A great British tradition, or a narrow unrepresentative audience?
The Proms is one musical institution of which British cultural life can feel justifiably proud. There's probably no other classical music festival in the world that rivals the scope, internationalism and performing standards it consistently maintains through 80-plus events every summer. But the tired, anachronistic rituals, forced jollity and flag waving jingoism of the Last Night always come as the most cringe-making shock.
Margaret Hodge is right about one thing: the global image projected to a worldwide television audience by such nonsense does create the wrong impression, though whether the solution is to replace it with something that's a more accurate reflection of multicultural Britain or whether the last concert should be something that builds on what has gone before is another debate.
More than one recent Proms programmer has tried to do away with the traditional Last Night, only to find himself up against implacable opposition, inside and outside the BBC. Whether the latest Proms supremo Roger Wright, due to unveil his first set of plans in a few weeks' time, will have the determination and the support to succeed where his predecessors have failed remains to be seen, but no one in British music will condemn him if he tries.
