Value of Design - The Global Design Forum – Wednesday 11th June 2025

I’m writing this on the 14th of February 2026 (clearly no romance in my life!), so I’m just going to post the real-time notes I made at the time:

Ways of being - book, check it out
Arts and culture is more of a multplier interms of government investment, than the car industry, yet that's never discussed. Also, there's the human factor; the enrichment of people's lives.
Yet, in the culture war, the arts are the first things to be cut. However, in private schools, the arts are never cut. Reinforces the idea that the arts are elitist.

Financial Insurance Real Estate (FIRE), accountants for 80% of the economy in the UK, and that doesn't reach the 'real' economy.
The UK is 28th in the OECD in terms of business investment. The UK is a low investment economy.
The UK government is just shit. During covid, and the 2008 crash, they gave money to private companies, with no conditions.
This was not the case in Europe, where those companies had to make changes to lower emissions.

The arts are resilient and provide so many benefits, yet the government consistently devalues it, because it doesn't even know how to value it!

There's never money for the arts or public programmes, but infinite amounts of money for war. We're seeing it in real time right now!

There's a water crisis, but no government is doing anything about it. Yet for war, they magic money overnight.

Growth is not a mission, it is the byproduct of investment! Yet Labour can't seem to grasp that. We have no growth because we have no investment.

The government know the numbers, they just don't give a shit, because it doesn't affect them or their kids.