Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Language of the Arts
The Welsh Liberal Democrat debate on the future of the Arts Council of Wales yesterday was notable for the use of language by members if for nothing else. North Wales member, Eleanor Burnham, led the debate for us and was soon in full flow:
On 14 July, the First Minister lit the so-called bonfire of the quangos, not with a match, but with a stick of dynamite, and ‘boom’, the fate of the Welsh Development Agency, the Wales Tourist Board and Education and Learning Wales was sealed. However, the rest of Wales’s quangos escaped the flames for the time being. The dynamite under the big three went off as soon as it was primed. In terms of the rest, Rhodri settled for a ticking time bomb with a detonation time that is unknown, except, perhaps, to Rhodri Morgan and the Cabinet, who are not telling.
She went on:
Government can, and should, provide policy and strategic direction, as it does now, but it should not make daily decisions on arts funding, and there should not be full politicisation of the arts. We know that the value of art cannot be measured exclusively in terms of gross domestic product, which is a crude measure that looks at the dollar rather than the douleur, and the euro rather than euphoria.
Never one to turn down a challenge the First Minister took up the cudgels:
The Liberal Democrats really must sort themselves out as to what their policy is. Eleanor Burnham’s wonderfully explosive initial opening shot setting out the motion was simply a series of—a daisy chain, if you will—interlinked Aunt Sallies.
If this series of flowery interludes is an example of what we can expect from political control of the Arts then maybe the case for retaining the Arts Council of Wales has been made.
On 14 July, the First Minister lit the so-called bonfire of the quangos, not with a match, but with a stick of dynamite, and ‘boom’, the fate of the Welsh Development Agency, the Wales Tourist Board and Education and Learning Wales was sealed. However, the rest of Wales’s quangos escaped the flames for the time being. The dynamite under the big three went off as soon as it was primed. In terms of the rest, Rhodri settled for a ticking time bomb with a detonation time that is unknown, except, perhaps, to Rhodri Morgan and the Cabinet, who are not telling.
She went on:
Government can, and should, provide policy and strategic direction, as it does now, but it should not make daily decisions on arts funding, and there should not be full politicisation of the arts. We know that the value of art cannot be measured exclusively in terms of gross domestic product, which is a crude measure that looks at the dollar rather than the douleur, and the euro rather than euphoria.
Never one to turn down a challenge the First Minister took up the cudgels:
The Liberal Democrats really must sort themselves out as to what their policy is. Eleanor Burnham’s wonderfully explosive initial opening shot setting out the motion was simply a series of—a daisy chain, if you will—interlinked Aunt Sallies.
If this series of flowery interludes is an example of what we can expect from political control of the Arts then maybe the case for retaining the Arts Council of Wales has been made.
