Queen’s Speech

Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury Excerpts

Thursday 29th June 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury (LD)]

My Lords, I welcome the inclusion of culture in today’s debate and the opening words of the Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Ashton.

The gracious Speech promised to,

“strengthen the economy so that it supports the creation of jobs and generates … tax revenues”.

The creative industries, fuelled by our cultural sector, are one of the fastest-growing areas of the economy and therefore crucial to achieving this aspiration. However, the importance of the arts and culture is that they are not simply about the economy. They are a central part of civic and community life and offer a platform for freedom and diversity that we must support and encourage. To quote that great liberal, John Maynard Keynes:

“The artist … leads the rest of us into fresh pastures … to enjoy what we often begin by rejecting”.


That, in the particular times we live in, which are so full of challenges, is so important.

One of these challenges is of course Brexit. It poses a number of problems for the creative sector and industry, so we ask the Government to ensure that the creative industries are at the top table of the Government’s international trade agenda and Brexit negotiations. They must be a key sector in the Government’s industrial strategy, and their needs need to be considered not just by the DCMS and BEIS but across other parts of government, such as the DfE and DIT. There must be a joined-up, not a silo, mentality. Without the right deal on movement of talent and skills, creatives will face big problems. There are currently 17 creative roles that are on the Government’s shortage occupation list. Freedom of movement must be retained, non-British EU citizens employed in the UK must have the right to stay, and we want to see students removed from the official migration statistics.

On funding, the new UK-EU relationship needs to ensure continued UK access to very important EU funding sources. If excluded, will the Government commit to seeking to replace this through UK-based schemes? My noble friend Lord Clement-Jones will later address IP and the digital aspects of this matter.

I mentioned earlier that no fewer than 17 creative roles are on the Government’s shortage list. Clearly, something is wrong where skills are concerned. A shockingly high number of our most successful artists found art a refuge. They are where they are in spite of school, not because of it, and this is the wrong way round. The noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, has been very eloquent on this matter, but creative subjects, due to the current EBacc system, are being abandoned by state schools. Preliminary 2017 figures from Ofqual confirm that the number of young people who take creative-related subjects is declining. I will not go into the statistics, because the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, already has. Can the Minister say when we will get the Government’s response to the EBacc consultation, which is long overdue? I hope that the promise in the gracious Speech that all schools are fairly funded will mean fair access to funds for creative and cultural activities.

We on these Benches believe in STEAM, not STEM. The fusion of technological and creative skills is what fuelled the industrial revolution and is what fuels today’s tech revolution. The Victorians understood it. They had a Science and Art Department. I therefore urge the Education Secretary to send a clear message to schools and industry that arts qualifications are valuable.

Perhaps her predecessor, Michael Gove, who is now back in government, can persuade her to make good on his promise in 2012 to implement Darren Henley’s review of cultural education. At its launch, he quoted Sophocles: “Whoever neglects the arts when he is young has lost the past and is dead to the future”. Quite. Apprenticeships are a great way to make access to the creative industries more open and diverse. Will the Government confirm that they intend to institute the flexibilities promised in their manifesto to ensure that the apprenticeship levy paid by companies will be used for training in skills identified by them, not by politicians?

It is essential that the creative industries reflect our diverse 21st century UK. On these Benches, we absolutely believe that it is about the aggregate, those behind the scenes as well as the visible. Ofcom must be required to monitor both as part of the BBC regulatory framework. On which topic, Liberal Democrats believe that we mess with the BBC and Channel 4 at our peril. They are linchpins of our cultural health and creative industries. The most recent royal charter was predicated on five-year fixed-term Parliaments. The clear intention that the setting of the licence fee would be out of sync with an election is no longer the case. The spectre of backroom deals has returned, made all the worse by the fact that this Government are in bed with licence-fee deniers, the DUP. Will the Government commit to setting up an independent BBC licence fee committee?

We are glad that the Government have backed off privatising Channel 4, but we are not sure why they are so keen to move its headquarters from London. Channel 4 is a publishing house. The location of its HQ is irrelevant. What is important is that it commissions programmes from production companies across the UK.

In concluding, I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Ashton. We are a creative isle. Our arts and our culture enrich us literally and metaphorically. Hugely successful industries are spawned. Tourism creates friends as well as revenue, and soft power is generated. Unless it is nurtured, we risk losing a great British success story, one that I believe is not “a”, but “the”, jewel in our crown.