News Summary: 24th February 2010

February 24th, 2010 - 
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Media

The Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee’s Press Standards, Privacy and Libel report was published last night and can be read in full HERE. In summary the report:

  • Called for the Government to cut “enormous cost of libel cases” in the UK;
  • Called for the Press Complaints Commission to be renamed and have power to fine;
  • Condemned “collective amnesia” at News International over phone hacking but said the culture of hacking being deemed acceptable had now changed.

More in The Guardian HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE; Independent HERE and HERE; Times HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

Tech

It has been revealed that former children’s laureates Quentin Blake, Anne Fine and Jacqueline Wilson, among others, have opted out of the Google Books settlement. Court documents relating to the case (see HERE) show that more than 6,500 authors, publishers and literary agents have opted out of the settlement. These include the estates of Rudyard Kipling and Roald Dahl. Novelist Marika Cobbold, author of books including Guppies for Tea and Shooting Butterflies, has opted out and said:

“My feelings were, in the end, that I doubted I would lose out by opting out, whereas I might do by opting in. Also there was the principle that copyright is important… It would be like handing over my babies to a babysitter I’d never met, [and] I couldn’t understand what was in it for me. I love Google, and in principle making information accessible is wonderful, but things are moving so fast, and authors are losing so much control over what we’ve done, that my fear was who knows, in five to 10 years’ time, how this information could be used?” More in The Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; and FT HERE.

More bad news for Google as it faces a preliminary anti-monopoly probe by the European Commission into its dominant position in online browsing and digital advertising following allegations that it demotes competing websites to the lower echelons of customers’ search results. The complaints centre on the way in which Google’s search results are compiled and on the terms and conditions the company attaches to deals with advertisers. Although the commission’s investigation is only at a tentative stage, the fact that Brussels is taking the issue seriously is likely to set off alarm bells at Google. More in The Guardian HERE.

Cinema

There’s interesting coverage of the Alice in Wonderland/ Odeon fall-out in today’s Guardian, where it notes that Tim Burton’s film has become an unlikely pawn in a global struggle to ­redefine how, when and where we watch ­movies in the digital age. Disney, which ­produced the movie, wants to shorten the amount of time between some films being released in cinemas and then coming out on DVD. Exhibitors, unsurprisingly, want to preserve the exclusive ­theatrical experience for as long as possible. The studio insists that it’s not trying to enforce a new industry standard: it ­simply wants the ­flexibility to release some films sooner on DVD, when it makes commercial sense to do so. The studio argues that films typically last about two months in cinemas before they disappear off screens; this means a further two-month wait until the official DVD release, a period used by pirates to flog illegal copies. A shorter window, says Disney, will mean less money lost to the pirates.

But exhibitors fear that if they accept a three-month window for Alice, rather than a four, then other studios will ­follow suit, making a further ­contraction inevitable. This, they say, will erode the eagerness of audiences to rush out to the cinema, and tempt them to wait instead for the DVD or online release. More in The Guardian  HERE.

Music

It’s National Sing Up Day today, ‘Sing Up’ works on the basis that every child deserves the chance to sing every day. Singing improves learning, confidence, health and social development; it has the power to change lives and help to build stronger communities. You can read more about Sing Up’s work at their website HERE. There is also news this week that teaching stroke patients to sing can “rewire” their brains, helping them to recover speech. Dr Nina Kraus, a neuroscientist from Northwestern University in Chicago, also studies the effects of music on the brain. She has discovered that musical training seems to enhance the ability to perform other tasks, such as reading; providing yet more evidence that musical training is an important part of children’s education. More in BBC News HERE.

Auction

A rare copy of the first comic book to feature Superman sold for $1m (£640,000) yesterday, smashing the previous record for a comic. The 1938 edition of Action Comics No1 was sold by a private seller to a private buyer. Neither released their name. The issue, which has a cover featuring Superman lifting a car, originally cost 10 cents. More in The Guardian HERE.

Libraries

Miranda McKearney, Directorof the Reading Agency has given an interview to The Guardian, talking about their schemes to promote authors and books to communities, through such means as Summer Reading Challenges and reading groups. More HERE.

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Weekly email: 28/01/2010

February 2nd, 2010 - 
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Here’s this week’s news…

 

Tory Stuff

Ed spoke this week on cultural education at the Yehudi Menuhin school. He warned that: ‘We are losing sight of the key aims of cultural education in a blizzard of initiatives. What I would like to do is bring some coherence, stability and long-term strategy to the sector.

 

I want to be able to answer easily questions like: can my child learn a musical instrument, learn art, learn to dance, regardless of my income; if my child is talented, can I guarantee that they will be able to sustain their talent; will my child leave school with a solid cultural education, and therefore feel comfortable in engaging in the arts in all its forms?

 

In short, we need strategy and coherence from the centre, so that the considerable funds that are spent on music and dance education – more than £95 million annually – are spent efficiently and effectively.’ Full speech HERE. We are very interested to hear your contributions, so please do post them in the comments section, identifying who you are and which organisation you are from. There is a nice comment about the speech on LinkedIn HERE.

Jeremy is on Facebook, add him as a friend HERE We are resisting all obvious jokes

Creative Industries

Digital Economy Bill Day 5

Clauses 10 -18 were considered, full transcript on Hansard HERE A sixth day is scheduled for 3rd February. With discussions of the eagerly anticipated Clause 17 starting HERE Lord Howard spoke for our side, and pointed out HERE that the Government haven’t said what they want this power for, which makes it rather difficult for us to decide whether to support it or not. He also expressed our serious concerns about broad nature of the power and the use of a super affirmative resolution (that’s a super duper SI) and said that in its current form, we don’t support it. We would like to see the Government come back narrower definition of the power, and continue to discuss this with them.

