Firetop

Last night I attended the Autumn Reception of the ‘Academic and Professional Division’ of the Publishers Association (there’s a mouthful!). The evening featured a guest appearance from the Shadow Minister for Higher Education – Boris Johnson. Boris was his usual cheeky self but this time not commending parents on feeding junk food to their children through playground fences. I felt very much that he had modelled himself on TV detective ‘Columbo’ – portraying himself as a man who isn’t really with it, blundering his way through a speech as required… but beneath it all being completely switched on. In his speech to the fifty or so of us present at the Royal Society, Boris made one thing completely clear – he isn’t scared of Google despite what some academics in the room had discussed with him prior to his visit to the lectern.

Why does Boris Johnson think we shouldn’t fear Google and its ability to devalue the traditional print publishing model by giving away content free?
a) You can’t press a flower with a computer.
b) We’ll always need something to swat mosquitoes with.
c) People will always need something to light fires with.

Amusing yes, but not very reassuring for a room full of genuinely concerned academic publishers! Boris did at least have one thing to assure us of – by taking on a profession which saw the continued maintenance of British culture through the publishing of academic text books, we were doing something inherently Conservative. Thank goodness, god forbid anybody in the room might not have a degree or vote anything other than Tory…

Technorati Tags: boris johnson, tory, publishers association

Bookmark to: