Ex -BBC chairman Michael Grade explains why Governments love the outcry over arts funding and says if the rules are changed for the distribution of Lottery money, it should still not stand in for public subsidy.
Some years ago during a previous recession – I forget which one it was, but you get to my age and they seem to come round so often – I was with a senior Treasury official.
The papers were full of the cuts to the arts and I said to him: “When you look at this desperately bad publicity for the Government that you’re serving and the fact that such a small amount of money” – the money allocated to the arts – “can produce so huge an outcry, what’s the problem?”
He said: “You have to understand, Michael, that we love the outcry because it tells the markets that we’re serious about cuts. Of course the amount of money is pretty small but the markets take seriously that we’re serious about austerity.”
Some years ago during a previous recession – I forget which one it was, but you get to my age and they seem to come round so often – I was with a senior Treasury official.
The papers were full of the cuts to the arts and I said to him: “When you look at this desperately bad publicity for the Government that you’re serving and the fact that such a small amount of money” – the money allocated to the arts – “can produce so huge an outcry, what’s the problem?”
He said: “You have to understand, Michael, that we love the outcry because it tells the markets that we’re serious about cuts. Of course the amount of money is pretty small but the markets take seriously that we’re serious about austerity.”