On 19/06/2012 11:07, Edward James wrote:
> Also agree with Mike. Cutting scientific research and teaching funding at universities will only harm Britain's economy in the long term.
>
Edward, can't you see it is the other way around: Britain's economy is 
not during very well in the long term is the reason we are cutting 
research and teaching.

Academics spent the last 40 years telling governments that if they put 
more into teaching and research that it would miraculously rejuvenate 
the economy ... whilst at the same time those same academics downplayed 
the important of engineering and manufacturing industry. We also had the 
rise of anti-industry "science" like the climate, the end of 
apprenticeships, media studies, post-normal carp, etc.

It is really the chickens coming home to roost. If academics give bad 
advice which wrecks our economy**, then eventually the economy cannot 
support those academics ... although if truth be told, it is probably 
academics who have already retired on good pensions who sent Britain 
into a decade of anti-industry "debt-oconomy" banking-boom and now we 
have several decades of bust as we have to pay back that debt.

And archaeology was also part of this anti-industry trend, particularly 
the post-normal ... you can think what you like luvy, 
gender-archaeology, identity-archaeology, no doubt "anti-industry 
archaeology.

Archaeology should be one of the most important tools in economic 
development, because it should allow us to learn the economic lessons of 
the past and vastly extend our ability to predict the future in our 
uncertain would. Instead, I was being taught how to spin a more 
convincing story about the past - a past which didn't seem to have an 
economy, and where buildings miraculously appeared due to this or that 
ritualistic reason.

As I said, it is the chickens coming home to roost.

Mike

**As a simple examples the "Science and Engineering" committee of the 
House of Commons became "Science and Technology". There are now 
scientific advisers in each department, not one of them is an engineer.