Ivan Lewis believes that Jeremy Hunt has a duty to nurture the arts. Actually, he has no such duty. Government has no such duty. Indeed, the whole government department should be surplus to requirements as media and arts are not – at least they should not be – a function of government. If there is anywhere where cuts, and I mean real cuts not just a reduction in the increase in spending, are appropriate, it is the arts.
The luvvies would have you believe anyone saying something so radical is a Philistine, but I have a passion for art – although not the garbage produced by the likes of Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin – I mean real art that takes talent – just as I have a passion for the theatre and enjoy television and film. The difference between the luvvies and I is that I don’t expect other people to fund that enjoyment.
Alongside a strong state, my party should be champions of the “big society”. But as a replacement for the state it is a false and deeply cynical prospectus.
That statement says it all really. The man is a rampant statist for which, read authoritarian. He talks of “investment” when what he really means is steal money from other people and give it to his friends.
Some of the comments are interesting. A few do get it and a few really, really do not and think it’s fine to steal other people’s money for one’s pet projects, but I suppose we got that message yesterday. As an aside, watching snippets of the ridiculous, pompous display of self-rigorousness that was the mass temper tantrum by the unions and their useful idiots yesterday, was it me or was the BBC positively salivating over the whole thing?
Oh, the Beeb were salivating all right. Loved the report about TUC condemnation of the violence, ending with a quote from ‘Sophie’ which just talked about the police kicking heads. I mean, how dare they tackle vandals and thugs, eh?
He talks of “investment” when what he really means is steal money from other people and give it to his friends.
Nice definition.
I lost count of the number of times the BBC presenter talked about a ‘very peaceful and well-organised’ procession which had been spoilt by a minority of ‘anarchists’. It’s almost as if they wanted to TUC to come out of this well, and were prepared to go to any lengths to remind us how brilliant they were. It’s a puzzle.
And what are anarchists doing smashing up banks anyway? To want to smash something, you have to have a stake in the issue. I would have thought the correct response from a true anarchist to a cash-machine would be to ignore it.