Online Piracy

At the Oxford Media Convention, Stephen Timms, the ‘Digital Britain’ Minister, criticised rights holders for not moving fast enough to bring new business models to market. He said: ‘The space the legislation provides to develop those models will be important. But rights holders must get a move on. Legislation is not the whole solution to the problems. Rights holders need to develop new ways to make content available to people in formats that they want and at a fair price – reducing the incentive to break the law. Progress has been much too slow. We also need initiatives to educate people about why creativity deserves to be fairly rewarded.’ Er, we agree, more HERE ’

ITV

ITV have appointed Adam Crozier, the head of Royal Mail and former boss of the FA as its new chief executive. More HERE congratulations all round.

Congratulations to ITV and Sony Pictures TV, as analysis suggests Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? A TV format created in the UK is the most popular gameshow in the world more HERE.

BSkyB

Continue their downturn-defying financial performance: For the six months to the end of December, they have reported a revenue rise of 10% year on year to £2.9 billion. More HERE.

Video Games

The House of Lords Communications Committee has effectively backed TIGA’s campaign for Games Tax Relief in their report into The British Film and Television Industries published this week. The report says: “We recognise the claims of the videogames industry for support in the face of foreign government-subsidised competition, and recommend that the Government consider providing tax incentives for videogames production.” More HERE.

Speaking at the Westminster eForum on video games Ian Livingstone criticised the national news media’s tendency to stir up more panic surrounding violent content more

HERE Ed also spoke at this event, more HERE.

TIGA have said it is ludicrous to suggest that playing video games was responsible for an apparent increase in cases of rickets more HERE and HERE.

Technology

Derek Wyatt MP has created a ‘My MP’ App for the iPhone, yes really, a Beta version is available HERE

Local News

The CEO Trinity Mirror’s CEO called for the abolition of council newspapers at the Oxford Media Convention last week, HERE. Meanwhile, the Audit Commission wrote to Stephen Timms last week with their conclusions from research into this area. They say that ‘the money being spent by councils is not unreasonable, though they should always consider whether it provides good value. Few council publications are published sufficiently frequently to be viable media for most local advertising.’ The letter and the appendix are published HERE.

Newspapers

Congratulations to the Guardian.co.uk which has attracted nearly 37m users and breaks the record for a UK newspaper website according to their latest ABC stats. We don’t know where we’d be without it, frankly. More HERE.

Music

Congratulations to UK indie label XL, part of the Beggars group, on reaching a number 1 in the US album chart with Vampire Weekend’s second album Contra, more HERE.

iPad

Bringer of the eBooks revolution, possible saviour of the newspaper business, or an oversized iPhone? Views on this, and an explanation of the term ‘goldilocks device’ HERE

Arts and Heritage

Culture and Education

Ofsted have published a report into culture and education: ‘Learning: Creative approaches that raise standards’ more HERE which recognises the work of Creative Partnerships and the impact of creative learning practices in schools in improving standards and pupils’ personal development.

Creativity, Culture and Education have welcomed Ofsted’s recognition that using arts and culture across in learning raise attainment levels, improve attendance and increase pupil motivation  – particularly for schools in challenging circumstances, more HERE

New Deal of the Mind

£1.45 million announced for 223 jobs, 167 of which will be arts jobs across 14 London boroughs in a project run by new Deal of the Mind. There include design assistants, marketing and press assistants and fundraisers at organisations including The British Library, the Lyric Hammersmith, the Young Vic and the Royal Court, more HERE

Libraries

A new research report conducted by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) highlights the crucial role public libraries play in supporting the delivery of the national digital priorities set out by the Government and Digital Inclusion Champion, Martha Lane Fox. More HERE and HERE.

Meanwhile, a commission to examine the future of school library provision in England is being launched by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and the National Literacy Trust (NLT) it will be chaired by Estelle Morris, more HERE

New funding opportunity for libraries to support digital inclusion has been announced in December’s Smarter Government report. Library services have their chance to bid for new funding, thanks to a new £30 million government investment in UK online centres. More information about the funding, different models, criteria and obligations HERE.

The Charted Institute of Library and Information Professionals has responded to the Government’s (latest) libraries review, HERE.

Heritage

English Heritage is suggesting that refurbishing old school buildings is often the best use of resources and the most sustainable way of modernising them and have published two new papers that highlight the value and potential of older schools. We think this is an interesting idea, well worth exploring, more HERE and HERE.

New grants from HLF have just been announced, Including a £3m grant to the Giant’s Causeway World Heritage Site in Northern Ireland and £3.7m for Liverpool’s pioneering Florence Institute for Boys, more HERE.

Theatre

Great news for theatre: total box office receipts for 2009 were up to £504,765,690; marking the seventh record-breaking year in a row. What’s more, while in previous years it has been musicals that have driven increases in box office takings, in 2009 the rise was almost entirely accounted for by the performance of drama at the box office. Led by the success of shows such as War Horse, Waiting for Godot and Calendar Girls, plays were 26% up on 2008 levels, while opera, dance and entertainments were up 7%. Musicals were 2% down over the year more. Congratulations all round, more HERE.

