Threatened spending cuts in cultural services risk cutting away at “the things that make us the best versions of who we are,” MLA Chair MLA Andrew Motion told an audience of leading politicians and influencers last night.
“We want to see cultural outlets, issues and creators, protected and promoted by politics because we know that these are the things that are of enormous practical and spiritual benefit to society, “ he said
“They allow us our defining play. They stretch our imaginations. Crucially, they are the means by which we can enter the lives of others unlike ourselves, and therefore begin to create a more understanding community. They are the means by which we become most ourselves, and travel most interestingly beyond ourselves.
He concluded: “There’s going to be a lot of reasons to forget this, and a lot of pressure to deny this over the coming months and years, as local and national government goes about its necessary cost-cutting. Resist that pressure. Argue it away. If the cuts fall in any of the areas which might be considered ‘cultural’ they will cut away the things that make us the best versions of who we are.”
Andrew Motion was speaking at yesterday’s Cultural Leadership Programme debate in London, attended by the Secretary of State for Culture Ben Bradshaw, and the shadow secretaries Jeremy Hunt (Conservative) and Don Foster (Liberal Democrat).