What would Jeremy Corbyn do for the arts if he were Prime Minister?
I was pleased to be invited to an event at the Arcola Theatre last night, to hear Labour leadership contender Jeremy Corbyn launch his new Arts Policy document. This is the latest in more than a dozen Policy documents that Corbyn has released during the party leadership race since June.
Nine days before the deadline for Party members to vote, this “Arts for Everyone” policy document comes on the heels of similar declarations for “Tackling the Housing Crisis”, “A People’s Railway”, “Investment, Growth and Tax Justice”, “Better Business”, “Protecting Our Planet”, “National Education Service”, “Northern Future”, “A Better Future for Young People”, “Working with Women”, “Defence Diversification” and “Mental Health”.
Whether you’re a member of the Labour Party or the “Corbyn Collective” or not (I’m the former but not the latter), as a theatre lover and/or part of the creative industries (which I’m assuming most of you are), I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s gratifying to hear a politician speak passionately about the arts. As one of the five artistic guests who helped introduce Corbyn last night, comedian Jeremy Hardy, said: “people just want to be noticed”.
Just been to my first @Corbyn4Leader event – v different to @YvetteForLabour one I attended! #labourleadership pic.twitter.com/wIJpiojaSk
— Terri Paddock (@TerriPaddock) September 1, 2015
With the myriad, massive challenges facing the UK today, I doubt the most rabid arts advocate would say that arts funding is the most important one. But it is important, vitally important, and it is indeed good to have that “noticed” by someone who may, at some point, have some power to do something about it.
If you’re also like me in another way, you’re tired and suspicious of media and other folks “filtering” – and, as a result, skewing and often totally misrepresenting – what a politician says or how they come across. So, instead of attempting to do that here, I’ve transcribed Jeremy’s arts policy speech in full (well, minus, lots of thank yous to organisers – you’ve been thanked, you know who you are) so you can draw your own conclusions.
You’ll also want to read (or scan – it’s not short!) the full policy document – which, as Corbyn says himself, is a consultation document with lots of ideas and proposals but no “last words”.
The results of the Labour leadership and deputy leadership votes are announced at a special conference (I’m going) in London on 12 September.
[button link=”https://www.terripaddock.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Corbyn_Arts_v8_1Sep151.pdf” color=”default” size=”large” target=”_self” title=”Jeremy Corbyn’s Arts Policy” gradient_colors=”,” gradient_hover_colors=”,” border_width=”1px” border_color=”” text_color=”” shadow=”yes” animation_type=”0″ animation_direction=”down” animation_speed=”0.1″]Read Jeremy Corbyn’s full Arts Policy document[/button]
Jeremy Corbyn speaking at the Arcola Theatre, 1 September 2015
Jeremy Corbyn speech: Arts for Everyone
Given at the Arcola Theatre, Dalston, 1 September 2015
When we discussed whether or not we could run a campaign for the leadership of the party, it was on the back of the General Election defeat in May and it was on the back of the refusal of the party to have, instead of a leadership election, a proper policy debate on the direction we go. And so we decided the only way we could open up real debate about the nature of austerity, the nature of our society and the direction in which we wanted the Labour Party to go was to contest the leadership.
It was extremely difficult to get on the ballot paper because MPs are the gateway to the ballot paper. With enormous difficulty but lots of time to spare – 1 minute 50 seconds, in fact – we got on the ballot paper on June the 15th. Not that long ago. And since then, the numbers of people that have come together to take part in this campaign is quite extraordinary. This is the 86th event we’ve done since June, in various parts of the country. And there are still a lot more to go. By the time that the result is declared on September 12th, we will have been at over 100 events, all over England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, including Dublin and Northern Ireland, as well as an event in Brussels. We’re trying to make sure that the debate reaches out to everybody everywhere and the response is absolutely phenomenal.
“We’ve all had enough of the me-tooism of all parties accepting austerity-lite or austerity-heavy or austerity-very heavy or austerity-a bit light.”
