Weekly email 25th March 2010

April 12th, 2010 - 
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Here is this week’s news:

Budget Special

Despite their disingenuous hints that the arts budget might be ring-fenced, the Budget has revealed Labour’s plans to cut the culture budget substantially.  Ben Bradshaw has announced £60 million of cuts – sorry, efficiency savings – across the DCMS. The overall budget is frozen for a year – so effectively cut again – and the capital budget has been reduced by £300 million. More HERE

The Budget also announced a number of other measures:

A tax credit for the video games industry. We have long argued for some form of fiscal support for the industry, so we welcome the announcement. We note, in a completely unchurlish way of course, that Labour ruled this out in December, and this announcement will not be passed before the general election.  TIGA, the trade body for the industry, has welcomed Labour’s move but surprisingly not acknowledged our long campaign to get Labour to take the video games industry seriously HERE

A tax rise for every family in the country that still uses a landline. The phone tax has been confirmed and will cost the British public an extra £175 million per annum – including a £70 million levy on British business – and could drive 200,000 people off the internet. We have promised to scrap the phone tax, deregulate the market in order to stimulate investment and have ruled out adding extra charges to consumers to pay for superfast broadband rollout. Jeremy has pointed out that Gordon Brown’s phone tax will push 200,000 homes off the internet, more HERE

In contrast, we propose to fund rural broadband from the digital switchover element in the licence fee.

A Gift Aid forum has been set up and will recommend possible reforms in the autumn. We have already said we will reform Gift Aid, so that’s another idea nicked from us.

Streamlining DCMS bodies. Labour have said they will reduce advisory bodies by half; merge the Film Council and the British Film Institute; and merge the National Lottery Commission with the Gambling Commission.

Jeremy has blogged on the budget HERE

Creative Industries

Regional News

The Government is pressing on with IFNCs, today announcing preferred bidders in the three areas, HERE in an attempt to force them through whatever happens in the election, which is ridiculous as Jeremy points out HERE. Unfortunate, too, that the chair of the selection panel responsible for choosing the bidders has encouraged the bidders to plan for life without public funds on the day of their selection, more HERE

Film and television

The Government have responded to the House of Lords Select Committee report on the British Film and Television industries, full response HERE . Recommendations in the response include increasing the net rate of film tax relief for productions under £5m to 30 percent, and to make salaries of personnel employed on a production eligible for tax relief whether they are working in the UK or on location abroad, so long as the personnel are paid and taxed in the UK.

Film London an Screen South are merging, more HERE

Skillset

Skillset has published a report which suggests there is an “oversupply” in many general creative media roles, but serious skills shortages in areas like digital technology and multiplatform capability, broadcast engineering, business and commercial know-how, visual effects and craft-orientated jobs, more HERE.

Skillset has also announced a new Advanced Apprenticeship in Creative and Digital Media, funded by the London Development Agency to help London’s diverse communities enter the industry, with a view to supporting the range of media activities needed for the London 2012 games. We think this is a great idea, more HERE

And, in a very busy week for Skillset, they have also published guidelines for creative industry employers offering work placement schemes, more HERE

Television

Congratulations to Freesat who have reached the 1 million sales mark well ahead of target more HERE

Architecture

Jean Nouvel will design the 2010 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion. As a Pritzker Prize winner and recipient of the RIBA Royal Gold Medal, Jean Nouvel has won worldwide acclaim with magnificent structures including the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris and the extension of the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, more HERE

Advertising

The Government is now the biggest advertiser in the UK, after spending £208m in 2009, according a league table published by Marketing, HERE. The COI increased its spending by 13% year on year, to outspend Procter & Gamble by nearly £53m. The figures also show that advertising spend by the top 100 advertisers fell by £854m, a 10% reduction on year on year. Hard-pressed sectors like financial services and car making recorded the biggest falls in ad spend.

Product Placement

The Government placed legislation on product placement before Parliament last week. The legislation will enact the changes that Ben Bradshaw announced on 9th February. Read the legislation HERE , explanatory memorandum HERE and Ben Bradshaw’s statement HERE.

The regulations include a requirement for broadcasters to flag up product placement to viewers in any programme which is made or commissioned by the broadcaster, while product placement will be signaled at the beginning and end of the programme and after any ad breaks it may contain.

Ofcom will now amend the Broadcasting Code to bring the changes into effect, but before they can do that, they are required to hold a public consultation. Ofcom anticipates that its consultation will be issued in June and will conclude at the end of the summer, with the revised Broadcasting Code being published in the autumn.

