Alarm bell Britain

Nick Clegg, UK's deputy PM, likes to talk about “alarm clock Britain” - a phrase that rings bells for our own PM. In this vision, Britons set their alarms in order to wake and work, to give their time in exchange for social capital, and selflessly do without the things that might otherwise have made life lovely, the things the government might otherwise have paid for.

As Cameron's cuts loom, alarm increases about the civil and social amenity they threaten. Scottish novelist AL Kennedy has a heartwarming and amusing blog at The Guardian, and her post on why arts funding shouldn't be cut should be read by everyone. It moved me to tears.