Forcing arts groups to applaud the government to access grants seems like economic blackmail

Ministers have once again ended up looking crass, insensitive and, worst of all, stupid, writes James Moore

The culture industry, an important economic sector and export earner, is on its knees (PA)

It appears that the arts have been left by the government in the position of a mugging victim ordered by their assailant to say thank you for having had all their money stolen after taking a brutal beating.

Ministers’ abject handling of the coronavirus crisis has left this important economic sector and export earner on its knees.

Many venues, ranging from sweaty clubs that give bands or comedians their first chance to perform live, to theatres, all the way up to posh concert halls, have been shuttered since the first lockdown was announced, with little chance of reopening for the foreseeable future.

Now it has emerged that the Culture Recovery Fund, which it is hoped will see at least some parts of the sector through the worst crisis it has experienced, comes with strings.

As The Independent has exclusively revealed, recipients will be expected to publicly applaud the government for belatedly throwing them a bone by serving as the fund’s cheerleaders. They’ll also have to trumpet its “Here For Culture” campaign (is it beyond the wit of ministers to come up with a slogan that doesn’t patronise?) on social media. They’re even being sent “helpful wording” by Whitehall.

It’s insult added to injury only a few days after another insult was hastily withdrawn. That was the ad featuring the ballerina tying up her shoes alongside the caption “Fatima’s next job could be in cyber (she just doesn’t know it yet)” and the slogan “Rethink, Reskill, Reboot”.

The poster was beyond offensive given the difficulties faced by people working in the creative industries, a disproportionate number of whom are freelancers whose incomes have been dealt a devastating blow with scant support from the government to fill the gap.

Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s chief adviser, once reportedly had a former aide frogmarched out of Downing Street by a gun-toting copper, so you can understand why those working in Whitehall might be reluctant to express dissent. The problem is, if people are too scared to pipe up when their bosses come up with such spectacularly bad ideas, those ideas go public. The government ends up looking crass, insensitive and, worst of all, stupid. This latest episode is yet another example of that.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport looks like it’s engaging in something similar to economic blackmail because what choice do arts organisations have? Socially distanced performances have been trialled in a few places, but anyone who’s attended a gig in a half-empty hall (and most music lovers will have done that at some point) or a performance in a half-empty theatre or club will be able tell you it’s a buzz kill at best.

As I discovered when I investigated the issue, they’re not, anyway, economically viable. While grassroots music venues would, for example, lose more than £190m by shutting down for a year, they’d still be better off by tens of millions of pounds than if they were to press ahead with socially distanced performances.

So do arts businesses simply have to bow down to King Boris and say what they’re told to say by the gangsters in government?

Well, I might venture to suggest an option for those with steam pouring from their ears as a result of this.

It would be for them to get together and arrange to book acts prepared to make their views plain on opening night. Harder for theatres, but they’re populated by creative types who can surely find a way to do something similar because there must be a will. 

An organised outpouring of dissent when the doors are again flung open would be a fitting riposte to such a cynical ploy.  

Culture secretary Oliver Dowden, a noted advocate for free speech and a diversity of voices, would surely have to back it not least because it’s also an example of economic self-help: I imagine there’d be plenty of people willing to buy tickets in support.