Labour pledges Arts Council clean-up
NewsThe Labour Party’s shadow culture secretary Thangam Debbonaire has promised, in a tweet, to change the long-failing funding body for arts in England.
Here’s what she says: Arts Council England has been given broad priorities & asked to reach into more and more areas. I think it’s time to re-discover its core purpose.
Labour is committed to reviewing ACE. We will consider how to best position it to face the opportunities of the next decade.
Reading between the lines, she’s saying ACE has exceeded its remit and needs to be dragged back to prioritising the arts. Not diversity or social justice or regional development or self-promotion. Just arts.
This reads like the best political arts statement in a decade.
Ms Debbonaire is a concert-standard cellist.
Bravo. Whatever else you think of Labour, loony lefties etc, this alone makes it worth voting for them.
Loony lefties? More like loony righties!
I hope you are right. But I wonder if you can be so sure that Labour members are not committed to diversity and social justice.
But if Ms. Debbonaire gets the role she currently shadows, it is encouraging that she is married to an opera singer. He will know all too well what is happening to opera on the ground, as it were.
Politicians are never committed to diversity and social justice. That is just the language they use to get elected.
I don’t think that is actually true. Social justice is the raison d’être of the Labour Party. And successive generations have interpreted that not just to mean a fair shake for the working class but the equality of women and minorities.
I am on favour of all those things too, but I dislike the abuse of it by wokeists, who want to rewrite history, pretend things that are not so, and abuse long-held, well-reasoned approaches based upon merit. It is the woke, whoever is behind them, who are not interested in social justice. They are steered by generations who have not studied or considered context or history. They are set on creating a fantasy.
If Labour wins the election and has a pro-active culture secretary, one of the first duties will be sorting out some of the damage done recently by ACE. Unfortunately it will have to wait while the Minister for Media, Culture and Sport attends the Paris Olympics.
The pre-election promises by the Tories are just a list of policies they failed to implement in their 14-year term of office. Those made by Labour are just last-minute, unfulfillable aspirations, designed solely to hook in voters. This commitment is one of them. Its mention on SD may be the first you heard about it and I bet it will be the last.
I was enfranchised 56 years ago and have never been a member or unconditional supporter of any political party. I always voted for the party I felt would be best at the time. For the first time I have no party to vote for. At least we have an unprecedented choice between five Monster Raving Loony Parties, the new leader of one of which is a firm Trump supporter even after his being convicted. This party, like most of the others, is an also-ran in what is, by far, the most boring UK election campaign I have ever witnessed.
Churchill said that ‘democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time’. Now, more than ever, I understand what he means.
We’re all hoping. It will take time.
Why are today’s privately educated so philistine ?
A sense of entitlement?
It’s probably more to do with the MPs specifically rather than the privately educated.
And yet, at the same time, we’re constantly being reminded that the arts are being dominated by the privately educated.
Which is it?
I so hope this is true and your interpretation is correct, Norman. Because right now it really feels like the concepts of excellence and professionalism – and understanding how that can be truly accessed by all demographics – has been at best marginalised and at worst ignored altogether.
She merely pledged to continue the review started by the current government (and based on recent polling, she is quite likely to lose her seat).
The idea that a Labour government – the party that first introduced anti-excellence, identity-based politics into arts funding policy in the early 2000s, and which is now more in thrall to these ideas than ever – will reform the ACE in a way that is at all positive for the classical arts, is pure magical thinking.
“Reading between the lines……”
I don’t like reading between the lines when it comes to politicians. She could have been explicit, but wasn’t.
Superficially promising, wait and see.
And you all believe her!
I hope so, I really hope so.
But the real problem is entrusting the Arts to politicians, who generally know the price of everything and the value of nothing…..
Your scepticism is entirely justified! Though one should add this lady trained and worked at a professional standard as an outstanding cellist, does care deeply about the arts (she went to Chetham’s School of Music) and is married to a professional classical singer. Further, she isn’t a privileged white bloke – nothing wrong with that, I am one – preaching equality to the minions. Give her a chance, I say!
Call me old fashioned, but shouldn’t diversity and social justice be the bedrock of a healthy, respectful, successful society…?
Social justice, yes. Diversity, no. Competence at least, and excellence at best, yes.
If there were true social justice, diversity would take care of itself. Social justice would mean equal OPPORTUNITIES without consideration of race, sex, any other categorisations. Where opportunities exist, merit will succeed.
The problem with the most recent diversity drive is the shoe-horning of people into roles with no consideration of merit. Some meritorious individuals may well have prospered because of their own efforts and abilities. But the wokeists have sought to speed the process by destroying what came before and, in the process, have advanced a lot that is false by any standards we have become used to. Everything from the over-promotion of Florence Price to Midsomer Murders populating the villages with mixed-race couples to a degree that is barely true in London or Birmingham reduces the credibility — and sincerity — of their efforts. And antagonises decent people who see talent and effort being overlooked in the cause of what is being parlayed as “social justice.”
This does not end well.
Of course. But reducing funding for excellence in the arts doesn’t achieve that. It does the opposite. And if you don’t value music and arts in state schools that won’t change either. Just stating these virtues as an aim is mere political postering. It doesn’t solve anything, and actually perpetuates elitism because you end up relying more on the personal resources of privileged individuals. You get social justice by widening access to professional and high achieving activities. That takes time, a coherent strategy and money.
Not when they override merit.
Ms Debbonaire’s comments could be read as you suggest, but they are so vague and lacking in detail that they could just as equally be read differently. It all depends on what she means by the “core purpose” of ACE.
She could easily have said that her party’s policy is to require ACE to focus on cultural excellence and that classical music and opera are part of that. She chose not to.
Is it ever wise to trust politicians?
I would never trust any politician who does not tell lies. Those who don’t are not doing their job.
“Labour is committed to reviewing ACE. We will consider how to best position it to face the opportunities of the next decade.”
“Review”? “Consider”? “Position”?
Sounds to me like standard bureaucratic buzz words of the type beloved of so many corporations and governments. Doesn’t promise–or even say–anything in particular. Outcome of the “review” and “consideration” unknown. “Opportunities,” especially those currently being missed, not defined. No predictions, no promises, and, above all, no discussion of money.
I don’t know whether it’s generally known that the excellent Ms Debonnaire has established a parliamentary string quartet calling itself The Statutory Instruments.
I do know that Starmer himself is quite musical – when we were both at Reigate Grammar back in the mid-70’s, he was a junior exhibitioner at the Guildhall while I was at the RCM. Loves his Beethoven. I’m no fan, but Let’s see what happens.
Anything will be an improvement on the Tory shambles.
I do not tend to lump the blame for everything on one party or another, but we have now had 14 years of Tory rule — enough years that the leavings of the former government can no longer be blamed. Five prime ministers, and a succession of disasters, which have absorbed so much of their time that the actual management of a country that is on the precipice has been largely ignored.
I have no illusions that Keir Starmer is the solution to all problems, or even that he will not be the architect of new ones. But Einstein (apparently) said that “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Time for a change, if only for its own sake.
In the meantime perhaps the Tories could consider taking some training at the INSP in France, and the establishment of asimilar institution on the UK.
That’s enough to make me vote labour.
…and it will comprise solely the entire parliamentary Conservative party after the election; two of them will be on the fiddle, of course.
Well, whatever Ms Debbonaire does, it’ll come with strings attached.
Wonderful news for artists and producers who are purely serious about their arts.