Design

The first national survey of the UK design industry since 2005, released today by the Design Council, shows UK design industry has grown since 2005, despite the recession. There are 232,000 designers, 29% more than in 2005 and earnings have increased by £3.4bn. The combined budget of in-house teams and fee income of freelances and consultancies is £15bn. Collectively in-house design team budgets are down 34% since 2005, but the number of in-house design teams in the UK has increased by 10% to 6,500 suggesting that employers are holding on to creative employees despite downward pressure on budgets.  More HERE.

Multi tasking Help for Heroes/ legal music buying corner!

With the election approaching here’s your chance to obtain a unique souvenir of parliament, and to help a very good cause at the same time.  MP4′s first full album ‘Cross Party’,  issued by Revolver Records and produced by Robin Millar (producer of Sade’s platinum classic album Diamond Life) is now available to buy, with any profits going to Help for Heroes.  Here’s how you can obtain your copy and help in other ways, HEREl.

Arts and Heritage

Culture

The great and the good of the cultural world got together today to launch the Culture for Capital Manifesto today at the British Museum. More HERE and HERE, and the publication can be found here, HERE.

Philanthropy

Arts and Business have launched a ‘ Private Sector Policy for the Arts’ this week, which has some very interesting ideas. A&B Chief Executive Colin Tweedy said ‘artistic successes of the last decade have been driven by the deeply interdependent nature of the arts economy. The healthy levels of public funding secured quality for the sector, allowing arts organisations to attract increasing visitor numbers (and earned income), which in turn has encouraged further private investment (sponsorship and philanthropy) thus enabling further growth and consolidation.  This three-legged tripod mixed economy model is under threat.  This policy is designed to reboot and rewire it’ more HERE

Arts Council

ACE has announced its final round of Sustain funding, in another list that overwhelming favours large, well known arts organisations from the Young Vic to English National Ballet. More HERE

Heritage

A sudden flurry of government activity on the heritage front, with the publication of their vision statement HERE and a new Planning Policy Statement (PPS – now number 5, replacing 15 and 16 – keep up at the back!) HERE.

The general view from the sector is that it is a big improvement, see English Heritage’s response, HERE and Heritage Alliance’s response, HERE.

The aspiration for joined up thinking across government is a good one, although the document is a very thin on how this will actually be achieved. There is also very little mention of plans to bring back the much vaunted, long postponed Heritage protection bill – with one reference down there on page 20/21 (depending on which version you have). So once again an all mouth and no trousers policy announcement from the Government, while we, in contrast, have committed to a heritage and museums bill in the first Parliament after the election.

The Historic Houses Association has responded HERE, calling on the government to make firm commitments to action.

Heritage Crafts

The Heritage Crafts Association has launched this week, to support and promote heritage crafts as a fundamental part of our living heritage. More HERE and a good article in the Guardian, HERE

Staffordshire Hoard

The Hoard has been saved for the nation following the pledge of £1,285,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund this week. Congratulations all round, more, and you can still donate to the ongoing conservation and research work into the hoard HERE

Libraries

The Government’s much delayed, much criticised libraries review has finally been published .  Again, most of the ideas are nicked from us. More HERE

Quite a lot of people are rude about it HERE while the Unison response HERE called on the government to go further, and set out clear guidelines on exactly what service local authorities are obliged to provide, which is exactly what we have suggested in our own proposals for a libraries charter.

The Society of Chief Librarians has launched their libraries manifesto this week, more HERE

Skills

Funding has been confirmed for a £13 million skills academy within the Royal Opera House Production Park in Thurrock more HERE although this would seem to suggest that Gordon Brown announced it a few weeks ago, and DCLG have only just confirmed the money, which is either very disorganised, or a bit worrying.

Missions Models Money

Has published a paper on a collaborative project between Opera North and the University of Leeds to develop DARE, a business model that uses resources differently, ‘helping to equip Opera North with the capacity to continuously innovate and grow artistically in an environment of huge opportunity and a climate of economic uncertainty.’ More HERE

Olympics

While the big news on the Olympics front this week was the launch of the official ticketing website, more HERE the cultural Olympiad announced their Film Nation: Shorts project which will give young film-makers the chance to get their work showcased at the Games, more HERE

BoJo’s Cultural Jobs corner

His Borisness is recruiting for cultural strategy and music education strategy roles, more HERE and HERE.