In Parliament

Parliamentary Questions

Just 77% of the Scottish population can currently access DAB HERE

DCMS considering proposals from Camelot to enter the commercial market for bill payments HERE

The largest proportion of the general public view the Arts Council ‘neither favourably nor unfavourably’ HERE

Digital Economy Bill

The Digital Economy Bill has reached Clause 9 in the Committee Stage of the Lords HERE

EDMs

EDM 689 – Licensing Act 2003 HERE

EDM 671 – Publication of salaries and remuneration packages of BBC executives HERE

EDM 666 – Live Music Bill HERE

Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen

The Stephen Lawrence Centre, the RSC education team, Battersea Power station, English Heritage, Asian Music Circuit, Southbank Sinfonia Every Good Boy Deserves Favour at the National Theatre, UK Music, Enron at the Noel Coward Theatre, The Yehudi Menuhin School, the Performer Alliance APPG were everybody supported an exemption to the Licensing Act for small venues HERE, the Globe, Clore Duffield Foundation, the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Foyle Foundation, Fidelity UK Foundation, Michael Van der Ham, Christopher Kane, Erdem, the London College of Fashion MA show at the V&A, Clare Delmar, Channel 4, ITV, STV, Johnson Press, Google, Yahoo, Ebay, Facebook, OFT.

 

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News Summary: 27th January 2010

January 27th, 2010 - 
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‘Oblivion is no place for the arts’ Prince Charles told the last ever South Bank Show Awards, via a video message criticising ITV’s decision to cancel the South Bank Show. He said the show was ‘one of the most important beacons of the arts in this country’ and that ‘Civilisation needs all the help it can get, more so today than ever before. But now it loses one of its greatest champions.’

Lord Bragg, presenter of the show since its launch in 1978, said ‘I’m baffled as to how and why it was taken off the air. I don’t think it was a financial consideration.’ He added that arts on mainstream television has dropped by around 60%. Embarrassingly for ITV, the ceremony will be broadcast on January 31, complete with criticism from the Prince of Wales and others. Lord Bragg said: ‘I am the editor… it won’t be censored.’ More in the Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

A Chinese court has cleared Baidu, China’s most popular search engine, of music piracy. Another site called Sohu was also cleared. The music sector trade body, IFPA, responded: ‘The judgments in the Baidu and Sohu/Sogou cases are extremely disappointing… [and] do not reflect the reality that both operators have built their music search businesses on the basis of facilitating mass copyright infringement, to the detriment of artists, producers and all those involved in China’s legitimate music market.’ Background on the case, which was launched by Universal Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment Hong Kong and Warner Music Hong Kong in early 2008, can be found HERE. More on today’s story HERE.

There’s an interesting article in the GuardianTech HERE on digital copyright, and what that should aim to achieve; to promote participation with culture without displacing any revenue for the rights holder.

Whilst the Government seems to be pushing ahead with the 2015 completion rate for digital radio switchover in the Digital Economy Bill, Ford Ennals, the CEO of Digital Radio UK –  the body charged with overseeing the switchover – has now predicted that the completion of the process is in fact – at the earliest – 6 to 10 years away. He adds that he wants to ‘be responsible and transparent with consumers’. More HERE. Also talking about Digital Britain yesterday was Kip Meek (formerly of Ofcom; made independent broker to the DB interim report last year). He told the Westminster Media eForum that digital decisions had been left too late, and that the issue of spectrum – both trading existing spectrum and auctioning off the spectrum on the airwaves released by the digital switchover process – had become a ‘policy-making orphan’. More HERE.

