ABSTRACT
Through the 1990s Britain’s manufacturing industries were in steep decline. Faced with companies that were uncompetitive, badly managed and boring, many young people preferred to work in financial services and media, which were growing faster, were more fun and were better paid. Policy-makers were slow to recognise this shift. Prime Minister Tony Blair admitted in 1997 that Parliament might well debate declining jobs in the shipbuilding industry but would struggle to hold a debate on design. 1 Initially, his new government continued to push the old agenda. Its report that year on ‘Competitiveness: A Benchmark for Business’ mentioned printing but not publishing; its White Paper, ‘Building the Knowledge-Driven Economy’, mentioned knowledge not creativity; and its new 22childhood curriculum said that creativity applied only to the arts. 2