New Culture Forum

Martin Amis will be in conversation with NCF director Peter Whittle at the Royal Society of Arts on 7th April, discussing feminism and the sexual revolution, the themes raised in his latest book. More HERE

In Parliament

Parliamentary Questions

UK World Heritage Sites and grants from the HLF HERE

Promotion of the Government’s free theatre initiative HERE

14,000 have registered for the National Theatre entry pass HERE

No requirement for local authorities to provide performance data on museums and libraries to the MLA HERE

The Government deny there will be a cut to the NHMF budget this year HERE

Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen

Tom Bloxham, Radio Production in the North conference, Julian Lloyd Webber, Nominet, Beringea, South East Arts round table, Open House architecture debate, Anya Hindmarch’s pub, Bush Theatre.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

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Weekend News Summary 27th-28th February 2010

March 1st, 2010 - 
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Education

An influential group of leading academics and cultural figures has issued a stark warning that they fear for the future of the arts and humanities in British universities. A letter to the Observer (see HERE) signed by the directors of major arts institutions and a number of university vice-chancellors, claims that funding cuts and a decision to focus on the sciences have left subjects such as philosophy, literature, history, languages and art facing “worrying times”. Without urgent action the country’s intellectual heritage is in danger of being diminished, they conclude, and, with reference to Labour’s decision to run tertiary education from the Business department:

“There is more to citizenship than business and skills… People’s complexity comes from their language, identities, histories, faiths and cultures.” More in The Observer HERE and HERE.

Broadcasting

BBC chiefs effectively wrote off £150m of licence-payers’ money spent on an online education service, BBC Jam, after it was axed, and officials decided efforts to recoup the cash by selling off the material “wasn’t worth the candle” reports The Independent on Sunday HERE.

It has also emerged that leaked proposals by Mark Thompson to axe the digital radio station 6Music have set the BBC’s director-general on a collision course with the BBC Trust. Two weeks ago, the trust published a report into 6Music which concluded the music station was “well liked by its listeners” and its audience had “grown faster than any other BBC digital radio-only service”. It emerged last week that Thompson’s proposals, to be published next month, recommend closing the station down. Other proposals include shutting the Asian Network, slashing the website’s staff by 25 per cent, selling off magazines such as Radio Times and Top Gear and capping sports rights at 8 per cent of budget, or £300m. The news that 6Music is in danger has met with vocal opposition, despite an audience of fewer than 700,000, according to the latest Rajar figures. More in The Observer HERE, HERE and HERE; Independent on Sunday HERE and HERE; FT HERE.

This Wednesday’s full-year results presentation from ITV will be the platform for Archie Norman (Adam Crozier’s start date is yet to be confirmed) to present his plan for the broadcaster’s future – including a roadmap away from the Michael Grade era. The results will be far from woeful; analysts predict pre-tax profits doubling from £34.7m to around £67m-£88m. Numis Securities has forecast a pre-tax profit of around £75m based on the belief that advertising recovered dramatically in the last few months of 2009. The Sunday Times HERE; Telegraph HERE.

Funding

A host of internationally flavoured arts events in London in the coming months are being supported by companies that intend to use cultural links to support their business interests in emerging markets. HSBC, which promotes itself as the bank that best appreciates the world’s diversity, is emphasising that message by sponsoring this summer’s Brazil festival on the South Bank, about which we’ve blogged HERE. Marah Winn-Moon, HSBC’s head of cultural sponsorship, said:

“It is a great opportunity to bring clients in with a cultural hook, and then to start talking to them about doing business in those countries too”.

Overseas companies are also exploiting London’s vibrant arts scene to promote their business in an international context. Nigeria’s Guaranty Trust became the first African corporation to support art in Britain when it sponsored Tate Britain’s current exhibition of paintings by Chris Ofili, a painter of Nigerian heritage. The bank also sponsors the next installation at Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth, the British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare’s “Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle”, a reproduction of HMS Victory bedecked with sails decorated with African patterns. The work will be unveiled on May 24. Segun Agbaje, the bank’s deputy chief executive officer, said that arts sponsorship was an opportunity:

“… to give people another perspective on Africa, to talk about its heritage instead of droughts all the time”. More in The FT HERE.

Theatre

Sir David Hare, an associate director of the National Theatre, has said theatre lags behind other creative art forms, such as the novel, when it came to women and equality of expression. Theatres should realise that women’s writing for the theatre had reached a “tipping point”, he says:

“I don’t think the repertory of most theatres at the moment is reflecting what seems to be happening in terms of the most interesting new theatre…We would hope to see management of theatres reflecting where we think the creativity in playwriting is coming from… There’s no doubt that the structure of the theatre is plainly male… The rough and tumble of the theatre is like politics to a degree – it’s a macho business.” More in The Telegraph HERE.

Art

Some of the world’s most important paintings may be lost to the nation because there are no funds available to keep them here following the purchase of two works by Titian for £100m. The latest artwork poised to join the exodus of masterpieces is St John the Evangelist by the Italian Old Master Domenichino. Despite being in the UK for the past 100 years, the painting is likely to leave the country. Professor David Ekserdijian, of the Government’s Reviewing Committee has said:

“It is the best work by the artist remaining in private hands and its departure from the UK would be lamentable.”