This is a campaign that, at one level, is about the leadership of a political party but, at another level, it’s about the nature of the way that we do politics in Britain. We’re saying: we’ve all had enough of the me-tooism of all parties accepting austerity-lite or austerity-heavy or austerity-very heavy or austerity-a bit light. Even if we’d won the election in May, an incoming Labour government committed to austerity would still now be making cuts in central government and local government expenditure, would still now be laying civil servants and others off, would still now be giving a wage freeze to civil servants who’ve already had a wage freeze for the past five years.
I don’t think that is a credible alternative for an opposition party. Labour, above all, must and should and has to be able to offer something different, better and something that does something to challenge the ghastly levels of inequality that already exist in Britain and are getting worse by this whole process of austerity.
But in this whole debate, we’re opening up a lot of other things. We’re opening up debates about health, about education, about mental health and about the way in which we treat our society. And I’m very proud that tonight we’re launching this policy document on the arts.
“I think there is an artist in every one of us. There is a poet in every one of us, there’s a novel in every one of us.”
The Voice winner Jermain Jackman – and a former Corbyn constituent – helped introduce him at the arts event
Because I think there is an artist in every one of us. There is a poet in every one of us, there’s a novel in every one of us. There’s that amazing level of creative opportunity in every one of us. But unfortunately, because of the process of slightly or very elitist funding, because of the under funding of local arts projects, the insufficiency of facilities in schools for music and other forms of creativity, it gets snuffed out, ignored and forgotten. And it then relies on parents who are able to afford to send their children to relatively expensive private theatre schools or private art classes and everything else.
Surely we should today be able to celebrate 50 years since Jennie Lee, the iconic arts minister in that 1964-70 Labour Government, said: “the arts is for all, culture is for all, theatre is for all, music is for all”. And I think, in memory of Jennie Lee and other great arts ministers like Hugh Jenkins, we proudly launch this document tonight, because it is about ‘art for all’ and valuing it within our society.
There’s so much more to say, but I don’t want to go on for too long because we need time to talk and mingle amongst each other…
You have to recognise that, all around the country, there are amazing achievements. Amazing achievements where people have formed their own theatres, the working class theatres that developed all over the country that were there in the last century and the early part of this century, that eventually got some degree of funding from local authorities and went on often to become very good or in some cases to close down because they couldn’t keep themselves going.
“We’re going through a crisis all over the country at the moment.”
But we’re going through a crisis all over the country at the moment. We hold a lot of our events in various theatres around the country. And the recurring theme of all of them is, more and more: we don’t have enough money to keep going, we have real problems in surviving, we have real problems in putting on classes for young actors without charging them and we end up having to let out our theatre to corporate spaces because we cannot do anything else but try to survive by that.
So I was talking to people in Aberdeen, talking to people in Sheffield, talking to people in London, talking to people in Cardiff and Swansea, the story is all exactly the same.
“If we don’t fund local theatre, if we don’t fund regional theatre, if we don’t give those opportunities to young actors, then where are the West End actors of tomorrow?”
If we don’t fund local theatre, if we don’t fund regional theatre, if we don’t give those opportunities to young actors, then where are the West End actors of tomorrow? Where are the film actors of tomorrow? Where are all those great people? They simply will not be there because they will not have had that opportunity.
And then you look at other areas: the way galleries are funded or underfunded, or the way in which arts funding increasingly relies on corporate donations or very wealthy sponsors who will then set art in their own minds. And then there are other areas, and I particularly want to mention creative writing and creative painting.
Creative writing is something that is there, I believe, in every one of us, but it’s so crucial to so much expression of our lives. It’s very interesting the way that great writers often write in the most adverse circumstances. The great Irish writers of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, often in periods of the most enormous stress and difficulty, produced amazing works. Think of Oscar Wilde and think of so many others, what they produced both in Ireland and here. Think of the great African writers, all that they produced from the Second World War onwards. And the great Latin American writers, the greatest I think, Eduardo Galeano who died last year very sadly, and his book, The Open Veins of Latin America. They wrote under great difficulty and circumstances.
