Jeremy Hunt's legacy
September 6 2012
Picture: Geoff Pugh/Telegraph
Two contrasting views of the former Culture Secretary's legacy, first from The Guardian's arts correspondent Charlotte Higgins, who asks:
Why has Hunt been so loathed? [...]
But when it came to the crunch, there seemed to be very little nurture in the air: quite the opposite. While few in the arts would have argued that the culture budget should have been immune from necessary public spending cuts, there was a particular unpleasantness in the manner in which the 30% cuts to the arts were handed down in 2010: presented as a 15% cut to "front line" services – a false division (front line/back office) if ever there was one. Then there was the sudden, immediate, brutal culling of the UK Film Council and Museums, Libraries, Archives Council: while few would have argued that either were model organisations, the ruthlessness with which they were despatched reeked of ideological fervour rather than considered action. In short, people began to suspect that Hunt's priority had been to wield the axe with an efficiency that would endear him to his superiors rather than to "support, nurture and encourage the arts". The early rhetoric looked, in retrospect, like a conscious decision to attempt to "decontaminate" brand Tory, rather than borne of any real conviction. The sense of betrayal – the rhetoric set next to the reality – has been enormous.
Phooey. I've not picked up much sense of betrayal, beyond the usual perennial whingers in the arts world. Major museum directors, for example, were pretty happy with the damage limitation fight undertaken by Hunt, and Ed Vaizey (who deserves most of the praise), with the Treasury. Nobody liked the MLA, and the Film Council's merger with the British Film Institute makes sense. In terms of total funding available to the arts, the overall budget cut was just 11% - that's less than the police. I realise that in the regions the cuts are much more painful, but that has largely to do with the sclerotic funding arrangements between regional museums and local government.
Here's a more balanced view from the Museum's Association's Maurice Davies:
In retrospect, we may come to see former culture secretary Jeremy Hunt as a friend to culture. With the help of arts minister Ed Vaizey, he largely managed to restrict cuts in the spending under his control to 15%.
He also protected free admission to national museums, retained Renaissance funding for regional museums and increased the share of lottery money going to the arts and heritage. (He began to try to strengthen philanthropy, but was badly undermined by idiotic Treasury views that donating to charity is a form of tax-dodging.)
Higgins of course did not mention the biggest culture success of the government to date - the enormous increase in Lottery good cause funding to the arts and heritage. We have already seen the benefits of this with mega grants for paintings like the Manet at the Ashmolean. (Forgive me if I mention, again, my small part in formulating this policy, I'm rather proud of it!).
