poetix

this time for sure

What Are the Humanities For?

A run-down of the higher education of the current Cabinet (first degree / other higher ed course only):

Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service

  • The Rt Hon David Cameron MP: PPE at Oxford.

Deputy Prime Minister, Lord President of the Council (with special responsibility for political and constitutional reform)

  • The Rt Hon Nick Clegg MP: Social Anthropology at Cambridge.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

  • First Secretary of State, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs - The Rt Hon William Hague MP: PPE at Oxford.
  • Minister of State - Jeremy Browne MP: Politics at Nottingham.
  • Minister of State - David Lidington MP: History at Cambridge.
  • Minister of State - The Rt Hon Lord Howell of Guildford: MA from Cambridge (Wikipedia doesn’t say what in).
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Henry Bellingham MP: Law at Cambridge.
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Alistair Burt MP: Law at Oxford.

HM Treasury

  • Chancellor of the Exchequer - The Rt Hon George Osborne MP: Modern History at Oxford.
  • Chief Secretary to the Treasury - The Rt Hon Danny Alexander MP: PPE at Oxford.
  • Financial Secretary - Mark Hoban MP: Economics at the LSE.
  • Exchequer Secretary - David Gauke MP: Law at Oxford.
  • Economic Secretary - Justine Greening MP: Economics at Southampton.
  • Commercial Secretary - Sir James Sassoon: Oxford, couldn’t find out what.

Ministry of Justice

  • Lord Chancellor, Secretary of State for Justice - The Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke QC MP: Law at Cambridge.
  • Minister of State - The Rt Hon Lord McNally (and Deputy Leader of the House of Lords): UCL, don’t know what degree.
  • Minister of State - Nick Herbert MP (jointly with the Home Office): Law and Land Economy at Cambridge.
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Crispin Blunt MP: Politics at Durham.
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Jonathan Djanogly MP: Law and Politics at Oxford Poly.

Home Office

  • Secretary of State for the Home Department; and Minister for Women and Equalities - The Rt Hon Theresa May MP: Geography at Oxford.
  • Minister of State (Minister for Immigration) - Damian Green MP: PPE at Oxford.
  • Minister of State (Minister for Security) - Baroness Neville-Jones: Modern History at Oxford.
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - James Brokenshire MP: Law at Exeter.
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Equalities) - Lynne Featherstone MP: Diploma in Communication and Design at Oxford Poly.

Ministry of Defence

  • Secretary of State for Defence - The Rt Hon Dr Liam Fox MP: Medicine at University of Glasgow Medical School (first scientist so far).
  • Minister of State (Minister for the Armed Forces) - Nick Harvey MP: Business Studies at Middlesex Poly (first business person so far).
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Gerald Howarth MP: unknown BA from Southampton.
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Andrew Robathan MP: Modern History at Oxford.
  • Parliamentary under Secretary of State - Peter Luff MP: Economics at Cambridge.
    • Parliamentary under Secretary of State* - Lord Astor of Hever DL: No degree recorded.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

  • Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, and President of the Board of Trade - The Rt Hon Dr Vincent Cable MP: Natural Sciences and Economics at Cambridge.
  • Minister of State (Minister for Universities and Science) - David Willetts MP: PPE at Oxford.
  • Minister of State - John Hayes MP: Politics at Nottingham.
  • Minister of State - Mark Prisk MP: Land Management at Reading.
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Edward Davey MP: PPE at Oxford.
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - The Hon Ed Vaizey MP (jointly with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport): History at Oxford.
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Baroness Wilcox: Plymouth Poly, degree unknown.

Department for Work and Pensions

  • Secretary of State for Work and Pensions - The Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP: No degree.
  • Minister of State - Chris Grayling MP: History at Cambridge.
  • Minister of State - Steve Webb MP: PPE at Oxford.
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Maria Miller MP: Economics at the LSE.
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Welfare Reform) - Lord Freud: Oxford, degree unknown.

Department of Energy and Climate Change

  • Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change - The Rt Hon Chris Huhne MP: PPE at Oxford.
  • Minister of State - Gregory Barker MP: History and Politics at Royal Holloway.
  • Minister of State - Charles Hendry MP: Business Studies at Edinburgh.
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Lord Marland: no degree.

Department of Health

  • Secretary of State for Health - The Rt Hon Andrew Lansley CBE MP: Politics at Exeter.
  • Minister of State - Paul Burstow MP: Business Studies at South Bank Poly.
  • Minister of State - Simon Burns MP: Modern History at Oxford.
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Anne Milton MP: no degree.
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Earl Howe: Classics at Oxford (first classicist so far, slightly surprisingly).

Department for Education

  • Secretary of State for Education - The Rt Hon Michael Gove MP: English at Oxford (bleh!).
  • Minister of State - Sarah Teather MP: Natural Sciences at Cambridge.
  • Minister of State - Nick Gibb MP: Law at Durham.
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Tim Loughton MP: Classical Civilisation at Warwick (followed by a stint of research into Mesopotamian Archeology at Cambridge)
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Jonathan Hill: History at Cambridge.