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Weekly email: 14/01/10

January 18th, 2010 - 
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Here is this week’s news:
Tory Stuff
Jeremy made a major speech on the arts at the RSA’s conference on arts policy, the largest conference of its kind held in recent years. He was doing his impressive speaking-without-notes trick so no transcript to link to, but he talked about our plans to: restore lottery funds to the four original good causes, bear down on quango administration costs; philanthropy including simplifying Gift Aid and lifetime giving, and incentives to build up endowments and a better culture of asking for contributions. There’s good overview from Charlotte Higgins in the Guardian, HERE, although unfortunately there is a typo in the headline, which should say ‘Arts bureaucracy cuts proposed by Conservatives.’ Feedback on what he said and other goings on from the conference on Twitter, HERE.
Creative Industries
Digital Economy Bill
Realising that there is no way it will pass in its current form, the Government has climbed down on Clause 17 (which allows the Government to extend copyright with minimal consultation) more HERE and latest discussion from the Lords HERE. The debate rages on with Bono’s 10 ideas to make the next 10 years more interesting, including criticism of internet piracy HERE causes a storm of debate HERE and HERE
Video Games
Ed spoke at an event on video games at the RSA last night with Tom Chatfield, a critic and commentator on video games, with an excellent book out this week, Fun Inc. Why Video Games Are the First Serious Business of the 21st Century, more HERE and HERE.
Channel 4
Congratulations to C4, which has been awarded the broadcast rights for the 2012 Paralympics. It will broadcast 150 hours of coverage after winning what LOCOG described as a ‘highly competitive tender process’.  C4 tell us they feel this is a great fit with their remit commitment to cultural diversity and that ‘we’ll be throwing everything at our coverage to make it as innovative and exciting as it can be and attract the largest possible audiences.’ More HERE
Local Media
Ed spoke in yet another debate on the Local Media in Parliament this week HERE. Eight consortia have been successful in the first phase of the selection process for Independently Funded News Consortia (IFNC) pilots HERE. We oppose IFNCs as a backward step, and instead have put forward proposals for local television HERE
Broadcasting
Independent think tank Policy Exchange has published a report on the future of broadcasting HERE. The report argues that public service broadcasting needs to be radically overhauled if it is to survive in the new digital age. It calls for the BBC to place quality before ratings, and stop spending huge resources on sports rights, programmes for 16 to 35 year olds and popular entertainment, which other channels would deliver anyway. Instead of crowding out commercial schemes, the BBC management should spend up to 5% of total licence fee income on co-funding PSB programmes on other channels.
Music
Contribute to this discussion on our LinkedIn group: It’s a traditional New Year ritual for trade associations to portray their industries in the best possible light, but how is the entertainment business really doing? HERE Incidentally, any one can start a discussion on our Linked In group, so feel free.
Arts and Heritage
Arts Council
What did the Arts Council ever do to Tom Watson MP, we wonder, as he tables yet more parliamentary questions about them following the 50  -  yes 50  -  he tabled last week, and the 50-plus before Christmas, the latest from yesterday HERE the day before HERE 6th January HERE 5th January HERE
Could it be the answer to an earlier question, as reported HERE that has really got him going? 
The Arts Council has given an extra £1.2 million to the ICA, more HERE
Cultural Olympiad
DCMS advisor on Culture and former director of the Manchester International Festival Ruth Mackenzie has been appointed as the director of the Cultural Olympiad. At the same time several artistic associates have also been announced: Alex Poots, current artistic director of MIF, Martin Duncan who was joint artistic director with Mackenzie at Chichester Festival, Sir Brian McMaster, former director of the Edinburgh  International  Festival and Craig Hassall, managing director of English National Ballet  and former head of the Cultural Olympiad for the Australian Olympics more HERE.  And they all report to Tony Hall.  Sounds like a recipe for clear decision-making, then.
Philanthropy
Arts and Business report that the total figure for private sector investment in culture for 2008/09 fell from its record high in 07/08 to £654.9 million in the UK decreasing by 7% (above inflation). Investment from all three private sector sources declined from the previous year: Business investment fell by 6% to £157 million and accounts for 24% of the overall contribution from the private sector. In 08/09, investment from individuals dropped to £363 million, a 7% decrease that ends the trend of fast-paced growth that began to accelerate in 05/06. Individual giving now accounts for 55% of the total private investment received in the sector. The amount of support from Trusts & Foundations also fell from £141 million to £135 million a 7% decrease now accounting for 21% of the total private investment in the cultural sector. More HERE. Ed commented ‘These figures are disappointing and reflect the effects of the economic recession.  This is a wake-up call that we need to get our economy back on track, in order to return to the levels of private giving we enjoyed in the 1990s and 2000s.  Economic recovery is as crucial for the arts as it is for all parts of our economy’.
Heritage
The Public Accounts Committee report into Promoting Participation with the Historic Environment was published this week. Committee chair Edward Leigh MP said:
“The Department for Culture, Media and Sport gave English Heritage unrealistic targets to increase the number of visits to historic sites by people from three specific underrepresented groups. With no clear evidence of how the target levels might be achieved, English Heritage opted instead to focus on increasing its income from visitor attractions, at the expense of activities to increase participation’Full report HERE. We think this is yet another example of how Labour’s box-ticking is a misconceived approach to heritage and the arts.
The Art Fund has launched its campaign to raise £3.3 million to save the Staffordshire Hoard HERE. We wish them every success and of course will make a donation.
Libraries
Rather than staying at home and building snowmen this winter, Bloomsbury have conceived Bloomsbury Library Online to support public libraries and literacy in an innovative, experimental and socially inclusive way using existing computers and devices within the local library, internet-enabled mobile phones, or remotely from home or elsewhere with a library card. Currently offering seventy books, from forty-eight authors to 2.4 million readers through UK public libraries, we think this is great news, more HERE
West Sussex County Council also has plans to deliver 21st century library services more HERE.
Predictions for the new decade include: ‘a very strong independent sector, the growth of the e-book market and a continued fight for library campaigners are some of the predictions for next year made by figures from the retail, library and digital sides of the trade.’ according to The Bookseller, more HERE.
Archives
The National Archives Education Department has set up a Twitter feed that lets people get a unique perspective on the opening months of the Second World War. Starting from 1 January, summaries and links to Cabinet papers relating to that date in 1940 are posted – the result is a day by day view of the Second World War from the War Cabinet’s point of view, using real documents You can follow the tweets and follow the links to read the original documents capturing the decisions of the men who determined the fate of the nationHERE. For non-tweeters, you can find Cabinet Papers 1915-1978 online HERE.
Natalie Ceeney is stepping down from her post as CEO at The National Archives. Oliver Morley will be Interim CEO, the Ministry of Justice will be handling the new appointment, more HERE. We wish Natalie well for the future, she has been an outstanding leader.
Museums
The findings of an NMDC project looking at how national and regional museums work together was launched this week, more HERE.The NMDC has also published Museums’ Deliver demonstrating the wide-ranging social and economic importance of museums in the UK. Full report HERE.
Kids in Museums have launched their manifesto today, highlighting the need for flexible family tickets HERE.
In America, is it time to start selling some works to balance the books in museums and galleries? More HERE and the piece caused such a storm there is a response HERE.
City of Culture
Birmingham will bid to be the UK’s first city of culture more HERE.
NCA
The National Campaign for the Arts have a lovely new website HERE.
Opera and Ballet
The Royal Opera House is the first big arts institution to join the tickets for troops scheme, more HERE. Dance, as someone in a cheese shop once said, is ‘staggeringly popular in the manor squire’ more HERE.
New Year’s Honours - Errors and Omissions
Thank you for pointing out the following omissions from our New Year’s Honours List – a knighthood for the brilliant architect David Chipperfield, CBEs for the outstanding Natalie Ceeney, soon to be ex head of the National Archives, the great  singer Sarah Connolly, the awesome architect George Ferguson, and an OBE for the superb Julia Fawcett at the Lowry. Also the Director of Heart n Soul is Mark Williams (not Christopher Williams, a songwriter who works with them who received an OBE). Slapped wrists all round
In Parliament
Parliamentary Questions
More questions from Tom Watson on the Arts Council HERE
DCMS spending on travel costs for Ministers and Officials HERE
EDMs
EDM 583 – Technology Company Censorship HERE
Digital Economy Bill
The Bill is in the committee stage in the Lords – Hansard can be read HERE
Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen
PayPoint, the London Film Museum, VAGA, NMDC, Orange, Anthony Browne, RSA, V&A, Kids in Museums, NCA, Ideas Tap, The State of the Arts Conference, the Olympic site, BBC News Festival, OC&C Media Conference.
Ed Vaizey
Shadow Arts Minister
Jeremy Hunt
Shadow Culture Secretary
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Weekly email 17-12-09

December 17th, 2009 - 
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Here is this week’s news.  There’s some stuff not in here, but that’s just because we’re saving it for our Christmas special!

