Such basic skills as measured drawing, drawing from life and classical geometry now find no place in the courses of most schools of architecture.This, to my mind, is a short-sighted tragedy and serves to undermine the very integration of craftsmanship, art and building that is surely the ultimate ambition of architecture itself. Like the examples of medicine or agriculture, I am convinced that the time has come for a rehabilitation of these techniques in the quest for a more complete, organic and more sustainable architecture of the future.My foundation is unusual, because, alongside the teaching work, we bring together an immensely rich range of practical project work as diverse as the redesign of run-down housing estates in Liverpool, the revitalisation of historic urban neighbourhoods like Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter and Manchester’s Ancoats, as well as the design of major new communities on the edges of existing towns in Basildon. I have always been a supporter of what is sometimes called “community planning” or “action planning” and I am delighted that this is being recognised as a legitimate, even welcome, method of involving people in the planning of new development.Stephen Lawrence was cruelly robbed of the chance to develop his potential talents in the field of architecture. I am sure that his parents will join with me in hoping that the trust established in Stephen’s memory, and my foundation, can find more opportunities for those with talent to find a role in building design, and to help them find inspiration in the many cultural and craft traditions to which I have referred. In that way, perhaps, it may be possible to create a fitting memorial to Stephen Lawrence.. I say, sack him No, disembowel him. Impale him on one of the yellow pylons that poke from the Dome’s surface.

The whole business is clearly his fault, and even if it isn’t, you can’t have a disaster on such a scale without someone getting the bum’s rush. And who else is there? The trouble is, no one resigns any more; not politicians, not unsuccessful generals nor business people, not even football managers. They just wait to be sacked and pick up the compensation or the golden handshake There’s no honour in public life these days

I say, sack him No, disembowel him. Impale him on one of the yellow pylons that poke from the Dome’s surface. The whole business is clearly his fault, and even if it isn’t, you can’t have a disaster on such a scale without someone getting the bum’s rush. And who else is there? The trouble is, no one resigns any more; not politicians, not unsuccessful generals nor business people, not even football managers.

They just wait to be sacked and pick up the compensation or the golden handshake. There’s no honour in public life these days.
Now all you have to do, dear reader, is decide who the “him” is that has to be sacrificed, and we can get all that bit of the argument out of the way. William Hague believes that X marks the spot between Lord Falconer’s once-twinkling eyes and went all the way to the Dome to say so. The problem for Mr Hague is that we shall shortly be seeing the report of the inquiry into BSE, a tragedy that cost this country more than £20bn, an entire industry and hundreds of lives – and for which neither Mr Hague nor any of his cabinet colleagues ever felt the need even to apologise, let alone resign. Just a tad more important than the poor old Dome.Such routine hypocrisy is not just the province of the Conservative leader. We are beset with people who complain that the Dome money could have been spent on hospitals, yet who have also argued strongly for the “additionality” principle, according to which lottery money should not be used to fund activities that are the normal responsibility of government.