Department for Communities and Local Government

  • Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government - The Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP: Law Society qualifying exams at Leeds Poly.
  • Minister of State - Greg Clark MP: Economics at Cambridge.
  • Minister of State - Grant Shapps MP: HND in Business and Finance at Manchester Poly.
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Andrew Stunell OBE MP: Architecture at Manchester and Liverpool Poly.
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Bob Neill MP: LSE, degree unknown.
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Baroness Hanham CBE: unknown.

Department for Transport

  • Secretary of State for Transport - The Rt Hon Philip Hammond MP: PPE at Oxford.
  • Minister of State - Theresa Villiers MP: Bachelor of Laws at Bristol.
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Norman Baker MP: German and History at Royal Holloway.
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Mike Penning MP: no degree.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

  • Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - The Rt Hon Caroline Spelman MP: European Studies at Queen Mary.
  • Minister of State - James Paice MP: National Diploma in Agriculture at Writtle Agricultural college.
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Richard Benyon MP: Royal Agricultural College, presumably similar qualification to above.
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Lord Henley: Durham, degree unknown.

Department for International Development

  • Secretary of State for International Development - The Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP: History at Cambridge.
  • Minister of State - Alan Duncan MP: Politics and Economics at Oxford.
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Stephen O’Brien MP: Law at Cambridge.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

  • Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport - The Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP: PPE at Oxford.
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - John Penrose MP: Law at Cambridge.
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Hugh Robertson MP: Land Management at Reading.

Northern Ireland Office

  • Secretary of State for Northern Ireland - The Rt Hon Owen Paterson MP: History at Cambridge.
  • Minister of State - Hugo Swire MP: St Andrews, degree unknown.

Scotland Office

  • Secretary of State for Scotland - Michael Moore MP: Politics and Modern History at Edinburgh.
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - David Mundell MP: Law at Edinburgh.

Wales Office

  • Secretary of State for Wales - The Rt Hon Cheryl Gillan MP: No degree (attended College of Law)
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - David Jones MP: Law (probably) at UCL.

Minister without Portfolio (Minister of State)

  • The Rt Hon Baroness Warsi: Law at Leeds.

Office of the Leader of the House of Lords

  • Leader of the House of Lords, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster - The Rt Hon Lord Strathclyde: BA in something or other at UEA.

Office of the Leader of the Commons

  • Leader of the House of Commons, Lord Privy Seal - The Rt Hon Sir George Young Bt MP: PPE at Oxford.
  • Parliamentary Secretary (Deputy Leader) - David Heath CBE MP: Physiological Sciences at Oxford.

Cabinet Office

  • Minister for the Cabinet Office, Paymaster General - The Rt Hon Francis Maude MP: Law (again, presumably) at Cambridge.
  • Minister of State (providing policy advice to the Prime Minister in the Cabinet Office) - The Rt Hon Oliver Letwin MP: Philosophy and History at Cambridge.
  • Parliamentary Secretary - Mark Harper MP: PPE at Oxford.
  • Parliamentary Secretary - Nick Hurd MP: Oxford, degree unknown.

I’m omitting the various law officers, whips, assistant whips, baronesses in waiting etc. out of sheer fatigue.

What is the value, to these executives and administrators of our parliamentary democracy and to the society which they are elected to serve, of their degrees in PPE and Modern History? (I would want to include Law too, although it’s not really a “humanities” degree, because the study of Law at degree level, perhaps especially at Oxbridge, is about a great deal more than acquiring legal competence). What did studying for those degrees do for them, or to them, or enable them to do with themselves?

When we’re asked what the humanities are for, what particular virtue they inculcate in those who study them, humanities people tend to talk a lot about “thinking critically”. Which is well and good, but is only really the very beginning of an answer. Given the opportunity, we may go on to say that thinking critically - reflecting on matters of value, the bases of judgement - is worthwhile because it is an essential aspect of democratic participation (without it, there is a risk of making decisions by rote, acting from prejudice rather than informed consideration of the situation).

But this also means that it is a directly meaningful activity only in a context where such participation is itself meaningful: where people are involved in shared deliberation over the issues that concern them. It is indirectly meaningful when such conditions do not obtain: when one can “think critically” but not act critically; when the impotence of thinking, critically registered, negatively indicates a failure of democracy.

Students of the humanities are learning how to contribute in certain important ways (which are not the only important ways) to democratic processes which don’t exist yet, or at least not for them. They are also learning thereby that something is missing from the world they are going to have to be adults in. (Some will have been drawn to the humanities precisely because they already have this sense that something is missing, and want a vocabulary to describe the gap or loss). The humanities foster a discontent which is not just about status - the feeling that, having done well at school and university, one ought to be rewarded with a better-than-average job - but is also about yearning for a social reality in which critical reflection can be an effective part of the way people make decisions about their lives.

The current disdain for the humanities is disdain for the impotence of thought, for its perceived inability to break out of the ontological closure of a captive democracy. Why waste money on something that can gain no purchase on the world as it really and inevitably is? It’s quixotic at best, self-salving and narcissistic at worst, to keep plugging away at “critical thought” in a social and political vacuum. But the answer to this is neither to kowtow to market apologetics (we keep the creative juices flowing through the culture industry!), nor to insist even more loudly that educated cerebration is good “in itself”, but to go to where the struggle is - or, to put it another way, to where the democracy we dream of is starting to take form.