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12.33 pm
Mr. Barry Gardiner (Brent, North): I cannot boast beaches in Brent, North, I am afraid.
The House has been bombarded with statistics this morning. Perhaps we should focus on one that was revealed only two days ago: in Britain, people spend more of their income on leisure activities than on food, housing or any other single item of expenditure, yet 50 per cent. of our population do not set foot in a theatre, concert hall, opera house or art gallery from one year to the next. That is why the three issues that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State focused on this morning--excellence, access and education--are so important.
I want to refer first to the theatre. I declare an interest as a former director of the Cambridge Arts Theatre Trust which was originally set up by John Maynard Keynes. Let me relate to the House some of the work in which I was involved. Part of the problem with theatres in this country is that they are in old buildings, where access is tremendously difficult to arrange. I had the privilege at the Cambridge Arts Theatre Trust of working with Professor Stephen Hawking--not simply to provide wheelchair spaces in the refurbishment of that theatre. Access is not just about the size of doorways, the capacity of the lifts or slopes instead of steps. Slopes instead of steps may be great for wheelchair users but they are a nightmare for the partially sighted. Colour schemes in elegant shades of burgundy may give the warm and classy feel deemed appropriate by theatre managers, but they cause injury to visually impaired theatre-goers, who need bold contrasting colours to indicate steps and gradients, as well as handrails and clear signing. Induction loop systems are needed for those who have hearing impairments.
I welcome the action taken by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to establish the new audiences fund. It is right that schoolchildren and students should be encouraged to experience and enjoy theatre, that the arts should be taken to geographically isolated audiences and--through the transport provisions that the fund makes available--that those audiences should be brought to arts experiences. I urge the Secretary of State to look at access, particularly for people who are disabled, and to consider setting up a separate disability access conversion fund for arts venues in this country.
I now wish to refer to music, and to orchestras. Again I declare an interest, as a former director of the Britten Sinfonia and as someone whose 11-year-old daughter is a member of the National Children's orchestra and a junior academician at the Royal Academy of Music. I welcome the Secretary of State's funding package for regional and London orchestras. The commitment to wipe out the historic deficits of those orchestras has lifted a great weight from the shoulders of some of our finest musical institutions.
I cannot over-stress the importance of regional orchestras. For them, excellence is absolutely central, and that involves establishing a core group of musicians who are committed to the orchestra. When I worked with the Britten Sinfonia, we were fortunate to be able to do that with Nick Daniel, the celebrated oboist, and Nick Cleobury, the musical director and conductor. We ensured that there was a committed group of fine musicians who formed the core of that orchestra.
For those who do not understand the way in which orchestras work, it may seem strange that I talk about a core, but all orchestras are made up of a fluid group of musicians. Some always play, while some are brought in for one concert or another. It is vital that excellence is at the heart of our regional orchestras. The Cambridge symphony orchestra--the precursor to the Britten Sinfonia--did not survive because it could not focus itself in that way.
Spreading excellence in our orchestras into the regions is vital. I echo the remarks of those hon. Members who have mourned the passing of the Bournemouth Sinfonietta, a very fine regional orchestra. The hon. Member for Poole (Mr. Syms) was right to draw our attention to the fact that the Bournemouth symphony orchestra still survives.
In looking at the work done in our regional orchestras, we can take Sir Simon Rattle as an example. He took what was in those days a second-class regional orchestra--I am sure that they would not be offended by my description--and has created out of that the City of Birmingham symphony orchestra. It is now one of the world's few great orchestras. We have enormous musical talent in our regions and the Government have rightly focused resources there to ensure that it is recognised.
The orchestra undertook projects with local schools. When I chaired the perhaps quaintly named amenities and recreation committee, we established free priority seats for children, as well as enabling them to attend rehearsals and see the mechanics of an orchestra and the way in which it interacts with the conductor. There are many ways in which children can be given access to our regional and national orchestras outside prime concert-going time.
About a year ago, Sir Simon Rattle was influential in drawing attention to the way in which our orchestras were suffering because of the sudden dearth of competent young musicians coming up through the ranks, which was partly due to the situation in our schools. Through lack of funding and the refocusing of the curriculum, music had been pushed out and there was a dearth of young orchestral players.
I welcome the £30 million that has been provided through the new National Foundation for Youth Music and the £150 million that the Department for Education and Employment has contributed to revive music in schools, but it is not enough. It is right that we have focused on standards in English, mathematics and science, but, at a meeting last week in my constituency, teachers and head teachers said clearly that they feel that they are teaching to the tests and that much of the broader focus of the curriculum has been lost.