Works to be lost from the country include:

Raphael’s Head of a Muse The “exquisite” drawing from 1510 – a preparation for a commission by Pope Julius II – looks likely to be on its way to America after being bought for a record £29.2m, even though “every possible effort should be made to raise enough money to keep it in the country”.

Turner’s Pope’s Villa at Twickenham One of Turner’s most important works is already in America after an export ban last year failed to find any institutions willing or able to pay the £5.4m the 1808 painting was worth.

Domenichino’s St John the Evangelist It will be “lamentable” if this £9.2m work from 1621-29 left the country after more than 100 years, according to the Reviewing Committee. Lamentable, but likely.

Works saved include:

Titian’s Diana and Actaeon A six-month campaign persuaded the public, the Scottish government and the Heritage Lottery Fund to part with £50m to buy the Old Master’s work from the Duke of Sutherland last year. Fundraising is due to start shortly to raise the same sum for the companion painting, Diana and Callisto, by 2012. Both were created between 1556 and 1559.

Turner’s Blue Rigi One of the finest watercolours by one of Britain’s greatest painters, an 1842 view of a Swiss mountain, was saved in 2007 after the Tate raised £4.95m. More in The Independent on Sunday HERE.

Banksy‘s undoubted knack for exploiting the feverish interest his anonymity provokes has certainly created a lot of hype around the documentary Exit. The point is, says Andrew Johnson in The Independent on Sunday HERE, it isn’t really about him. It’s more about the creation of another street artist, Mr Brainwash, and an exposé of the art market and “suckers” with too much money who want to be part of the latest thing.

Tech

In August 2009, it was hard to move around Beijing without seeing an advert for Google. China was awash with the logo of a company whose motto is “Don’t Be Evil”, and the scale of the investment was a palpable endorsement of China’s vital importance to the economics of any global company. Skip forward to January this year, and an official blogpost announced summarily that the censored results that China demanded from Google were no longer compatible with the company’s philosophy. Off the record, employees said the company would pull out of China imminently.

So did the search giant really decide to eschew profits in favour of a defence of free speech? Or did it realise it would never be the biggest search engine in China and simply cut its losses? The question that matters is simple: what does Google stand for? More in The Telegraph HERE. And the FT asks, having acquired power over those it freed, is Google now a monopoly HERE and how ethically is its power used HERE.

In the week when three Google execs have been convicted and awarded six-month suspended sentences for allowing a clip of an autistic boy being bullied to play on Google Video (see more HERE), The Observer asks HERE, When anyone can have their say, what use is the stuff that comes out the other end? What can be done with it, and who is going to be in charge of quality control when things go wrong? And Microsoft has attacked ‘aggressive’ Google, as covered in The Sunday Telegraph HERE.

Opera

The people of Thurrock are being promised a piece of Covent Garden, complete with the sparkling glamour of its greatest operatic divas and prima ballerinas. On Tuesday, the Royal Opera House will officially take over the centre of an empty 14-acre site near the Thames in Essex. Tony Hall, Royal Opera’s chief executive has said:

“I love the fact Covent Garden is going to do something in a place that is half an hour away from London by train, but could be miles and miles away in every other way… It is a place that is relatively deprived, for the south-east, and that has a history of manufacturing that makes it the right place for us.” More in The Observer HERE.

Design
The Independent on Sunday has picked up two top honours in the prestigious Best of News Design awards. Organised by the Society for News Design, the professional organisation for the world’s graphic designers who work in the industry, the awards recognise the best from around the world in newspaper production. More in The Independent on Sunday HERE.

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Daily News Summary

Weekly Email: 22 October 2009

October 22nd, 2009 - 
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Here is this week’s news:

Tory Stuff

Media Policy

Jeremy has set out our media proposals in an interview with the FT this week. He said that we want to replace the BBC Trust and that we are looking at reopening the BBC Charter. He also said that we would scrap the Government’s proposed 50p a month tax on all telephone lines to fund superfast broadband and reverse Government plans to force the BBC to share the licence fee, more HERE.

Culture Policy

Ed spoke at the Culture is Right conference yesterday and set out our plans for the National Lottery and philanthropy, confirmed our commitment to free museums, set out our views on the Arts Council, heritage, the MLA, culture in education, highlighted significant proposals at a local level that have implications for the arts, and set out his vision for the cultural Olympiad. Read his full speech HERE and download the green paper on localism HERE the relevant proposals are in the executive summary and in detail on page 25.

