Umm. Err. Umm. Err...

Over the last fifteen or twenty years British culture (certainly English culture, that might be a bit unfair on Scotland and Wales) has been a derivative of London's position as a command and control centre of globalisation.*

You don't think so? Come on, what is English culture?

Property, expensive restaurants (TV chefs, for example, are a derivative of a derivative, a sort of sub prime cut) and contemporary fine art.

Just the sort of one-off experiences and objects, with infinitely inflatable prices, that you need if you've made a fortune nudging 1s and 0s up and down wires and are looking for something to spend it on.

So. Umm. Err. Umm. Err. What now?

Maybe we can have a new culture? With a different sense of value?

But maybe after 20 years, there is nothing (and nowhere) left to support those other values?

*The Global City, Saskia Sasson, Princeton University Press, 1991