That is not simply an excuse for bad teaching. It is right to focus on matching the standards of our European competitors in English, maths and science, but the Government should ensure that music, drama and sport do not get lost as a result of the loss of good will under the previous Government and the refocusing of our education system under the national curriculum.
Mr. Maclennan:
Does the hon. Gentleman agree that research in Switzerland and the United States suggests
Mr. Gardiner:
The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. Music is rightly seen as a handmaiden of mathematic and scientific achievement--indeed, music is mathematics; the two are integrally related. If, in the cultural life of this country, we are to achieve the sort of impact in the arts and music which we want and which has been clearly set out by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State, we must do more to broaden our children's educational opportunities in those subjects.
Only last week, I wrote to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State about an assiduous constituent who corresponds regularly with me and who has catalogued a list of inaccuracies, such as dates and errors of science, in the explanations provided by museums throughout the country. I urge my hon. Friend to examine the letter with great care and to contact the institutions concerned, which range from the national maritime museum to the science museum.
I welcome the Government's achievements in opening up access to our great national galleries and museums by children and, soon, old age pensioners. I should like free access to be extended further, to students as well as children up to the age of 16. However, as my hon. Friend the Member for Putney (Mr. Colman) said, it is tremendous that adults take neighbourhood groups of up to eight children with them into our national galleries, thus reclaiming those children's inheritance. I am tempted to add that my hon. Friend could form such a group with his own children--I believe he has six. It is wonderful that communities are reclaiming our national galleries and museums in that way.
Maintaining museums is a statutory function of local authorities, but, all too often, they do not regard that role as a priority. Many regional museums are poorly resourced and, worse still, unattractive educational experiences to those who might otherwise visit them. Therefore, I welcome the £15 million fund set up by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to benefit 43 designated museums in England. That is an important step, which brings me to the point raised by the right hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Mr. Maclennan): the issue of local authority funding. That funding is statutory in respect of museums, but not in respect of leisure and recreational activities and the arts in general.
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State can take pride in a list of notable achievements and successes. He has transformed the position of the arts from one in which people in the arts were depressed because they did not feel valued to one in which they feel recognised and valued by a Government who are committed to them.
I welcome the new audiences fund, the free access to national museums and galleries, the National Foundation for Youth and Music, the national endowment for science, technology and the arts and the new funding package for our orchestras, but much more focus needs to be concentrated on protecting arts, recreation, leisure and museums in local government. Many of the artistic resources that local people enjoy are carried out on a
voluntary basis perhaps with some small grant aid from local authorities or are financed directly by the local authorities. Because arts and recreation are not a statutory funding element of the local authorities' obligations, the funding is decreasing year on year as they feel the pressure of commitments in other areas. That is understandable.
Local authorities have to focus on key areas, such as social services and education, where they must deliver, but the Department for Culture, Media and Sport should be much more in evidence in the negotiations in Cabinet and with the Treasury on the local government funding settlement and standard spending assessments. If more resources could be directed at local government, that would genuinely transform the situation on the ground in a way that large regional grants--welcome though they are--and redistribution to the regions cannot achieve.
This morning, I asked my office to contact my local authority, Brent. I knew that I would mention local organisations, such as the Tricycle theatre and its wonderful "pay what you can" nights, and as a matter of courtesy I wondered whether the local authority wished me to raise any issues in this debate. I received a pager message some 45 minutes later which read, "Even the chief executive's office have no idea where recreation officer is located. Have tried about five offices. Waiting for a call back." That is the level of the prioritisation of arts and recreation in my local borough.
I understand the strains on local authorities and the pain that they face. My local authority received the worst local government settlement last year and Brent is the 20th most deprived borough in the country. I know how limited resources have had to be targeted, but I would hazard a guess that many local authorities have no proper arts strategy. They should have, but many have not seen it as a priority given all their other commitments. Unless we make it a statutory obligation for local authorities to act to provide services in arts and recreation, we will never see it given the priority that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State set out this morning as the ideal to which we are committed.
Finally, I want to refer to poetry. Again, I declare an interest, in that my wife is a published poet who has received an Arts Council award. I should like to correct my right hon. Friend's assertion that few people make poetry their profession. To my knowledge, in this country there is only one professional poet--in other words, a poet whose only income comes from the poetry that he writes--and that is Tony Harrison. Most poets have to subsidise their income by giving lectures, holding workshops or facilitating some other community education activity. I believe that Tony Harrison is the exception to that, although he also does a lot of theatre work and has translated Greek classical drama.
Statistics show that more than 60 per cent. of people in this country write poems or scribble rhymes--no doubt sometimes as a joke or as therapy, but the figure is still extraordinary. Yet poetry is the art form that is least read and least purchased. I urge my right hon. Friend to look at how poetry can be promoted in this country.
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