Ed Vaizey

In less than 12 months the Conservatives will have formed a new government. Ed Vaizey is the shadow Minister for the Arts, the government department responsible for video games. So I asked him some pertinent questions and got some Conservative policy in reply.

 

Congratulations. I think.

Wait... was there a point to that?

 

I presume we're meant to follow his sig.

But in short ...

Vaizey : I got good news, okayish news and secret bad news.

The good news is that video games will have access to arts money.

The okayish news is that while you'll have a voice it'll be a tiny, little one because we don't respect games enough to make a seperate council ... so we'll just whack you in the film one. It's pretty much the same thing, isn't it?

The secret bad news is, of course, that there will be no arts money to have a share of because this is a recession and despite rebranding we're still Tories.

 

Nice one Bruce

 

Weekly e-mail from the Conservative Culture and Creative Industries Team

Weekly e-mail from the Conservative Culture and Creative Industries Team


Here is this week’s news:

Arts and Heritage

Loving the Arts
An interesting piece in The Times this week HERE shows the Tories are doing well with the arts. We were also delighted that the London Symphony Orchestra not only wrote to Ed at the DCMS, but also elevated him to membership of the Privy Council. Labour and the Lib Dems are trying to keep up. Norman Lamb, Lib Dem health spokesman, has been outed as funding the new big rap thing HERE while Labour Secretary of State Ben Bradshaw went to Latitude festival where he did ‘what could be described as a “Bez” at the corner of the main stage – shaking his hips and shedding layers of clothes to the rhythmic pounding of Grace Jones’ performance.’ More HERE. Ed would like it to be known that he is available to be invited to festivals anytime, will dance like a Tory MP and keep all his clothes on.

Funding cuts: the arts fight back
Following the news last week that there is a £100 million funding black hole threatening major arts projects, the leaders of 21 cultural organisations from around the South Bank and Bankside have written to the Guardian expressing their ‘alarm that these world-class projects may be axed precisely at a time when the eyes of the world will be on London for the 2012 Olympic an Paralympic Games’. More HERE.

Theatre
A new study published by ACE this week has investigated the impact of the 2001 Theatre Review and the ensuing additional £25 million of funding for theatre from 2002/03 to 2006/07. It says that the extra money has resulted in a ‘confident and energized’ sector, creating ‘innovative’ and ‘risk-taking’ work with higher production values, while employing more staff and paying better wages, but has failed to increase audience numbers across the country. More HERE Much as we applaud the successes, we think that that as for any business, growing your customer base, which in theatre’s case equates to growing audiences, is the key to building sustainable organisations, as well as the strongest argument for public subsidy. Full report HERE.

ACE: Sustain
Arts Council England has made the first awards from its £40 million Sustain fund for organisations under pressure as a result of the recession. The first set of awards are worth just under £4 million and include the Ikon Gallery, Dance Consortium, Nottingham Playhouse, South Hill Park Arts Centre, and English National Opera more HERE.

Libraries
The publication fo the local inquiry into the Wirral library service, and that of the Library Service Modernisation Review led by Barbara Follett have both been delayed until September, more HERE We think this delay is indicative of the Government 's lack of commitment to, and leadership of, the libraries sector.

New Deal of the Mind
A new report published by New Deal of the Mind and ACE raises questions about the Government’s current employment schemes and ‘recommends a return to a Thatcher-era initiative’. It calls for an Enterprise Allowance Scheme for the 21st Century: ‘Under Margaret Thatcher, the EAS gave people £40 a week, advice on developing a business plan and access to free postage. More importantly it allowed people to come off the dole and forge an identity as an artist or entrepreneur.’ More HERE and HERE.

Heritage
The Departments of Communities and Local Government and Culture, Media and Sport have published their first planning circular on the Protection of World Heritage Sites, fulfilling one of the proposals in the 2007 White paper ‘Heritage Protection for the 21st Century’ despite the continuing lack of a Heritage bill. Download it HERE and judge for yourselves.

The Government have a new draft PPS out, with and accompanying Practice Guide produced by English Heritage. EH believe the new PPS ‘should lead to a real improvement in the way our historic places are managed on a day-to-day basis.’ More HERE. We have been calling for the Government to publish this for months, and it was originally due out at Easter. While we welcome it, we note that it is no replacement for a Heritage Bill.

Dance
Merce Cunningham, a ‘colossus of 20th Century choreography’ died at the weekend. More HERE.

Creative Industries

BBC
The BBC has announced a groundbreaking deal with four national newspaper groups for them to share its news video footage for the first time. Under the terms of the deal, the websites of the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Independent and Guardian will be able to show a limited amount of BBC footage on four key subjects, UK politics, health, business and science and technology for free. More HERE and HERE.

Broadband speeds
Ofcom have published a report this week into real broadband speeds, taking 60 million readings from 1600 homes. They have found that the average broadband speed in the UK was 4.1mb per second, and fewer that one in ten of their sample on packages advertised at 8mb received actual average speeds of over 6 mbs, while more than one in five received on average, less than 2 mbs. More HERE and full report HERE Our own broadband proposals will open up the BT local loop, to allow better competition, which we hope will drive up standards.

Video Games
Ed was interview by influential Video Games blog Bruce on Games this week, and discusses whether video games are art, the likelihood of a Games Council, and online theft. More HERE.

Skillset has launched a new initiative to accredit Games Design postgraduate courses has been unveiled by Skillset. They intend to design a postgraduate Games Design framework in order to signpost excellence in this field for prospective student and employers, following a meeting with Jagex, Blitz, Sony, Rare Ubsisoft, Zoe Mode, Headstrong, Babel Media, Relentless, Crytek and TIGA. More HERE.

Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen
NESTA, ACE in Birmingham, Retroscope, TalkTalk, Three, Historic Houses Association, Phedre at the National, Inglorious Basterds (our three line review: Tarentino does ‘Allo ‘Allo), Broken Embraces at Somerset House, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince,Harper Collins, V&A, Art Fund, Allied Telesis, Candela Media, Free Word.

Ed Vaizey
Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt
Shadow Culture Secretary

 

How fantastic is it that at long last what we do is taken seriously by top politicians?
Ed has gaming in this influential newsletter virtually every week.

 

Story now recycled by MCV: http://www.mcvuk.com/news/35310/Shadow-Culture-Minister-calls-for-single-trade-body