As Mulgan suggests, the answer lies partly in academia. We need a new generation of thinkers who are not obsessed with producing a quota of published papers every year but want to see their ideas tried out and are prepared to get their hands dirty in the messy world of practical politics. They will have to persuade progressive leaders to stop seeing politics as a marketing exercise and start to believe in their own ideas and values. This might be easier at the second tier of government— mayors, Scotland, Wales and so on.

Perhaps we need a new kind of research institution more dedicated to actually seeing things happen. I wonder also if the involvement of physical scientists in politics—perhaps towards the end of their careers—would not be a good thing. Keith Macdonald, via the website

A thought-provoking article by Mulgan. It would be interesting to see if this absence of imagination is tied to the lack of support for creative subjects in schools from the 1980s onwards. Arts and culture may not be seen as intrinsic to economies in the way maths and science are; yet without their stimulation of creative thought in young people, architects, economists and even politicians are stunted in their development.

Jo Towler, via the website