Jeremy Hardy was wrong

Morning-after ruminations. On this bright new day, it’s interesting to note just how close some of the US foundations have been to the whole process. Two of them - the Annenberg Foundation and the Joyce Foundation – got caught up in the McCarthyite smears which Republicans used to try and damage Obama. And now that they’ve failed, foundation people are amongst those likely to find places in the new administration. My friend Colin Greer, director of the New World Foundation, gave what turns out to be quite a prescient interview to Open Democracy in December 2004, just after Kerry had lost, on how the Democrats could win. The interest which US foundations have shown in politics, social justice and related issues is in stark contrast with the situation here, even allowing for the difference in scale. Why do UK foundations find it so difficult to work together, to respond to crises, to focus on matters with a political dimension? The formation of the Woburn Place Collaborative is a potentially significant step forward, and those of its meetings that I’ve been privileged to attend have been positive and constructive occasions. But then you come to action – to actually doing stuff, launching programmes, making smart interventions - that’s where it all seems to go pear-shaped. So much so, that I now honestly believe that the most significant crisis facing humankind, with profound implications for social justice, will, so far as actual work goes, be largely unacknowledged by even some of the most progressive UK foundations. There are honourable exceptions, of course, including some here in my home city of Old York, but by and large UK foundations are hoping that climate change will go away, while they bury their heads under the duvet. Meanwhile mine (head, not duvet) is aching from banging it against a brick wall (see Stepping up the Stairs, Responding to the Rooftops).

But, hey, nobody likes a whinger at a time like this. Maybe the truly amazing events of this week will inspire UK foundations in ways as yet unimagined - it may take a little time. As for me, I'm still finding it difficult to adjust to the reality of President-Elect Obama; ever since - just after the first UK bank collapse - Jeremy Hardy asked the News Quiz audience "Listen - if there's anyone out there who seriously thinks the USA will elect a black man to the presidency, I'd like to meet you, as I've got some Northern Rock shares I'd like to sell you...", I've convinced myself that it couldn't happen (a conviction aided by the man from Pittsburgh with whom I had breakfast - see earlier post). And, astonishingly, unbelievably, wonderfully, it has.