Creative Industries

Video Games

Labour MP Tom Watson has suggested that the BBC could ‘really help’ small developers. He suggests that the corporation could allow developers to showcase applications or games on the BBC website, with the studio then able to look at commercial routes as well. More HERE.

Two more games courses have been accredited by Skillset, putting them among the ranks of the UK’s elite games training grounds. Congratulations to Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Abertay more HERE.

Ed has been interviewed by Midlife Gamer, along with Don Foster and Sion Simon: HERE.

Children and Advertising

Ed Balls has published a report on: ‘The Impact of the Commercial World on Children’s Wellbeing’. Amongst its findings, the report says that the commercial world provides children with important opportunities in terms of entertainment, learning, creativity and cultural experience. Full report HERE. Press release HERE. .

The Advertising Association has published a response, HERE with chief executive Tim Lefroy saying: ‘This is a measured and thoughtful review of the role the commercial world has in society and particularly for children and young people.  We are playing a full role in various initiatives as part of our responsible approach to marketing to children’

Online Piracy

YouTube are considering offering subscription services that allow users to watch major new TV shows and films online. Some broadcasters including Channel 4 and Five have already forged deals with the website to show full-length programmes online, Youtube is now considering paid options as well. More HERE.

Australia introduces web filters that restrict access to criminal content, HERE. As you can imagine twitter is not happy, HERE.

Online security group Detica is launching a system that can monitor illegal filesharing over Virgin Media’s Network. It has dismissed concerns that it could be used to identify and spy on individual users, saying ‘customer privacy is at the very heart of this’ more HERE.

Mobile Networks

In Norway and Scandinavia the first 4G mobile network becomes available, HERE. 4G is 10 times faster than the best mobile internet in this country.

BBC Worldwide

Mark Thompson has hit back at calls to sell of Worldwide, saying it will be an ‘empty vessel’ if it is sold. More HERE and HERE.  We now have absolutely no idea what the BBC actually wants to do with Worldwide…sell it? keep it? sell part of it?

TV

Channel 4 and TalkTalk have announced they will join Canvas, the proposed venture with the BBC, ITV, Five and BT to deliver television programmes and other online content via broadband more HERE. We think this great news.

Almost a third of the entire country tuned in to watch the final of X-factor, well over half of the total TV audience, HERE.

Music

Rage Against the Machine was outselling X Factor Winner Joe McElderry in the midweek sales figures, more HERE. More than 500,000 people have joined a campaign on Facebook encouraging people to by the 1992 single Killing in the Name in an attempt to upset Simon Cowell’s domination of the Christmas charts.

Film

The BSAC have published a report into Creativity, Competitiveness and Enterprise more HERE. which calls on the Government to stimulate competition, create a UK silicon valley liberate public service content from TV and create a copyright regime that facilitates decentralised creativity and access to content in the broader ecology. HERE. This is an interesting report which we will be looking at closely.

Pinewood studios have announced that they will open a studios in Malaysia more HERE.

Fashion

Good news from Burberry which has said it will show in London again at the A/W 2010 shows in February, more HERE.

The Guardian Fashion Awards for the year are out HERE. And no, we have no idea what that thing on Madonna’s head is either.

Radio

Made in Manchester’s second online drama with the Indy is online now HERE. We think this project is an interesting development which opens up new radio platforms other than the BBC.

Awards Season

Just starting to warm up, with the Golden Globe nominations out. Congratulations to British nominees Helen Mirren, Carey Mulligan and Emily Blunt more HERE.

Arts and Heritage

Visual Art

Ed has been interviewed by Art Forum on our arts policies, HERE.

Film and Archives

The BBC and the British Library have brought together their collection of audiovisual archives to make them more widely available to the public HERE. Well done to both.

Books

A new website plans to use commuters’ music players to revive the art of the short story by selling audiobooks of work by famous writers. More HERE. Very good idea.

And Finally

Ed was interviewed by the BBC’s Hard Talk this week, talking about culture and media policies and the wider Conservative agenda more HERE.  He vigorously denied he was posh.

Win a free cultural calendar on CultureLabel  HERE

In Parliament

DCMS spending on public relations HERE

£1,100 on departmental photo shoots HERE

Departmental meetings with the music industry HERE

The cost of DCMS departmental away days HERE

Government Art Collection loans to public galleries HERE

Funding to ACE over the last five years HERE

1700 days lost to sickness at the DCMS HERE

Estimates for funding to the good causes in the years to 2015 HERE

Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen

ITV, Local Government Association libraries conference, Loyd Grossman, St Mary’s Tower Gloucester, Gloucester Folk Museum, Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucester Museum (yes, we were in Gloucester), Tribal Education, Sally Greene… and George Osborne visited David Chipperfield and Neues Museum in Berlin and also met with Chairmen of three National Museums.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

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Weekly Email: 29 October 2009

October 29th, 2009 - 
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Here is this week’s news:

Tory Stuff

Museums and Heritage

Jeremy made a key note speech on heritage yesterday. He called for our national museums currently to have greater independence from Government, more HERE and the full text of his speech HERE.  He lambasted the Government’s record on heritage, emphasised our plans to increase Lottery funding, proposed the merger of English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund to save costs and promised a heritage bill if we win the next election.

