First Birmingham, now Glasgow: Orchestra loses its city subsidy
OrchestrasThe Royal Scottish National Orchestra has been told it will lose £50,000 a year over each of the next three years as a result of ‘severe’ Glasgow Council funding cuts.
The orchestra says it will reduce the number of performances at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.
Unlike Birmingham, where blame can be shared between a bankrupt local council and an indifferent Government in London, Glasgow has only Scottish culprits for its plight – the city council and the devolved Government in Edinburgh.
Who’s next?
The situation in Glasgow is exactly the same as in Birmingham. Councils are being forced to make decisions across a multitude of services they support and in fact in some cases are obligated to provide. Culture, in its widest sense, is not one such core service.
Rather than raise the case of specific councils it might be better, if such a thing were possible under this current austerian government, to look at the overall fall in grants and the way in which councils in general are in effect expected to provide more with less.
Culture is central to a civilised society but we do not live in such a society. And the blame for that is not Birmingham’s or Glasgow or not even the devolved Assemblies but the Government in Westminster.
Always some SNP supporter lurking in the shadows, waiting to cast blame on Westminster for every Scottish failing.
Glasgow city council has enough cash to deal with all it’s issues and support all cultural activities, it just blows hundreds of millions on projects no one asked for, and wastes hard earned Scottish people’s money through their incompetence.
SNP supporters are whataboutery world champions.
I don’t know where you get the idea that I am an SNP supporter. Perhaps it is OK then to infer from your comment about wasting hard earned people’s money that you might just be a Scottish Tory? Maybe not but clearly no friend of the SNP it’s clear. If Glasgow City Council is immune from the cuts then they must be the only one in the UK.
How is it exactly the same in Glasgow as in Birmingham? Does Glasgow face a £2bn bill for equality claim liabilities? Is £50,000 the same as £600,000? Did Glasgow blow the best part of £200 million on a two-week sports competition? (within the last five years, anyway)?
I suspect from the overall tone of your comment that you’ve generally decided your answer to any given question before looking at the facts (and that said answer covers most eventualities), but if you did want to try and get it right, beginning with the basics would be a good place to start.
‘Glasgow City Council is to pay around £770m to settle equal pay claims’
(Law Society of Scotland)
What sporting event are you referring to? Most sports events in Glasgow are very successful. It’s a sports town. So I do not consider money invested in sports to be “blown.” A lot more people would be happy to attend than ever go near cultural events, alas.
The fact that Nadine Dorries was the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport tells you all you need to know about what this government thinks of culture.
I think there might have been more than 10 changes of cultural secretary’s .. ?
Time for this Government to go before they completely destroy what is a successful sector..
We should be proud of the creative industries..
Sport should not be under the same umbrella?
It’s too big & important too ..
We need both to continue to pay an important roll in the wellbeing & happiness of our society:
Wake up those in charge please : you can’t put a price tag on that ..
Just how many performances does GBP 50,000 support, that they would have to cut them back?
Not so. Indifferent government in London also affects the ability of the Scottish government to be able to provide support. Scotland is still part of the United Kingdom. The size of the budget of the devolved parliament is set in London. Holyrood only decides what to do with it.
“Holyrood only decides what to do with it.”
Well we can say with some certainty that fighting substance abuse in Scotland is not high on Holyrood’s list of priorities either.
The decline of culture in the UK continues at a steady pace. Shame for the Musicians in the RSNO who have not had any appreciable salary increase for many years.
What have I said over and over?
Keep believing, thinking, mouthing and voting Woke, and you will get this more and more.
Better learn to love Taylor Swift more than Beethoven now.
I’m staying woke; I like my elections democratic (small d).
And don’t go dissing Taylor Swift; she’s phenomenal.
It will Affect everyone Tax payer
Glasgow City Council is an SNP Council, so enough said. This rancid Party seem to have made losing money an art form. Although, I bet if the wonderful RSNO became a Gaelic-speaking Bagpipe-playing Orchestra, the City Council would find the money to keep them going somehow.
All of the issues in Glasgow are compounded by audience numbers and the high cost of rental of concert venues in Glasgow.
Amateur organisations are deterred from paying for concert venue use due to the high cost and general non-availability. Glasgow Life is a section of the council that makes these decisions but it is clear that the art scene in general is affected. The reduction in RSNO concerts will be another adverse outcome for the city.
Comment submitted: On a side note the RSNO don’t pay their musicians enough. A days work with them and you’ll only walk away with around £118 as an extra musician.
Why show a picture of the Scottish Parliament and not Glasgow City Chambers? If you want an apposite image of the destruction of culture in the UK look no further than Westminster – the seat of actual financial muscle.