Olympic and Paralympic Games 2012

Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury Excerpts

Thursday 8th November 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury]

My Lords, I join in congratulating my noble friend Lady Doocey. I also congratulate my noble friend Lord Deighton on a wonderful maiden speech and, of course, on a wonderful Olympics. I intend to concentrate today on the cultural legacy of our wonderful Olympics and Paralympics. Underpinning London’s bid for the 2012 Games, and one of the main reasons why it won, was a vision for a Cultural Olympiad, a festival celebrating the diversity and richness of culture in London, the UK and around the world, which will leave a lasting cultural legacy. What is more, the Cultural Olympiad could be held across the whole country, not just in the Olympic city, and encompass thousands of local and regional events as part of our nationwide celebration.

We Liberal Democrats wholeheartedly endorsed this idea, and I made speeches congratulating the Government of the time on their vision, but I am afraid that I also expressed doubts about funding levels and organisational structures. I am so glad today that I have to eat those words. The Cultural Olympiad was a triumph—and here I pay tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Hall of Birkenhead, who so brilliantly chaired the board, and Ruth Mackenzie, its director. But I also congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Coe, on not interfering with Danny Boyle. Who can forget that opening ceremony? It was a beautiful, brilliant spectacle which was complex and self-deprecating in its narrative—although not in its execution—as well as deeply humorous. Banished forever is Colonel Blimp and his stiff upper lip; now we have our monarch jumping from a helicopter and our pre-eminent conductor performing with Mr Bean.

As well as a celebration of the entity that is the United Kingdom, this was a showcase for our great creative industries. James Bond was, first, the product of writer Ian Fleming’s creativity, and then of film makers, actors, special effects creators, costume and set designers, and those who make the costumes and sets. Finally, in a dazzling tangle of fiction and fact and fiction, the fictional spy gets to meet the real Queen and her corgis. It celebrated children’s literature, music, television, art, and how art and design come together in such a wonderful creation as the cauldron. And centre stage, literally, was Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the world wide web.

The ceremony was shot through with recognition of our creative accomplishments, and was a huge one in its very self, and it managed to involve all of us, being performed by volunteers from across the nation and being watched on television by millions of the nation, and together. For the Olympiad was a unifying experience. At 12 minutes past eight on 27 July, almost 3 million people across the United Kingdom rang bells to celebrate the first day of the Games—hand bells, bicycle bells, doorbells, Big Ben, the bells of the UK Parliaments. Turner prize-winning artist, Martin Creed, got everyone involved, not just as an audience but as an integral part of a creative vision. The Olympiad was an inclusive experience. Who can forget at the opening ceremony the Kaos Signing Choir for Deaf and Hearing Children, singing and signing the national anthem?

We are here to talk about legacy. We must ensure that the innovative new partnerships that creators forged continue. We must ensure that the estimated 10 million people who have been inspired to take part in more cultural activities can and do. We must ensure that the young and ethnic minorities who particularly appreciated the Olympiad continue to enjoy culture. But the most important thing of all is to ensure that we continue to create the creators, and in this area we face a problem. The Next Gen. report published last year pointed out that the way in which ICT is being taught in schools was too narrow and not providing the appropriate skills or aspirations to feed into the creative industries. The good news is that the coalition Government listened and a draft programme of study for ICT, which will include a computer programming option, has been developed. Alongside this, there has been significant movement towards making computer science a GCSE subject. Does my noble friend the Minister not agree that the logical next step is the inclusion of computer science in the English baccalaureate as part of the science strand? But however central the understanding of technology has become to the creative industries, they are still underpinned by creativity itself, and Darren Henley’s review of cultural education is another crucial element in tackling the skills deficit. The Government’s response to the review, published last February, says:

“We set out below those issues that we will address immediately … A National Plan for Cultural Education”.

It is November, and “immediately” has still not happened. So when is the promised national plan to be published?

Another disappointment is the lack of a sixth strand to the EBacc to cover the creative subjects. It is argued that there is plenty of room in the curriculum for these to be pursued, but it is about perception. As Grayson Perry said last weekend:

“If arts subjects aren’t included in the Ebacc, schools won’t stop doing them overnight. But there will be a corrosive process, they will be gradually eroded … By default, resources won’t go into them. With the best will in the world, schools will end up treating arts subjects differently”.

When resources are scarce, the head teacher is going to employ a geography teacher, or another teacher from one of the EBacc subjects, over one for art and design. And you know who will get the art and design teacher? It will be those being privately educated.

For us to continue to excel in the creative industries, we must place creative subjects at the heart of our education system, but action must be taken by the creative world as well as politicians to ensure that creative subjects do not become second-class subjects. Dame Tessa Jowell, to whom I would also like to pay tribute, said back in May 2008 that there will be,

“more to the Cultural Olympiad than the ceremonies, important though they are. More than the live concerts across the country, fun though they will be. It will be the beginning of something much more ambitious”.

Let us ensure that this is the case.