“The role of a political party and a government is also about standing up for the human rights of writers writing in very difficult circumstances, often against very oppressive regimes all around the world”
So the role of a political party and a government is about giving the space and facility within our own society, but it’s also about standing up for the human rights of writers writing in very difficult circumstances, often against very oppressive regimes all around the world. And we should tie our trade policies to improving the human rights and opportunities of all those in the expressive fields all around the world. That would be, I think, a positive thing to do: to try and defend people who are trying to describe what their lives are really about.
There are also specific challenges that we face. And one of them is the future of the BBC. Now, like everyone in this room, we all watch the BBC. Like everyone in this room, we shout at the BBC News. Like everyone in this room, we probably shout at Newsnight and a few other programmes quite often. That’s okay. It’s quite healthy. It exercises your lungs, improves your voice and all that sort of thing. It doesn’t actually change anything but, you know, it might make you feel good for a short time. But there is a more serious issue and that is the future of the BBC as an institution.
If you look at what’s happened in the United States… public broadcasting in the USA was once a relatively well funded, there was a public broadcasting organisation in the USA. It was systematically underfunded, almost totally destroyed, and the news values of the USA are now largely set by Fox News and the way that it reports things. That is where you end up when you encourage a total free market in commercially led broadcasting.
“If we lose the BBC, you’ll certainly regret it when it’s gone.”
The fact that we have a public service broadcasting organisation in Great Britain does make a very big difference. It makes a big difference in the quality of the programmes that are made, it makes a very big difference in the variety of programmes that are made. And I think the BBC has to be popular, has to be involved in sport, has to be involved in popular entertainment as well as producing brilliant documentaries, as well as producing classical music, innovative music, Radio Six and all the others. It has to be doing that. And it has to have that amazing website that is the most accessed website anywhere in the world.
Comedian Jeremy Hardy, a regular on BBC Radio Four, also spoke on behalf of Corbyn last night
It is under threat. It’s under threat by the last round of license-fee fixing which resulted in a cut to the BBC. The BBC executives have now offered up another cut by agreeing to fund the free licenses for over-75s and we’re going to end up with, I believe, another very large cut made to the BBC. And behind that lies a subscription channel, lies advertising and lies the destruction of something that is very valuable, not just for the broadcasting and the facilities that it produces, but also for the investment it makes in creative industries all over the country. And so I think we have to get together with the NUJ and all the other unions that are involved in the BBC and defend the principle of a license fee paid-for, public service broadcasting organsation in Britain. If we lose the BBC, you’ll certainly regret it when it’s gone. So, please, do your best to support the principles behind it.
The other point I want to make concerns how we fund the arts and how we fund local government participation in it. The Conservatives have made huge cuts in the Arts Council budget over the past five years and are set to continue making those. They claim it’s all offset by sponsorship, all offset by scholarships, and all offset by bringing private sector money in. The view that I’m picking up all around the country is the very opposite; that it is the most innovative areas of art that are most under threat, it’s the most radical theatres that are under threat, it’s the most radical galleries that are under threat. It’s the opportunities, often for children and young people in very poor areas in very poor communities, who lose out altogether, where there’s no music teaching, no opportunities for them whatsoever.
“Fully funding the Arts Council is something that’s very very important”
Fully funding the Arts Council and encouraging the Arts Council to fairly distribute its money, not just to the national institutions but to local theatre, regional theatre and local galleries is something that’s very very important.
I also think that there has to be direct funding into local government, and it should be ring-fenced so that local government has to spend it on promoting and supporting local culture and local entertainment ideas. That was exactly what Jennie Lee envisaged fifty years ago – so that every local authority has the opportunity and indeed the requirement to promote and fund local art and local culture.
You can also do things in planning. You can require public art to be placed in all open spaces, you can support public art, you can require it to be in all new big buildings, you can do what the Dutch do which is insist on a contribution to local arts funds by any major developments going on. There’s lots of innovative ways you can do it. That, in turn, helps to bring an income stream to creative artists, to painters and to many others.
We can also have planning policy that protects galleries, protects artists’ studios and so on. Because in London there was a time when an area like this would have many artists’ studios in it. There was a time when Hampstead would have had many artists’ studios. But gradually, the property developers, the property boom and the money people just moved them out and moved them out and moved them out so you end up with no facilities for young artists or any other artists to try to develop things.