Last night we held another Conservative Arts and Creative Industries Network event, thank you to the Creative Coalition for hosting us. The turnout was fantastic, the view, phenomenal and apparently we’re now ‘in danger of becoming trendy’ according to the Standard, HERE.

Ed has posed a question on Linked In: What is the best way for an incoming government to address the issue of online piracy? You can join our network HERE, and respond to his question HERE.

Creative Industries

Broadband Tax

Government advisor Professor Cave agrees with us on there being no need for a broadband tax. Professor Cave, an economist, expressed his support for our proposal and called for more emphasis to be placed on drawing private investment into next-generation network development. More HERE.

BBC

The BBC Trust has rejected plans to open up the iPlayer to ITV and Channel 4 programmes, saying that the idea was ‘too complex’ to be allowed because it would mix programmes that carried advertising with the BBC’s advert-free shows – and it was not clear if the corporation would benefit as a result, more HERE. We think this is a backwards step, which demonstrates that the BBC Trust has once again mis-understood its role – the purpose of this plan was not to benefit the BBC but rather to share the benefits of public investment in the iPlayer with the commercial sector.

Philip Stephens of the FT has outlined a five set programme to save the BBC, HERE. First, show some humility, second, reduce the pay and benefits of top managers, and cut the number of those managers, and publish earnings of its talent; third, rebuild the quality of its journalism, fourth, think strategically about the space a publicly funded broadcaster should be occupying 10 years hence; finally and most importantly, rediscover the difference between ends and means.

Mark Thompson has defended the appearance Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP on Question Time this evening on the grounds of BBC impartiality, and argues that it would be up to Parliament to stop it, more HERE.

Music Piracy

70% of those surveyed in a YouGov poll on internet piracy said that someone suspected of illegal downloading should have a right to a trial in court before restrictions on internet use were imposed, with only 16% in favour of automatic curbs based on accusations by copyright holders such as musicians, more HERE.

In other old model / new model news this week, party chairman Eric Pickles is leading the Conservative party onto Spotify. Cheese and Pickles anyone? More HERE.

Licensing

Ed is at the licensing debate in Westminster Hall at this very moment. We think there should be a review which as we are sympathetic to the suggestion of exemptions for Venues with a capacity of 200 or less – it would support artists without undermining the power of local authorities to control noise levels and promote safety in their area. The Government has just announced a very similar sounding U-turn, more HERE and watch the debate live or recorded, HERE.

Creative Industries

Northwest Vision and Media, which works on behalf of the creative and digital industries in the region, has put together the ‘Fast Company Programme’ to help the industry’s leaders to realise the value of their business and access the private equity funding available to them, more HERE. It launches with a panel discussion at the start of November, more information and registration HERE.

Advertising

Tim Lefroy, Chief Executive of the Advertising Association has announced plans to create a foundation to rebuild trust in advertising. He warned: “Less than 15% of adults ‘generally trust advertising’ today. If current trends continue, for the first time ever, people who are against advertising, who want it more controlled and regulated will, in a few years outnumber those who are ‘for it’, who feel that our freedoms are well placed.” More HERE. We think the foundation is a great idea.

Design

The winner of the Prince Philip Designers Prize for 2009 is Andrew Ritchie’s Brompton bike, based on the ingenuity of its folding mechanism, its balance of functionality, durability and comfort, and a consistent 30-year commitment to refining the product and its 1,200 parts – many of which are unique to Brompton. The bike is wholly manufactured at the company’s factory in Brentford, sells in more than 30 countries, driving a successful business that has grown by 25% for the last three years.  The business still dedicates 50% of management resource to design and development to keep itself ahead of growing competition in the fast-evolving folding bicycle market. More HERE.

Watch a design documentary of 50 years of British innovation, HERE.

The Design Council has launched a national design challenge called ‘Design for Patient Dignity’, inviting designers to join forces with manufacturers, service providers and specialist contractors to help eliminate mixed sex accommodation and increase patient privacy and dignity in hospitals. One of the briefs includes redesigning the patient gown! More HERE.

Architecture

CABE and eight regional design review panels have joined together to create a national network of design review panels. This will provide all local planning authorities with access to independent practical design advice, which is great news, more HERE

Congratulations to Richard Rogers who won this year’s Stirling Prize for his Maggie’s Centre in London, more HERE.

Arts and Heritage

Money Money Money

The Government appears to have found some money to fill the DCMS funding hole that came to light in the summer, HERE as last Friday they confirmed funding for the BFI National Film Centre, Stonehenge, the Tate Modern Extension and the British Museum’s conservation and exhibitions centre and the British Library’s newspaper archive, more HERE and HERE. It’s not at all clear to us where they have found this extra money. Nevertheless, if it is there, it is very welcome.