Video Games

Ed’s enthusiasm for the video games sector is well documented. This week he set out what a Conservative government would do to give the games industry the ‘voice it deserves’. He urged the sector to think more widely than industry specific tax break and engage with our Shadow treasury team’s task force, headed by Sir James Dyson, which is looking at options for Government to provide effective support to venture capital. He also addressed skills, broadband and piracy issues. More HERE and full text of his speech HERE Labour Peer Lord Puttnam said: ‘If the Conservative get in next year, there’s a guy called Ed Vaizey who will be a minister, and he certainly takes the games industry seriously, and he’s made it his business to understand the games industry.’ HERE. ELSPA have just press released to say that they loved it, HERE

Creative Industries

Music Piracy U-turn

His Lordship Peter Mandelson has set a date for blocking filesharers’ internet connection at C&binet. The strategy will be officially set out in the government’s digital economy bill in late November and could come into force in April 2010, more HERE and HERE.

Jeremy has commented: “We seem to have a new policy on file sharing every time a Government Minister opens their mouth. We’ve had three changes in five months. Most recently, in August Lord Mandelson argued that waiting for 12 months before anything happened would be “too long”. Now they propose waiting 15 months. What’s changed? Its clear that the Government doesn’t know what to do and until the Bill is actually published no-one is any wiser as to how they will act.” More HERE

As yet there is no clarification on what the government intends to do about oversights in the original proposals, particularly internet access via mobile networks: our sources tell us that BIS are still ‘grappling’ around options, and plans seem to be changing on a daily/ weekly basis.

Google is to offer music downloads, with the four major labels all licensing their catalogues to the service which is expected to launch next week, more HERE.

Meanwhile the European Parliament is hammering out a final agreement on how member states should deal with file-sharing, more HERE

C&binet

His Lordship’s speech took place at C&binet, the lavish digital creative industries conference sponsored by DCMS. We hear the budget ran to the millions, so the catering was once again marvellous, but they couldn’t sell all the tickets and had to give some away for free. Make what you will of what they got up for three days in Hertfordshire, more HERE .  Naturally, we weren’t invited.

Ofcom Pay TV Review

The debate continues, with BSkyB and leading sports bodies pointing out the impact that Ofcom’s Pay TV Review remedies would have on incentives to invest in content, and specifically in sport, more HERE. However, as Enders analysis say: ‘as Sky forges ahead of its rival pay-TV operators so attention is turning to competition issues.’ Meanwhile Virgin Media and BT are arguing that BSkyB should not be allowed to use project Canvass, the joint video on demand project for Freeview and Freesat viewers as a loophole to avoid proposed regulation, more HERE

BBC

The BBC Trust today published the outcome of the review of BBC executive pay which they commissioned earlier this year, more HERE We think that if that number of people are suddenly superfluous to requirements it does beg the question: ‘what have they been busying themselves with until now?’ Jeremy said: ‘The BBC has missed an opportunity to prove it is in tune with the public mood over high salaries. Public anger was focused not just on the management itself but on the salaries paid to senior executives, more HERE

The BBC has welcomed the BBC Trust’s endorsement of a package of initiatives designed to strengthen the role of the BBC’s children’s output. This follows the Trust review at the start of this year which identified some areas for improvement more HERE

The BBC consider selling shows on a ‘global iPlayer’, HERE. We think this is a great idea.

Licensing

During last week’s Westminster Hall debate on licensing, the Government compromised on small venues licensing. More, and a good round up of the debate wit, in which Ed suggested that John Whittingdale discovered The Police, HERE

Architecture

There’s a good round up of policy developments, particularly ours, that are relevant to architects HERE

Film

HMV and Curzon have announced a new joint venture that could create a new national cinema chain, more HERE

The international competition for tax credits hots up, more HERE

The British Independent Film Awards have announced their 2009 nominations.  Congratulations to the three films financed by EM Media; Bronson, The Unloved and Bunny and the Bull that have been nominated. More HERE .

South West Screen is launching a new scheme with BBC Films and Bristol City Council, Skillset and NESTA. iFeatures represents a step up for microbudget filmmaking schemes more HERE

Culture and Heritage

Libraries

The delayed Library Service Modernisation Review now has a target publication date of the end of November, over a year after it was originally commissioned. More HERE

Twit of the week

Ben Bradshaw is busying himself trying to take the Boris ACE London Chair row to David Cameron, HERE. Has he nothing better to do? He also launched a cycling campaign this week.  No wonder DCMS policy is all over the place. Meanwhile Boris has written to Bradshaw to reaffirm that the selection process and subsequent nomination of Ms Wadley were completely transparent and followed the Nolan principles, more and Boris’ letter to him, HERE .

Cultural Debate

Ed is speaking at the Southwark on Culture Big Debate on19th November, chaired by Anna Fazackerley of Policy Exchange with Munira Mirza director of arts and culture for the Mayor of London, Diane Lees director-general, Imperial War Museum and a host of influential speakers more information, or register, HERE

Arts and Business

The October issue of the Arts Business Culture E-Digest focuses on aspects of learning and development – from master classes to case studies across London and Leeds and Birmingham, more HERE

Dance

What do a children’s choir, birdsong and a piper have in common? They’re all part of Rosemary Lee’s communal dance experience at Greenwich Borough Hall, where a cast of professional and non-professional dancers are encouraged to ‘soar, touch and find the sublime’, more HERE.

Where are all the women in dance? HERE.

Heritage

The Textiles Conservation Centre has a new website, HERE

Visual Art

Wild Thing at the Royal Academy punches above its weight, HERE.

