The White Heat of Technology

After Labour's victory in the 1964 General Election, Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Tony Benn coined the phrase "white heat of technology."[3] The phrase has become synonymous with Wilson's vision for a modern, technologically advanced Britain. It is often cited as an example of his commitment to science and technology and his belief that they were key to Britain's future success.
A new Britain would be forged in the "white heat" of a technological revolution and we would be part of it. They aimed to educate more of the population in science and technology so that the UK could compete in this exciting new age of technological advances epitomised by Concorde and the opening of the Post Office Tower in London.
However, the "white heat of technology" was not just empty rhetoric. It had real-world consequences, especially for students like ourselves who were studying for science A-levels during 1964-66. At WLBHS, the number of students studying science A-levels in 1966 already outnumbered those studying Arts and Humanities by 2:1, a significant shift from 1959 when the numbers were almost equal.

There were even bigger changes in the university education we were about to embark upon. The existing Colleges of Advanced Technology (CATS), Bradford and Salford, for example, became brand new universities in time for some of my 6th-form classmates, in this photo, to enrol. Elsewhere, university science courses were increased in size so that lecture theatres and labs were filled to capacity. Additionally, 30 new polytechnics, teacher training colleges and the Open University were established. For the first time the education budget exceeded that for defence.

Science 6th form in Physics lab just before A levels , 1966

Arts v. Science -The Empire Fights back.

During my years in the Science 6th form at WLBHS, the education authorities decreed that we should all be given some arts education to prevent us from becoming complete philistines. Was this reaction just a case of the arts and humanities "empire" striking back to preserve their jobs, I wonder?

Accordingly, we spent a term reading "La Vie de Madame Curie" with Ben Baldry and also attended a series of illustrated lectures by Mr. Mounsden on the history of architecture. Many of us may have been tempted to pay little or no attention to these extracurricular arts lessons. In my case, however, the teachers made a good choice of topics.

Mousey's slideshows particularly captured my attention, taking us on a journey from the Beehive tombs and Lion gate at Mycenae, via Egyptian, Greek, and Roman temples, to the Dome of the Hagia Sophia Basilica in Constantinople and the magnificent flying buttresses of gothic cathedrals like Notre Dame. Paul Haigh, an ex WLBHS student who became an architect, commented to me that Mounsden made them draw every illustration in Fletcher-Bannister's tome "A History of Architecture by the Comparative Method" so we were probably given a small dose of that.

At the time I never envisaged visiting any of the archeological and architectural sites Mousey mentioned but I have been lucky enough to visit most of them. The ability to distinguish Ionic, Doric, and Corinthian columns in visits to archaeological sites and the British Museum gained me more kudos than Newton's Laws of Motion ever did.

What a pity we never had a field trip.We could have found suitable architectural examples literally on our front doorstep and a little further afield in Holbeck where Temple Mill was a full-sized replica of the Egyptian temple of Horus at Edfu. , but they were covered in a century's worth of Leeds soot until building facades were revealed by stone-cleaning in the 1970s.

Replica classical temple columns in the portico at the school's main entrance.

<Temple Mill, was built in 1840 by John Marshall, a flax-spinner. The mill was designed by engineer David Roberts and architect Ignatius Bonomi. It was built on a two-acre site in Holbeck and is a replica of the Temple of Horus in Edfu, Egypt. The mill boasted many unique features including ducts for air-conditioning, a giant obelisk for a chimney, and a glass roof that was later covered in grass for sheep grazing. John Marshall became one of the first millionaires of the industrial revolution and was MP for Yorkshire between 1826-1830. Today, the Grade I listed building is used as offices.

Who knew we had this in Leeds? Just think I could have saved myself that Nile Cruise if I had only taken a Leeds Corporation bus to Holbeck in my teens!

Designs of Egyptian temple column

The Pantheon , Rome

Afterthoughts

In retrospect did any of it rub off on us? Are scientists/engineers of that generation slightly more cultured than they might otherwise have been? Please take a moment to answer this "scientific" questionnaire:
On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you appreciate and engage with culture and the arts?
Are you a complete philistine (1) or a sophisticated culture vulture (10)?

I can only speak for myself but I remember talking to an English student who was carrying a stack of books to study for her finals, and found that I had read several of them myself for recreation. I doubt the opposite scenario would ever happen, where an art student would pick up a book on, say, Quantum Mechanics for leisure time reading; maybe in a parallel universe! Many arty people who bought Prof. Stephen Hawking's popular science book "A Brief History of Time" admit to never reading more than a few pages..

It is peculiar that in the UK its acceptable for members establishment to be almost proud of their technical ignorance as long as they can spout eloquently about opera or the classics. Boris "Cinncinatus" Johnson comes to mind. After the 2008 financial crash I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when a parliamentary enquiry asked each board member of the failed Royal Bank of Scotland in turn whether any of them held a basic banking qualification. You can guess the answer. As recently as 2019, only 1 in 10 fast track graduates to the Civil Service had a science degree.

Fast forward to 2023, and I find it ironic that the government is now concerned that too few of our 6th formers choose STEM subjects, and the curriculum is being altered once again so that English and Maths are compulsory to age 18. At least they will be numerate and literate before they choose to study for a "Mickey Mouse" degree, in film studies or Beatles studies, for example. A difficult choice but I am sure they can work it out.

The long-standing conflict between arts and science may finally be over thanks to the development of a powerful weapon by the STEM community -Artificial Intelligence. AI represents a triumph for the "science nerds" as it is being used first in the creative arts sector where it is already causing a paradigm shift in the way things are done.