Culture has barely been mentioned in Britain’s election campaign; it is an area often hard for politicians to stray into: too delicate, too personal. But the arts are of importance to all voters, and seep into areas well beyond the confines of the Department for Culture. The creative economy – from video games to orchestras – is cited by both Labour and the Conservatives as the fastest-growing part of the economy. Britain’s reputation overseas is carried by figures from actor Carey Mulligan to artist Sarah Lucas to author Hilary Mantel. Its arts organisations have become experts in working with the most vulnerable. Its museums and heritage attract overseas visitors. More important, perhaps, than such instrumental concerns, the arts sustain the inner lives of the British nation’s citizens in myriad intangible and unmeasurable ways.
Much of this achievement depends on subtle and clever political support to a delicate cultural ecosystem in which both public subsidy and private enterprise play their part. And what is clear is that a Conservative government would mean disaster for audiences, artists and cultural organisations. The £12bn departmental savings that the Conservatives promise in their manifesto mean that the arts budget – reduced by 36% since 2010 – would likely be cut by the same again during the next parliament. Local authority budgets, which also support arts organisations, would likewise be hit. Philanthropy, the Tories’ golden bullet for the arts, would drain away: donors want to enhance success, not offer rescue packages. The creativity that sustains the large national institutions – young artists working on the periphery of the mainstream – would be maimed. Another threat is to education: the number of arts and culture teachers in English schools has fallen by 11% since 2010.
Recently, George Osborne has pledged £78m to a new arts venue in Manchester, the Factory – an act to be welcomed. But there is a curious doublethink here – while the chancellor found cash for a single building, his government has stripped £168.5m in real terms from the English arts as a whole since 2010, justified as necessary to help pay down the deficit. These cuts, while damaging to the arts, account for just a quarter of one per cent of the deficit reduction achieved over the past four years, which, to quote Margaret Thatcher, is a candle-end economy.
In Scotland, the government record on culture has been more positive: budgets have, relatively speaking, been protected; Fiona Hyslop has been, by and large, a fluently supportive cabinet secretary, though the arts warrant scant mention in the SNP’s Westminster manifesto.
Labour has so far poured cold water on any notion that it might restore cuts to the arts. Instead, Ed Miliband, in his only speech on culture, has made pledges, including a promise to protect cultural education: no school would be rated outstanding, he has said, without outstanding arts teaching. The concentration of arts funding in London and the south-east would be corrected, with a more equitable sharing-out of funds across the whole of England. A promising start: but Labour must do more.
