The Arts

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 10 February 1975.

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Photo of Mr Hugh Jenkins Mr Hugh Jenkins , Wandsworth Putney 12:00, 10 February 1975

I must ask the hon. and learned Gentleman to forgive me. I have a good deal more to say. I very much hope that private organisations and individuals will continue their smaller but nevertheless significant contributions to the arts. I am having some private discussions to this end, and I have opened them with a talk with Mr. Campbell Adamson of the CBI. Some business organisations are already doing quite a lot, and it is time that we gave these beneficent activities greater publicity so that others may be encouraged to follow their example.

Comparisons with other countries are somewhat misleading. Neither the totally centralised system in France nor the fundamentally local system in Western Germany can be directly compared with our own methods of support. It is the deliberate policy of this Government—and, to be fair, it was the policy of previous Governments—to encourage diversity of support for the arts, and this very fact makes it more difficult to ensure that one is comparing the whole of expenditure on the arts with similar expenditure abroad—that is, whether one is, in fact, comparing like with like.

In any event, I am inclined to question—this point was made by the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr. Grimond)—whether that is an aim which we should seek to pursue, whether we should drive up our subsidy to the point which it has reached in some Continental capitals.

For example, Covent Garden manages at present on about 50 per cent. support from the State, compared with about 75 per cent. for many Continental opera houses. Is it not a healthy state of affairs that Covent Garden should have a larger income from the box office and that some of the financing of its productions is undertaken by business? I see nothing against that. Bearing in mind the limits on financial resources, I should hesitate as a matter of principle to say that Government subsidy ought to be larger just because it seems the right thing that Government subsidy should be larger. I see nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to apologise for in what we are doing in this country.

Most of the Arts Council's clients raise more than half—some of them much more than half—of their income from the box office. This is a strength—it is something to be proud of—because people are going to the theatre. It is no cause for apology I hope that inflation will not have the effect of making the Arts Council the chief source of finance for more and more projects.

In some countries the State pays most of the cost, but the quality of State support for the arts is not measured only by the amount of money involved. It is measured by the quality and variety of the national artistic output. In this respect, as has been said, we can hold our head high throughout the world. In our method of support, in the way we go about it, we are on the right lines, and even in times of stringency we can improve.

I turn for a moment to the arts notices in the papers. What other capital in the world has such an offering to make? Quite apart from the National, the Royal Shakespeare, the Royal Court and the Mermaid, there is always something valuable and controversial to be seen in our fringe theatre. We have a mass of concerts of all kinds, the great picture and museum galleries, and the series of splendid exhibits. What other capital has two major opera houses playing all the year round, and a range of first-class orchestras? Ask Louis Fremaux or Paavo Berglund what they think of British music. They will say that we are the greatest.

Travel the country as I do, visit the new museums and new extensions being built, and the rebuilt galleries—go to Edinburgh and Glasgow to see what they are doing—try smaller places such as Kendal, Lincoln, Milton Keynes or Battersea—visit one or two of the new community workshops and watch people doing their own thing—hear the Wandsworth School Choir or the John Bate Choir in my constituency—there has never been a time when so much artistic activity has been going on; nor has there been one in which so many people not only participate but appreciate the best there is to experience.

This is not a country starved of culture. It is a country eager for culture. My hon. Friend has seen avidity and mistaken it for emaciation. He himself described our plenty.

Of course, there is still much to do, but even in this time of stringency we have not stood still. Let me remind the House of some of the things we have done in the past year. We began by removing the museum charges.