This year’s Venice Biennale marks a major shift in European cultural politics suggests CLARE CAROLIN
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False gods
BINOY KAMPMARK lifts the veil on bad and costly advice supplied by the consultancy class
SNAKE OIL: Javid, Johnson and Sunak visit Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Herts 6/4/2022
[Pic: Simon Dawson/CC]
ANGUS REID applauds the potential of an ambitious show about Gaza, and encourages it to keep its nerve
MATTHEW HAWKINS considers the opening offering at the National Festival of Korean Dance
ANDY HEDGECOCK welcomes an effective and entertaining overview of those who see erroneous ideas as self-evident truths
KENNY MacASKILL welcomes that rare thing: a readable analysis and explanation of the capitalist economy
The world of fake news, where people don’t believe what they are fed, will lead to a demand for authenticity, suggests PAUL DONOVAN
The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilizes our Governments and Warps our Economies
by Mariana Mazzucato and Rosie Collington, Allen Lane, £25
CONSULTANCY companies have become the mandarins of outsourcing, and have served to degrade expertise in the public sector while diminishing the quality of services.
Along the way, they have charged astronomical fees in giving repeatedly flawed advice. Consultants, packaged as all-wise gurus, have become the great confidence tricksters.
Embracing the inner voodoo of consultancy had the effect of discouraging in-house contributions and solutions within government and the broader economy. The result has been a strange plea to those outside the public sector, resulting in what can only be described accurately as the consultacracy.
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