ACE

Speaking of money, Arts Council England chief executive Alan Davey has argued: ‘The arts ought to be a key part of any civilised government’s mission,’ also speaking at Culture is Right, this week. He added: ‘I hope any government would not return to a Mills-ian view of the most efficient creation of wealth being the sole aim of any society. [Money for the arts] has an ultimate end that Ruskin knew was important to any society – the creation of beauty, and something that goes beyond the material and straight to who we are.’ HERE. We agree.

Cultural Olympiad

The Arts Council have announced the 12 winning projects for their Artists taking the lead programme, part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. Congratulations to the winners, full details HERE.

Heritage

English Heritage has launched the Heritage Counts 2009 website, HERE. This annual report on the state of the historic environment shows that heritage can have an impact on wider social issues such as people’s sense of well-being and community cohesion, and reveals that England’s heritage has had a bumper year with visitor numbers far higher than expected, more HERE.

Libraries

Tim Godfray at the Booksellers Association has written a: ‘blistering private reply to Hodge’s proposal, and in public he talks about a “growing sense of concern” and regards libraries selling books as “unfair competition”—not least because bookshops pay taxes that support libraries… Rather than flying ill-conceived and frankly preposterous suggestions, Margaret Hodge would be better off speeding up the publication of the Charteris Report into the library service in the Wirral, and on speeding the publication of her own long-delayed Department for Culture, Media & Sport library review.’ Ouch! More HERE.

Meanwhile CILIP has weighed in with the biting headline: ‘Hot news! Absolutely nothing is happening!’ more HERE.

Effects of the recession

The Art Fund has carried out its second nationwide survey of museums and galleries which shows that more people are visiting museums across the UK and that they are spending more in the shops and cafes – a positive sign. But income from other sources, especially public funding, investments and corporate sponsorship, is falling, more HERE.

In Parliament

Parliamentary Questions

Falling Lottery funding for the arts, sports and heritage HERE

But steady lottery sales over the past few years HERE

The increasing cost of visiting English Heritage properties HERE

Buildings added, buildings removed from the English Heritage ‘Buildings At Risk’ register HERE

Estimates of the financial contribution of the heritage sector HERE

The impact of digital switchover on provision of ITV 3 and 4 in Wales HERE

The proposal for top-slicing the license fee and the impact on ITV HERE

And Finally

To mark the end of its popular P G Wodehouse exhibition, Heywood Hill the bookshop has come up with a mouth-watering free competition for anyone with an appetite for Wilton’s, Berry Bros, Heywood Hill and/ or Nicholas Soames! Watch Plum Idol HERE featuring among others Stephen Fry, Santa Montefiore and Henry Blofeld (and including Debo Devonshire’s first official appearance on You Tube) and then vote for your favourite – there is a corker of a prize for one lucky winner:

Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen

TIGA, London Film Festival screenings of Bright Star and An Education, CBI Tourism Alliance Breakfast, the Roundhouse, Culture is Right, ITV, Conservative Arts and Creative Industries Network at the Paramount, Editorial Intelligence on the future of the arts, more HERE, Alan Davey, CBI London Annual Dinner, Cartoon Museum, Moctezuma exhibition at the British Museum, Churches Conservation Trust, Channel 4, Enron at the Royal Court Theatre, TimeWarner, Connect.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

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Weekly email: 15 October 2009

October 15th, 2009 - 
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Here is this week’s news:

Tory Stuff

The next Conservative Arts and Creative Industries Network event, (which we are considering renaming to a somewhat snappier Creative Conservatives) will be at the Paramount Club next Wednesday 21st October 6.30pm – 9pm. It is kindly hosted by the Creative Coalition Campaign, more HERE. If you do not have an invitation and would like to join us, send an email to Oliver, HERE

Creative Industries

Music Piracy

News in from Sweden that file sharing has dropped after a government crackdown. More than 40 percent of Swedes engage in illegal file sharing, but the record industry say they have noted a sharp drop since a government crackdown earlier this year: ‘Six out of 10 (users of file sharing sites) have stopped completely, or at least significantly lowered their use of illegal file sharing after the new legislation… We also need to prove that markets can produce good legal alternatives for the consumers,’ said Ludvig Werner, chairman of IFPI Sweden (comparable to the BPI). More HERE and HERE .We think this news is promising but would be interested to know if there had been an increase in legal downloading – we hear anecdotally that this is the case.

BSkyB is launching Sky Songs, its long-awaited digital music service designed to compete with music services such as iTunes and Spotify. Sky has agreed deals with the four major music labels, EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal and Warner Music as well as a number of independent labels to access their back catalogues and new releases. We think this is also promising news, particularly as so many labels are involved. More HERE.