Opera

English Touring Opera’s ‘double anniversary’ tour, Handelfest, celebrating 30 years of the ETO and 250 years since Handel died is under way. Happy Birthday ETO, more on the tour HERE

Theatre

Is it possible to film a play, make it compelling to watch, and downloadable? A new organisation, Digital Theatre, is doing exactly that. We think this is brilliant innovation and wish them every success. More HERE and HERE

A great example of not depending on subsidy in the theatre HERE

Interesting Pieces from Across the Pond

Seattle may have to close its library two days a week to balance the city budget, despite soaring popularity HERE Google and Obama, (a love story) HERE Has the arts world worked hard enough to dissect the true costs, benefits and implication of recent diversity efforts? HERE

In Parliament

Parliamentary Questions

Falling numbers working on heritage matters at the DCMS HERE

Whilst spending is increasing on staff at the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment HERE

Estimates for participation levels in music HERE

Grant in aid funding for English Heritage over the years HERE

Growth in the UK video games industry HERE

Total sales in the video games sector up 23% since 2007 HERE

Listed events review report expected shortly HERE

EDMs

EDM 2145 – BBC and the British National Party HERE

EDM 2128 – British National Party Appearance on Question Time HERE

Where We’ve Been and Who We’ve Seen

MLA, UK Film Council, London Games Conference, the Globe, London Games Conference and Best of British, Freesat, BBC, Universal Music, Enron at the Royal Court, This Is It, James Thiérrée’s Raoul at the Barbican, Nowhere Boy at the London Film Festival, St Peter’s, Wallingford, with the Churches Conservation Trust, Dennis Stevenson, Mark Thompson, Anthony d’Offay, NCVO, Ofcom, The Globe, National Trust.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

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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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Music Piracy

October 13th, 2009 - 
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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’ said Ludvig Werner, chairman of IFPI Sweden (comparable to the BPI).

A new Swedish law in effect since 1st April 2009 gives copyright holders the right to force Internet service providers to reveal details of users sharing files, opening the way for legal action that could see downloaders pay damages and fines. A recent survey indicated a sharp decrease in downloading since the new law came into effect, but showed that about 2.8 million Swedes aged 15 to 74 still shared files online. Werner stressed the law had had an impact, but legislation alone was not enough to curb illegal file sharing. Saying: “We also need to prove that markets can produce good legal alternatives for the consumers,” More HERE

We think this news is promising, although there is also an interesting unanswered question as to whether there has been a corresponding increase in legal sales of music, the size of which may reveal the truth of all those ‘file sharing costs £Xmillion in unearned revenue’ reports which automatically assume consumers will buy at the same rate that they consumed for free.

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Weekly Email: 8 October 2009

October 8th, 2009 - 
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Here is this week’s news:

It was the Tory conference this week, so we’re kicking off with news from there…

Conservative Party Conference

David Cameron referred to our “great arts and culture” in his speech this afternoon – the only Leader of the three parties to refer to the arts in his speech.

Jeremy and Ed packed in as many fringes and arts visits as possible, including: the arts public affairs network at the Lowry, the Manchester Art Gallery, the People’s History Museum, Policy Exchange on digital Britain, NESTA and the Creative Industries, The Corner House, Contact Theatre, Microsoft and CPS on broadcasting policy, UK Music and protecting creativity, CILIP breakfast on Libraries, Royal Exchange Theatre, T mobile and Channel M.

By Tuesday, our fringes were so popular we were turning people away. We talked a lot about: music piracy (and agree something must be done), the BBC (we love them), and Sky (we also love them).

Our Arts and Creative Industries Network party with Sky Arts was very well attended by all the right people and was so popular even the Labour PPC standing against Jeremy was there. Although Sky didn’t appear to have received the ‘no Champagne’ memo, both Ed and Jeremy remained sober.

Elsewhere at conference:

Proposals for openness from Francis Maude, shadow Cabinet Minister, who said that we will publish online the salaries of top civil servants, organograms detailing staff numbers and job descriptions for all government departments and every item of spending of more than £25,000 more HERE These reforms will obviously be implemented in DCMS.

Quangos – Breathe in: George Osborne has proposed cutting the budget of all quangos by a third, cutting overall spending by £3 billion a year by the end of the parliament, more HERE. Influential: In the run up to conference, the Telegraph published their top 100 influential right wingers. Ed is the 56th most influential, HERE and Jeremy the 25th, HERE.

Eddie the Eagle: Ed clearly has some distance to go before he masters the Wii, coming last on the conference leader board – by quite a long way. More HERE.

Ben Bradshaw Special

Ben Bradshaw has overruled Mayor of London Boris Johnson’s appointment as Chair of the London Arts Council HERE. It is quite clear that this is a political decision by Bradshaw, and it is equally clear that the appointment of the Chair of the London Arts Council is in the Mayor’s gift.  We are astonished that the Secretary of State should intervene in this way, and will support the Mayor in pressing for Ms Wadley’s appointment.

However, perhaps we should not be so surprised, given that Bradshaw this week attacked the impartiality of the BBC, despite being the Minister responsible for the BBC.  Bradshaw attacked Radio 4’s Today programme, accusing it (on Twitter, naturally) of running a ‘feeble and biased’ interview with Shadow Chancellor George Osborne, more HERE. It’s worth following Bradshaw on twitter HERE. Our favourite fawning tweet is ‘looking forward to Gordon Brown’s Speech.’  Strangely there is no follow up “tweet”, such as ‘brilliant speech by GB!’ or the like.  It seems that would have been a step too far, even for the careerist Bradshaw.

