Arts lobbying is vital - but keep thel public on side

Is it insulting to expect musicians to retrain?  Conservative peer Lord Cormack, speaking in the House of Lords, certainly think so.

Peers were debating the Chancellor’s Commons statement of 22 October outlining his latest coronavirus economic package. The announcement, however, omitted support for 3 million self-employed people hitherto ineligible for self-employment income support scheme (SEISS) grants, including over 120,000 creative freelancers, according to figures quoted by cross-bencher Lord (Michael) Berkeley. Both peers expressed fears that the creative workforce risked being critically depleted, and urged the government to reconsider.

Lord Cormack’s conclusion will have had musical heads nodding: “Frankly it is insulting to say to musicians, who have spent a lifetime training, that they can retrain for something else.” It certainly feels that way when a government, notable by its willingness to offend, casually shrugs at years of perseverance and turns its back on repeated calls for help that looks to have been arbitrarily denied.

But several political calculations lie behind the government’s moves to withdraw ongoing financial support for individual creatives and nudge them instead towards alternative employment.

Most obviously, there are few votes to lose from a left-leaning sector and too few to gain from a population that considers arts funding a low priority.

A second calculation is that arts and culture are just not as crucial as their advocates believe to the government’s view of the economy, and that their contribution will anyway be diminished in a pandemic-affected world.

A third is that creative vacancies will be easy to backfill thanks, as with classical music, to factors like an already underemployed workforce and conservatoires’ ready supply of talent.

Fourthly, government anticipates that some overlooked by SEISS grants will resort to the salaried portion of their work; others will find their experience and, perhaps, educational privilege give them the transferable skills to ease them into other employment.

One further calculation is that freelancers will switch their focus from the government on to the recipients of its £1.57bn culture rescue package, agitating for changes in how their industries are managed.

The challenge for lobbyists within the arts sector, meanwhile, is how to reckon with such issues without alienating the general public. Special pleading and a perception that non-creative jobs are undesirable may not play well with future audiences making their own professional sacrifices in a public health crisis. Ultimately, common cause may well be the wisest strategy.

A transcript of the House of Lords debate can be found here:

https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2020-10-27/debates/F04084A1-2D0D-47BD-9E48-E802F906B068/Covid-19EconomyUpdate