Weekly discussion programme, setting the cultural agenda every Monday Andrew Marr is joined by Antony Gormley, David Kynaston, Anna Coote and Fintan O'Toole. On Start the Week, Andrew Marr begins the new year with a look at austerity. Anna Coote argues that it's time to embrace a new set of values that are not dependent on high rolling consumerism and, as unemployment rises, to share out the working hours more evenly. The great chronicler of Austerity Britain of the fifties, David Kynaston, explores whether there are any lessons to be learnt from earlier decades of thrift and dissent. The artist Antony Gormley discusses a new collaboration in which he explores the idea of survival in a world in which we are bombarded with information but have very little direct control. And Fintan O'Toole, Irish Times columnist, looks at at how Ireland is dealing with its 5th austerity budget and asks if there are lessons we can learn from the fate of the Celtic Tiger. Ireland has introduced its fifth austerity budget, the result of an economy undergoing one of the deepest recessions in the eurozone. But what effect has this had on Irish society? Now that the Celtic Tiger is extinct, what kind of animal will emerge? And what lessons can we learn about living with austerity from Ireland’s stark example? Fintan O’Toole, columnist for The Irish Times and chronicler of Ireland’s financial woes, joins Andrew Marr to discuss debasement, atonement and repayment. As the country faces uncertain economic times, the social historian David Kynaston looks back to a previous age of austerity. After the war in 1945 the country lacked basic resources, from supermarkets to teabags, but continued rationing meant there was a feeling of shared pain. In contrast, at the start of 2012 the shops are full, and the disparity between rich and poor is starker than ever. But the frustration of ‘the squeezed middle’ is reflected in both periods, and Kynaston believes that the roots of today’s individualistic society had already taken hold in the post-war period. David Kynaston's third volume in his post-war social history, Modernity Britain 1957-63, will be published by Bloomsbury later this year. Famed for his models of the human form, Antony Gormley is a sculptor whose work reaches beyond the purely physical and resonates deep within the human psyche. His iconic ‘Angel of the North’ has become a celebrated feature of the landscape at Gateshead, its looming form with outstretched wings inspiring both awe and wonder. In his latest project Gormley has joined forces with the choreographer and composer Hofesh Shechter to explore the idea of survival, in a world that has become uncertain, and in which we have little control. Survivor is on at the Barbican from 12-14 January. Is the solution to our economic woes to work less? Anna Coote of the New Economics Foundation argues that the maximum working week for everyone should be just 21 hours. Rather than being tied to an eight hours, 5 days a week culture, developed for Victorian factories, we should spread the working load across more people to allow us all to ‘work less, live more’. But is it feasible? And could we pay for it? Anna Coote is chairing a discussion called ‘About Time - Examining the case for a shorter working week’ at the London School of Economics on Wednesday 11 January.Start the Week
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Austerity: Antony Gormley, David Kynaston and Anna Coote
Austerity: Antony Gormley, David Kynaston and Anna Coote
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SYNOPSIS
Producer: Katy Hickman.FINTAN O'TOOLE
DAVID KYNASTON
ANTONY GORMLEY
ANNA COOTE
BROADCASTS
Mon 9 Jan 2012
09:00
Mon 9 Jan 2012
21:30
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