And so, our document is, like all our documents, a consultation. It’s a series of proposals. We are not trying to elect somebody to lead the Labour Party to be top-down policy-making that will give you the last word on everything. We’re promoting the word put forward by a whole range of people as a way of promoting that debate and promoting that discussion.
“I want our party to be proud of its association with the whole idea of the cultural industries in this country”
But I want our party to be proud of its association with the whole idea of the cultural industries in this country. Not just for the obvious economic advantage of it, but for the advantage it gives to everybody to unleash that creativity, that thinking, that sense of community and cohesion.
And if you look at communities across all of our cities, you find the expression of art. Amongst immigrant communities that are often quite recently arrived, it’s a great source of support for those who have been through the most horrific situations of torture and other things in many places around the world. The sense of cultural expression, that sense of cultural identity, which is good for the communities themselves, but it’s good for every other community to be proud of the diversity of this country, and proud of the contribution made to this country by all those who have come to live here from whichever part of the world they’ve come over the past 50 years or 100 years or whatever. It’s what makes Britain what it is.
We’re all very proud of the Olympics and the Olympic opening. Absolutely great. And then, only a couple of years later, we have the prime minister describing people trying to get to this country, escaping from the most dreadful camps in Calais, as a “swarm”, trying to get to this country. Sorry, you can’t have it both ways. We’re either a multi-cultural society and we support people fleeing from desperate situations, or we’re not. I know which one I want to be and I know which one you want to be.
“Poverty is a terrible thing. Poverty is also a terrible waste.”
A Corbyn Collective sign at last night’s event
So in conclusion, thank you all very much for coming along today, thank you for all those who contributed to this document. It’s not absolutely the last word on any of this. But let’s go out there with the idea that we can and must defend and promote and encourage the creativity of all of us. Poverty is a terrible thing. Poverty is also a terrible waste.
If you think of the great musicians of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, fantastic. You think Tchaikovsky, think Beethoven, think Mozart, think all those great musicians. They wrote from a position where they were lucky enough to be sponsored by somebody very wealthy and there was a tiny number of them. Likewise the great Russian novelists, and so many others, came from a very tiny spectrum of those societies because the majority of society were either illiterate or too poor to be able to express themselves in any way. Yet you see creative art coming through in iconic work, in trade union banners, in protest banners and lots of other things.
“Don’t look down on artists: admire them, applaud them, support them, encourage them.”
But when you give everybody that opportunity to write, everybody that opportunity to discover themselves, give them that space, and as a society, don’t look down on poets, don’t look down on authors, don’t look down on painters, don’t look down on dancers. Admire them, applaud them, support them, encourage them. So that our theatres, our opera houses, and all our music establishments are open absolutely for everyone, so we can all enjoy the great creativity that is there in all of us.
And when you unleash that creativity, you never know where it might end. You might end up in a more equal society, you might end up in a less unequal society, you might end up in a society where we go forward to the next generation saying, no you don’t have to be poorer than this generation, we’ve got to share the wealth, so you can be well off, so you can enjoy all the good things in life. But you can’t do that if, at the same time, you destroy people’s creativity and you oppress so many by desperate poverty.
We live in a great opportunity, an age of the most fantastic opportunity. Let’s embrace it, let’s enjoy it, let’s love it. But above all, let’s dream and be creative. That’s what this document is about.
[button link=”https://www.terripaddock.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Corbyn_Arts_v8_1Sep151.pdf” color=”default” size=”large” target=”_self” title=”Jeremy Corbyn’s Arts Policy” gradient_colors=”,” gradient_hover_colors=”,” border_width=”1px” border_color=”” text_color=”” shadow=”yes” animation_type=”0″ animation_direction=”down” animation_speed=”0.1″]Read Jeremy Corbyn’s full Arts Policy document[/button]
What the papers say
JEZ’s ARTS POLICY IN THE PRESS
theguardian.com
telegraph.co.uk
standard.co.ukIN JEZ’s OWN WORDS
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