It's easier to pressurise a book festival to sever symbolic commercial ties than a business summit, reasons Robin McAlpine as he explores the complexity of corporate arts sponsorship.
For an atheist I’ve read a surprising amount of theology in my time. St Augustine was always my favourite – it’s not just the backstory, it’s the great quote “Lord make me pure, but not yet”. That is a wonderful way to conceptualise the way we tell ourselves that we want to do the right thing but not at the expense of our immediate self interest.
It was that wonderful quote that I thought of when I read the open letter from various high-profile writers (some are friends) decrying the end of a sponsorship deal between the Edinburgh Book Festival and the private investment company Baillie Gifford.
Let me get a few things out of the way here. First, of all the corporate targets one might want to list for priority boycotts, Baillie Gifford isn’t high on the list. As these things go it is frankly probably better than most in the realms of ethical investment approaches in mainstream investment funds... Keep reading onRobinMcAlpine.org.
For an atheist I’ve read a surprising amount of theology in my time. St Augustine was always my favourite – it’s not just the backstory, it’s the great quote “Lord make me pure, but not yet”. That is a wonderful way to conceptualise the way we tell ourselves that we want to do the right thing but not at the expense of our immediate self interest.
It was that wonderful quote that I thought of when I read the open letter from various high-profile writers (some are friends) decrying the end of a sponsorship deal between the Edinburgh Book Festival and the private investment company Baillie Gifford.
Let me get a few things out of the way here. First, of all the corporate targets one might want to list for priority boycotts, Baillie Gifford isn’t high on the list. As these things go it is frankly probably better than most in the realms of ethical investment approaches in mainstream investment funds... Keep reading on RobinMcAlpine.org.