King’s Speech

Lord Murphy of Torfaen Excerpts

Friday 19th July 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Lab)]

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Jolly, on her retirement and wish her well; she has been a great Member of our House. I also pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Monckton, on her maiden speech. I particularly want to welcome to the Front Bench my noble friend Lady Merron, who is going to listen to my pleas in few seconds, and my very good, noble friend Lady Smith of Malvern. I think we served together in the Cabinet for about 16 years—gosh, how time flies and things change over 16 years. Her maiden speech was brilliant, and I wish her well in her new job.

Like my noble friend, I was a teacher—though long before her—and it was a great privilege to be one. I am glad we are concentrating on education and music today, because I want briefly to talk about what has happened to the arts and education. Over the last two decades, including when I was in government, we simply did not spend enough on the arts, and it has been frozen. The result of that over the last 15 to 20 years is serious underfunding. Only this very day, the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama has announced the closure of its outreach drama and music programmes for young people in Wales. Some years ago, I chaired a review into the college, and those outreach programmes were wonderful and brilliant, but they have gone because there is no money left. The college is one of the best in our country—it produced Anthony Hopkins and Richard Burton. To see those outreach programmes go is very sad and disappointing.

In the time I have left, I will mention the crisis facing opera in our country. It too has been seriously underfunded over the last 15 to 20 years. The Arts Councils, particularly the English Arts Council—I may be a Welshman but I follow what it does—has made some rather daft decisions on opera over the last year or so. The English National Opera, for example, is being forced out of this city in a very artificial way. Believe it or not, much of the funding for the Welsh National Opera comes from the English Arts Council because of the touring it does. It is in deep, serious trouble. Opera North is facing difficulties. The only opera company still operating relatively straightforwardly is the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

That is a national disgrace. If we compare ourselves with European countries, Germany has 59 opera companies, France has 17, and every other major European country outclasses us in the provision of opera. The answer sometimes is that opera is elitist and that only wealthy people can go and watch this great art form. That is nonsense. You pay far more for a ticket to a football match than to watch a great opera. The problem is that if we continue to be in a situation where, in effect, four opera houses become one and touring disappears, it will become even more elitist as the years go by.

It may seem a rather niche thing to talk about today amid the wide, huge issues that we are debating, but it is important. How we gauge our society is how we deal with the arts as well, including opera. I would hate to see that there are no opera companies left in England and Wales in a few years’ time, other than those that go to great houses and charge huge amounts of money to go and see it.

I make a plea for my noble friends the new Ministers to talk to their colleagues. I would like to talk to my colleagues in Wales but I cannot find a Minister there at the moment—they have all gone. When they return to ministerial government in Cardiff, I will certainly approach the new Culture Minister. In the meantime, we have brand new DCMS Ministers in our Government. I hope that my noble friends on the Front Bench can plead the case with their colleagues and perhaps even give me an opportunity to do exactly the same thing.