All Cultural Politics are Local

And in that single nation, how much of a difference is there in the fundamental policies of the major UK parties? Not huge it seems. If you asked them all to summarise on the back of a fag packet, they might all read something like ‘increasing opportunities for everyone to engage with excellent cultural and sporting opportunities, with a particular emphasis on young people’, in the context of a universal acceptance that national finances are tight and likely to become tighter.

So does this broad unity mean we have no reason to engage with the General Election, at least from a Cultural and Sporting perspective? I think not to engage in the debate would be a very big mistake. And not just for voters in England, but for citizens of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland too.

For most people it’s what is available locally that shapes their cultural life.   In England alone, Local Government makes an annual revenue investment of about £3.3 Billion into Culture and Sport.   Over half of this goes into Parks and Libraries. About a quarter goes on sport and leisure facilities and sports development services. That still leaves over £500 Million being invested in Theatres, Public Entertainment, Museums, Galleries and Arts Development and support – significantly more than Arts Council England currently invests in its portfolio of Regularly Funded Organisations.

But the quality of provision is far from even across the country. In our Manifesto we highlight figures from the Government’s own Place Survey. Only 43.2% of the English adult population state they are very or fairly satisfied with their local arts provision. Where there has been a history of local leadership and investment, in places like Woking and Malvern Hills, the figure rises to over 70%. But for Wigan and Ashford it’s less than 15%. Despite the ‘golden age’ of investment since the start of the National Lottery, the overall state of cultural infrastructure is now excellent in parts, but very poor in others. If you’ll forgive the Humpty Dumpty analogy, the Cultural and Sporting Curate’s Egg is now poised very precariously on a financial precipice.

Make no mistake –local government cultural investment in all UK nations is likely to be under huge threat in the next spending round. It’s often suggested that Library Services are under less threat because they are a ‘Statutory Service’. I think it is true that they are unlikely to be ‘deleted’ in the way that is happening to many Arts Services at the moment, but savings through major reductions in the number of branches, opening hours, stock, etc could all be seen as legitimate areas for savings when very tough choices have to be made.

So what does the threat to this local investment have to do with UK Elections? Three major things.

Local decisions and decision making processes don’t exist in a vacuum, they are driven from Westminster as well and national Governments and Assemblies. If you care about culture, make your way beyond the cultural policies and sections of the parties’ manifestos and start looking at their policies on national devolution and ‘localism’ and start thinking about what that might mean for your local theatre, library or leisure centre in a stormy financial climate. This is a big issue that I’ll try to explore more fully in another blog before the election.

The way much of culture and sporting provision is funded in the UK is very complicated. Third sector organisations in particular often rely on a complex cocktail of funding from different local, regional and national sources. This is particularly true for smaller organisations.  All the major UK parties say they want to safeguard as much national funding as possible. But what is their view on whether national funders should replace local funding that has been cut? Or make like-for-like cuts? Or, if every decision should depend on a range of criteria, what should be the reasons be for increasing, reducing or removing national investment to local areas? I still don’t clearly understand where any of the parties stand on this (and I have asked) and I think it could be an area where strong political leadership could make a real difference whilst maintaining an ‘arms-length’ approach to individual funding decisions.

The last few years haven’t been the greatest for the national reputation of our Members of Parliament, but having worked in Local Government, I would never underestimate the power of an effective constituency MP who understands the issues and cares passionately to influence local decisions. Do your local candidates care about local cultural provision? Would they stand up effectively to save the funding to your the local concert hall/archive/museum/swimming pool that makes so much of a contribution to the place you live?

Tip O’Neill’s certainly had a point when it comes to cultural politics in the UK. They are local and your new constituency MP could have an enormous impact on the future vitality of cultural life where you live. Culture is going to need politically astute local champions throughout Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England.