Labour must make the case for culture

Over the next few weeks, for those of us in politics the hard work of another five years in opposition begins in earnest. A new programme of government legislation, a new agenda to shape and respond to, and the little matter of a leadership election to complete.

But for many people outside of politics, the next few weeks are the start of a summer of UK cultural events; international music festivals such as Glastonbury and the BBC proms, a summer of sport with the Rugby World Cup, the Ashes and the British Open, and months of world class cultural shows such as the first season of Manchester’s new arts and theatre hub Home and the ever-present cultural behemoth that is the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe. Whilst many of us will be taking an interest in both, the problem is that too few of us see the links between these two worlds.

For too long now it’s seemed that the Department of Culture, Media and Sport has at best, been assumed by our party to be an important part of government but one that sits on the periphery of our plans for the country. We’ve operated without a clear and progressive vision of how culture, media and sport fits into the future we in the Labour party want to build for this country.  Yet if we were bold, this brief could showcase the tangible difference Labour values can make to our country, and show how we connect with the experiences and interests that people truly care about.

For example; when we talk of economic competence, when the UK’s Creative Industries are worth £76.9 billion per year to the UK economy why aren’t more people talking about how the cultural and creative industries fit into our plans for the industries of the future and matching this with our education and skills policies?

When we think of rebuilding our party to again represent the heart of the communities we serve, why do we focus so little on those organisations and activities that already are at the heart of our towns and cities; our sports and leisure clubs. Sport occupies a cornerstone for so many communities – think of the football clubs, leisure centres, recreational running and cycling groups in nearly every town; but how much effort have we really spent on holding the government to account on delivering on its 2012 legacy or in making sure the money spent on the run up to Rio truly benefits the next generation of boys and girls entering sport?

And if we truly want to tackle inequality and social disadvantage, why don’t we as a national party more regularly celebrate and defend the power of our free local libraries, galleries and museums to educate, inspire and equip people from all walks of life against a Conservative free market approach that would see these institutions live or die as free enterprises. This has to be more than simply supporting local ‘save our museum’ campaigns, but instead articulating where they fit into the wider progressive vision of a modern cultural United Kingdom.

The good news for the renewal of this vision is that since the temporary Cabinet reshuffle we do now have a passionate and knowledgeable Shadow Secretary of State for DCMS in Chris Bryant MP. Chris was formerly a member of the DCMS Select Committee, an editor at the BBC and is passionate about the arts. This is an excellent start, but those of us who believe in the power of sport, media and culture to shape and improve lives have to demand that these areas are part of the conversation about rebuilding the Labour party, and we should be using the DCMS brief to show the difference Labour could be making to our communities.

But this isn’t a call for a purely Tory-lite economic assessment of DCMS. Art, culture and sport for their own sake are absolutely fundamental; few people first picked up a guitar or put brush to canvass because they wanted to reclassify themselves from NEET status on a government spreadsheet. But over the next five years those of us who love and care about our arts, music, culture and sport have to build and communicate a progressive vision about the power and impact of them in our communities and make sure Labour values are at the very core of this pitch.

The challenges of this department are immense – we now have a Secretary of State for Culture who has described the BBC license fee as “worse than poll tax”. The full detail of press regulation started by Leveson are yet to be implemented and there will be more cuts to community arts and sports budgets which will decimate the progress in bringing people into arts, culture and sport made by years of careful funding and widening participation under the last Labour government.

I have no doubt that most of us on the left recognize the importance of all these areas, and that many of us may well watch PMQs and the Glastonbury coverage. But enjoying them on separate levels in our lives won’t be enough to save them in the difficult five years to come.   If we truly care about culture, we have to start making the case for it as a fundamental part of Labour’s future.