Internet

More than 10 million adults in the UK have never used the internet, according to a new report commissioned by Martha Lane Fox, the government’s digital inclusion champion. It also found that households without the internet are missing out on an average saving of £560 per year on bills and deals, and that the 1.8 million children growing up in the digitally excluded families could increase their lifetime earnings by £10.8 billion should they become digitally literate. More HERE.

BT will double the scope of its fastest optical fibre broadband service to around 2.5million UK homes and businesses. Fibre To The Premises (FTTP) technology will give download speeds of 100Mbps. More HERE. We welcome this announcement as a further example of the private sector pushing ahead with superfast broadband.

Confusion has broken out within the government over the 2Mbps universal broadband coverage that was called for by Digital Britain. Is it a maximum or minimum speed? His Lordship’s BIS, as represented by head of broadband policy Andy Carter (no relation), and Stephen Timms, Lord Carter’s successor, do not seem to agree. More HERE.

Design

It’s the Golden Jubilee of the Prince Philip Designers Prize which might have been drawn to your attention this week owing to His Royal Highness’s frustration with television remote controls. More HERE, HERE and HERE.

China has caught up to the U.S. and Western Europe in great swaths of the economy. Yet China’s schools lag Western counterparts in teaching “design thinking,” or taking the problem-solving process designers use to create products and applying it to the greater tasks of running a business… Now the central government is developing a design policy to help China move beyond a manufacturing economy and forward in implementing cross-disciplinary education and bridging left- and right-brained thinking… HERE.

Conversations are taking place in the United States to lay foundations for an American Design Council. The U.S. National Design Policy Initiative met on May 26th with Acting Under Secretary of Commerce and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office John Doll.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss potential support for the formalisation of an American Design Council, and the establishment of an Assistant Secretary of Design and Innovation position in the Department of Commerce More HERE, HERE, and HERE. We know, we’re slightly late with this news, but the Design Council only drew it to our attention at Conference.

Fashion

Congratulations to Burberry, doing well in the middle of a recession, as they reported better-than-expected fiscal second-quarter sales, boosted by strong in-store sales of the British luxury brand’s Autumn/ Winter collection of clothes and accessories . Total sales in the three months to Sept. 30 rose 4.6% to £343 million from £328 million a year earlier, well ahead of forecasts of £323 million. More HERE.

Film

Ed was at Screen International’s annual Film Summit this week, and reassured the sector that we are committed to the film tax credit. More HERE.

The London Film Festival started yesterday, supported by the UK Film Council as principal funder of the Festival, with £1.88 million of Lottery funding over the next three years. This year’s line-up will see 191 features and 113 shorts screened. More, and praise from Bill Murray for the British Film Industry, HERE, festival info and full programme HERE.

The London Film Festival started yesterday, supported by the UK Film Council as principal funder of the Festival, with £1.88 million of Lottery funding over the next three years. This year’s line-up will see 191 features and 113 shorts screened. More, and praise from Bill Murray for the British Film Industry, HERE link to opening night story, festival info and full programme HERE.

Figures out today suggest that UK Independent Film is weathering the recession well, with inward investment booming, more HERE.

Congratulations to the Brit Doc Foundation and More4 backed Afghan Star which follows contestants in Afghan Star, a version of American Idol, has been named as the UK’s foreign language Oscar submission more HERE.

Radio

A new radio drama is to be premiered on the Independent’s website as part of an experiment between them and production company Made In Manchester, more HERE this is exactly the kind of innovation we like to see.

Twitter

It seems Conservatives are more twitter savvy than any other mainstream party, with a high-level of background tweeting all through the conference as well as clear peaks around the big speeches. Labour had noticeably less apart from the day Gordon Brown spoke, and the Lib Dems had very little twitter activity all round. More HERE.

Arts and Heritage

Arts Council

After hearing that the Hackney Empire and the Southbank Centre might be in trouble The Stage put in a Freedom of Information request for papers to the ACE board and radar lists which mentioned the two venues in the last three months. The Arts Council’s response contains 12 full pages of redacted notes. More HERE. We think ACE should be open and honest about its role in this kind of decision.

Heritage

English Heritage has submitted a planning application to Wiltshire Council for a new visitor centre at Airman’s Corner at Stonehenge. HERE. Their proposals are designed to ensure the immediate surroundings of the monument are open and tranquil, rid of modern traffic and clutter, resulting in visitors being able to appreciate the Stones in their archaeologically rich landscape, rather than a place in isolation.  This will help fulfil the overall aim of the Stonehenge scheme which is to restore a sense of dignity and wonder to its setting, and provide visitors with a high quality experience. A modernisation of the facilities at Stonehenge is long overdue.

