The 1948 Belcher Affair and Lynskey Tribunal

Although the Belcher affair was one of the biggest cases ofpolitical corruption in twentieth-century Britain, the scandaland resultant judicial inquiry have received little attentionin political histories of the 1940s due to their lack of electoralimpact. This outcome was not apparent to contemporary politicalcommentators. The allegations were serious and elements of theConservative Party were willing to use them to smear the Labourgovernment. The government successfully defused the scandalby appointing a judicial inquiry to investigate the allegations.They hoped this would dispel rumours of widespread corruption.However, it had the unintended effect of scotching public debate.The allegations became sub judice, hindering the activitiesof the scandalmongers. Tedious press coverage of the tribunalhearings bored many voters, who interpreted the scandal in linewith their existing beliefs.     

FROM VALUE CHAIN TO VALUE CREATING ECOLOGY

The metaphor of a “value creating ecology” is developed to describe the operation of the creative industries. This encapsulates three important trends, namely the shift from consumers to co‐creators of value; the shift from thinking about product value to thinking about network value; and the shift from thinking about cooperation or competition to thinking about co‐opetition. Underlying this metaphor is recognition of the need to consider both public mechanisms as well as the market when framing creative industries development policy. Policy implications for human capital, urban policy and sectoral infrastructure are described.