Great moment on the Today programme this morning when John Major – without irony – told James Naughtie how great the National Lottery was because an opera lover like him could benefit from the money poured into the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. That deal was perhaps the most egregious example of cash transferred from poor people to rich people, but sadly typical of the regressive nature of arts funding. I can understand the logic behind supporting indigenous arts lest they die out, but why have British taxpayers subsidise the singing of songs written a hundred years ago in Italian or German? If the usually-rich people who tend to watch opera do not wish to fund the real cost of it, I have never seen why hard-pressed taxpayers should cover a chunk of the ticket price. This isn’t to say that I don’t enjoy opera, I just don’t see why other people should subsidise my night out any more than they should subsidise my holiday.
At the other end of the spectrum, Britain’s real indigenous arts – specifically folk music – are suffering. My native Scotland is endowed with an incredibly rich, living tradition yet it’s one that the quangocrats who decide arts funding tend to scoff at. “There’s a limit to the number of chaps with squeeze boxes you need,” one member of the Scottish Arts Council told me once, which summed up the snobbishness of it all. What money is set aside for genuine Scottish traditional arts is used brilliantly by grassroots movements like Fèisean nan Gàidheal, which teaches people of all ages how to master the many Scottish instruments. All of this is scoffed at by the Edinburgh-based elite, who have just imposed more cuts on it. There is now a petition to reverse the cuts, but sadly those who decide lottery funds are unlikely to look on their plea with any sympathy.
In having such a disdainful view of indigenous music, the Arts authorities have denied British folk music the chance to build a self-financing critical mass as has been achieved so spectacularly in Ireland. When a folk musician here gets good enough to go professional, they usually emigrate to countries which take indigenous arts seriously like Ireland, Canada or America. And so Britain haemorrhages talent, a loss utterly un-mourned by the political elite who tend to regard folk music as culturally backward and faintly comical.
There is an argument that no music should be subsidised, that if people aren’t prepared to pay to listen to it then that’s tough. Dougie Maclean, one of Scotland’s more successful fiddlers, takes this view. I’d counter that indigenous art and language is worth nurturing and promoting, even at taxpayers’ expense. But I can’t see why a hard-pressed family, or the people who queue at newsagents for their National Lottery tickets, should subsidise my ticket for Don Giovanni.
PS Hat tip to Yes Minister http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Middle-Class_Rip-Off for the headline.
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