Libraries

Library campaigners have expressed strong concern over Margaret Hodge’s delay of the publication of the inquiry into the Wirral library service. A published report was originally expected in July, and then delayed to the autumn, and further delayed by Hodge following Wirral council’s recent u-turn over the cuts. She said ‘We must now circulate the Wirral’s recent decision to all those who gave evidence at the Inquiry, so that they may have an opportunity to comment on the new evidence before I and the Secretary of State make a formal decision,’ However, Wirral library campaigner Donald McCubbin protested: ‘I am extremely concerned that they will try and avoid publishing the full report by delaying as long as possible and only publishing an edited version. An awful lot of people struggled with the concept of ‘statements of case’ and ‘proof of evidence’ to present their evidence to the Inquiry. It was conducted with great fairness to all sides by Sue Charteris and it would be a gross insult to all the volunteers who took part to save their libraries if the report is not published in full and soon. . . We are owed the full report.’ We agree. More HERE.

The book trade has also questioned Hodge’s suggestion that libraries should start selling books. Booksellers Association chief executive Tim Godfray said he was “very concerned” about the idea and that he will ” be making representations to the returned minister of culture,” More HERE and his concerns that Margaret Hodge is promoting unfair competition, HERE and HERE.

Literature

Romanian-born German writer Herta Müller has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2009 HERE.

Archives

Demonstrating how MPs can use archives, our Shadow Housing Minster Grant Shapps was just flipping through some old photos of Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City from the 1940′s, 50′s and 60′s. He says they’re fascinating, so he has posted them on the Welwyn Hatfield Forum HERE. We think the National Archives should supply MPs with 10 archive pieces for their websites, to get MPs – and their constituents- focused on the power of archives.

New Deal of the Mind

A more imaginative approach to dealing with unemployment is needed urgently says New Deal of the Mind (NDotM) as unemployment climbs to 2.47 million. Founder Martin Bright says we have to be more imaginative in tackling unemployment:, ‘Instead of waiting for the next supermarket giant to open, we should be supporting people engaged in the creative industries who have the potential to create wealth and more jobs. That means understanding self employment, freelancing and moving away from the idea that you can only be an employer or an employee. A quarter of all people in work are self employed but we know after six months, without support many of those people become unemployed. …That’s why we’ re calling for a modern Enterprise Allowance Scheme that would support the next generation of entrepreneurs in the creative industries.” More HERE.

Visual Art

The Frieze art fair opened yesterday and the mood is buoyant, according to this round up, HERE

The Government Art Collection has been selection works with Ben Bradshaw to decorate his office. They tell us: ‘He was pleased to discover that a 19th-century painting of his constituency town, View of Exeter HERE by an unknown artist, had recently returned from another location and was able to form part of the new display. He also selected works by Elisabeth Frink HERE, Sonia Boyce HERE, Howard Hodgkin HERE and Frank Bowling HERE Lucky him.

Shadow Chief Secretary of the Treasury Philip Hammond seemed to say on Monday that things are so bad financially we might have to sell the Tate or was that the Tote? HERE and HERE.

How it is. Dark, apparently, HERE

And finally

Ed and the Queen have both been spotted having discrete culture moments this week. The Queen went to see Warhorse and was applauded when she left, more HERE. Ed had lunch with Tracey Emin and got quite a lot of abuse on this blog, HERE. The comments, by the way, are by turns hilarious and astonishingly offensive, reflecting the barmy nature of Guido’s readership.

In Parliament

Steps to improve value for money at the DCMS HERE

Departmental marketing costs the DCMS £45 000 HERE

6 million TV License reminders sent out HERE

No plans to undertake a review of the implementation of the Licensing Act 2003 HERE

DCMS has had no discussions with overseas radio broadcasters HERE

The effects of the abolition of regional structures of the Arts Council HERE

Steps to inform consumers of the jurisdiction of betting websites HERE

Distribution by the Heritage Lottery Fund over the last decade HERE

EDMs

Government’s proposals on file sharing HERE.

Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen

Frieze, Tmobile, BT, NWDA, In the Spirit of Diaghilev at Sadler’s Wells (which will be shown on BBC 4 later in the year), Critics Circle, Screen International Film Summit, Tate International, Lily Allen, Claudia Winkelman, Lucian Freud, Damian Hirst, Tracey Emin (but you knew that). Philip Green, Spotify, The Scottish Media Consortium, ITV, English Heritage, UK Film Council, BPI, Museum Sheffield, BBC, Future Production Forum and Channel 5, Jonathan Shalit.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

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