Creative Industries:

Music piracy

The Creative Coalition Campaign have written to the Times, highlighting the growing problem of illegal file-sharing and pledging support for the Government’s recent proposals for how to tackle this issue and commending the Government for “putting the UK into the lead globally in creating a safe and secure broadband internet that will serve consumers while not killing jobs in the UK’s world-class creative industries”. More HERE

BBC

Jeremy has warned of tough times for all, and urged the BBC to ‘cut its cloth’ in response to the new climate, HERE.

The BBC Trust has launched a public consultation on the revised draft of the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines, which guide programme makers and other content producers on issues such as impartiality, accuracy, harm and offence, as well as covering war, religion, politics and children’s issues. This is the first time that licence fee payers will have a say on the standards which are suitable for BBC programming, a move that we applaud. More HERE.

Sky

BSkyB will re-brand to present a warmer image and replace the BBC as the UK’s ‘most loved and respected source of entertainment’ more HERE

Diversity and children in TV

Pact, the BBC and Channel 4 have appointed Angela Chan to the newly created role of diversity adviser, aiming to boost diversity in the production sector by helping production companies achieve their diversity goals more HERE

Freemantle Media has launched a kids division, the first time the company has moved in to the children’s TV business. Given the crisis in children’s television, we welcome the move.  More HERE

Publishing

Congratulations to Hilary Mantel, winner of the 2009 Man Booker Prize for her historical novel Wolf Hall. More HERE.

Conde Nast is to close four titles to concentrate on those ‘with the greatest prospects for long-term growth’ more HERE

John Ridding, editor of the FT, says newspaper websites need to abandon ‘free is good’ doctrine and work out what they can charge for. More HERE

Chris Cramer, the global editor of multimedia at Reuters has argued that: ‘curating news is as important as news gathering, because citizen journalism is not a fad or an intriguing addition to traditional journalism, but here to stay’ at the AOP 3C summit, more HERE

Arts and Heritage

Libraries

Margaret Hodge has delayed the publication of the DCMS Library Review and results of the Wirral enquiry as she told the public library authorities conference in Bristol that she needed ‘a little time to develop and bring in some of the thoughts I have’ including suggesting libraries work with Amazon, more HERE.

We are astonished the Government has not published the Wirral libraries report, and amazed that it is still delaying the libraries review, showing yet again their complete failure to lead libraries.

The much anticipated APPG Libraries report is now published, and it too says that the public library service is ‘woefully’ lacking in leadership. The report recommends a bringing together of funding and functions responsibility within a single government department, the creation of a new agency to provide leadership and advocacy, and adjusting the ‘role, function and funding of the MLA accordingly’ more HERE and the full report HERE. Now doesn’t this all sound strangely familiar? Wherever have we heard this before? Hold on, isn’t this very similar to our own library proposals, as set out by Ed in the Spring? More HERE.

In response the MLA said ‘were happy to give evidence to the APPG enquiry. It is for others to draw conclusions. In particular, questions about the merits of various kinds of agencies and divisions of responsibilities are matters for politicians, for government and for Parliament.’

New guidelines drawn up by CILIP, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, say that a good library should be accessible with opening hours which suit local needs, and with regularly refreshed print, audio-visual and online resources, more HERE and full guidelines Error! Hyperlink reference not valid..

MLA

At the Museums Association conference this week, Sir Andrew Motion argued the case to keep the Renaissance programme for museums as it ‘forms the backbone of a highly successful museum sector that is making a real difference to people’s lives’ more HERE

Arts

What the Tories will do for the arts HERE

Museums

Conclusive proof that this Government ran out of good ideas some time ago, as BIS and the MLA launch a ‘Learning Festival’ to ‘play a major role in demonstrating the value and purpose of learning for personal development’. Priceless, and HERE

Culture 24

The Culture24 website has gone live this week with a new design and some great new functionality, more HERE. Well done to MLA and ACE, this is a much-needed site.

Heritage

Apparently, ‘charismatic’ Ed might well be good for the heritage sector, more HERE.

Archaeological sites may face ruin from treasure hunting ‘nighthawkers’ as the recession bites, warns Pete Wilson a senior archaeologist at English Heritage, more HERE. Those using metal detectors to search for treasure should ask the landowner for permission. There are also strict codes of conduct to ensure archaeological sites are not damaged. If they find anything of value they should declare it to the local coroner within 14 days, under the Treasure Act 1996

Visual Arts

The Praemium Imperiale, a group of prizes to support the development of art and culture worldwide, have announce this years’ awardees and usually, four Laureates out of five are UK based artists, Richard Long, Zaha Hadid, Tom Stoppard and Alfred Brendel, more HERE and HERE. The award giving ceremony will be held on the 22 October, each Laureate will receive £100,000 and a medal presented by HIH Prince Hitachi. Someone close to the awards tells us:  ‘It is quite unusual to have the international laureates based in one country as the judging panel tends to have a good balance of representing countries.  This years award clearly shows the UK as the international hub for creativities’. We agree, congratulations to all the nominees.

And Finally…

The Obamas have borrowed some 45 works of art from several Washington museums to decorate the White House, suggesting, according to the New York Times, that ‘The Obamas’ taste in art is as broad as abstract canvases by Josef Albers, American Indian scenes by George Catlin and paintings by little-known figures like Alma Thomas, the African-American Expressionist painter’ More Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.

Tracey Emin is considering moving to France to escape Gordon Brown’s 50% tax regime, more HERE.

Where we’ve Been and who we’ve seen

Manchester! Director of Culture at Manchester City Council, BBC World Service, The Lowry, the Manchester Art Gallery, the All Party Writers group, HLF, the People’s History group, NESTA, Corner House, Microsoft, UK Music, CILIP, Royal Exchange Theatre, T mobile, Channel M.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

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