Culture Politick

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