It’s manifesto week in the General Election campaign! This is the week where policies hinted at and teased over the past few weeks are fully thrown into the limelight and published formally. It is these documents on which we, as voters, are asked to judge our candidates on, with a comprehensive list of plans and policies for an incoming administration. This election has begun with the manifesto of the Liberal Democrats, releasing theirs on Monday.
The manifesto focuses heavily on, as the document describes, “this out-of-touch Conservative Government” and what the Liberal Democrats plan to do to address this. With spotlights particularly shone on health and social care, the manifesto sets out the party’s idea of “a fair deal”, including a suite of promises to be carried out by the Department of Culture, Media & Sport, into which the Arts & Theatre industries find themselves.
The Policies
Set out in section 17 of the manifesto, the Liberal Democrats begin by highlighting the importance of Culture, Media & Sport, as well as the impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on these industries, and their claim that the Conservative government have exacerbated these. A total of 17 items have been proposed within the department, with 6 of these relating directly to Arts & Theatre. These are:
- Promote creative skills, address the barriers to finance faced by small businesses, and support modern and flexible patent, copyright and licensing rules
- Negotiate free and simple short-term travel arrangements for UK artists to perform in the EU, and European artists to perform in the UK
- Maintain free access to national museums and galleries
- Boost funding for cultural and creative projects by applying to participate fully in Creative Europe
- Protect fans from being exploited by ticket touts by implementing the Competition and Markets Authority’s recommendations to crack down on illegal ticket resale
- Protect sports and arts funding via the National Lottery
Analysis & Opinion
The Liberal Democrats have struggled in Parliamentary elections ever since they emerged from coalition government in 2015, falling to 15 MPs in the 2019-2024 Parliament. In recent years, they have begun to recover at local levels, being the second best performing party at the May 2024 local elections, second only to the Labour Party. They are currently polled at ~10% of the vote share, and are predicted to approximately quadruple their seats in the General Election, with some polls predicting they will become His Majesty’s Official Opposition.
These policies are good, but I would have liked to have seen a few more in the manifesto. The first glaring omission by my eye is the failure to include either of the requests of the Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre (namely the Theatre for Every Child Scheme and Capital Investment policy). Nevertheless, there are things in this document worth unpacking and exploring further.
Their first point needs to be broken down into its three constituent parts. On the first, promoting creative skills is of fundamental importance. With many schools and universities tending to refocus their efforts onto STEM-based subjects as opposed to those in the creative arts, any effort to increase the prevalence of creative skills is highly welcomed. How they aim to do this is less clear, but knowing this is a primary concern is a step in the right direction. Addressing barriers to finance by small businesses is also a crucial point but is not as directly relevant to Arts & Theatre as some of the other points.
Finally, flexible copyright and licensing rules is something that many artists and creatives will welcome, as it will allow them to create and share work to a greater extent than they currently can. Again, we don’t have many details on how this would be done, whether it’s easing rules on current licenses or creating new ones, but as something that many may overlook, it’s a curious inclusion that for certain individuals and groups, may prove instrumental if enacted.
Next we turn to travel arrangements for UK artists in the EU, and vice versa. Whilst this largely applies to musicians primarily, there is no doubt that this would be crucial across the creative arts. It’s no secret that the Liberal Democrats want a closer relationship with the European Union and have spoken about the Brexit issue more readily than both Conservative and Labour parties in this campaign.
In order to make this happen would, I presume, require a great deal of negotiation with our former group, and of course we have no guarantees that this would be successful. However, the aim to include European artists seeking to visit the UK would no doubt make this plan more likely to be able to be enacted. We have no guarantees this could ever be put into practice, but if it is successful, it would be a huge positive for touring artists and shows seeking to expand beyond the U.K.
I am also instinctively positive about the maintenance of free access to museums and galleries, with finances, particularly in a Cost-of-Living crisis often unavailable for families and other members of the public to spend on cultural enterprises. I know myself that I am much more likely to visit a museum if the price of entry is no object, and also more likely to try something new, and this would be similar for many across the country. Being able to provide access to culture without price being a barrier is instrumental and will enable many people to continue to access culture. However, keep in mind that this is a maintenance of a current scheme, rather than a new proposal.
Creative Europe is a funding programme set up and maintained by the European Union to support cultural and creative industries across the continent, which we had access to before we left the European Union. The Liberal Democrats here are promising an increase in funding by applying to this programme. It is good to see that they are considering this, and further signals the party’s willingness to get closer to the European Union. However, this specific policy has four glaring issues which I can see as a policy from the Liberal Democrats. Firstly, they say they will be applying to fully enter this scheme, which could simply be refused or only partially accepted. If that was to happen, this policy would be shrunk if not blocked entirely, resting simply on our accession to the programme. Secondly, the programme’s second phase is due to end in 2027, which is only part-way through the next Parliament, which if not renewed, would see a funding boost before ceasing again, which isn’t ideal for those in need of its help.
Third, being a part of the programme doesn’t guarantee funding, with individual projects needing to apply for specific grants; joining the programme only qualifies UK-based initiatives. Therefore, resting boosts in funding on this isn’t exactly helpful, as well as boosting individual projects rather than our sector as a whole. My final issue with this is the fact that this is being platformed as a Liberal Democrat policy. Whilst applying to join is the policy of the party, our successful accession relies on the project in the European Union and successful finance requests relying on individual projects. There is remarkably little involvement by the Liberal Democrats themselves in this scheme, besides opening the door. Whilst I support the application to Creative Europe, I don’t believe this being billed as a policy and claiming that this will boost funding is entirely accurate.
The penultimate policy seeks to implementing the Competition and Markets Authority’s recommendations, aimed at reducing illegal ticket resale. The recommendations, published in August 2021, included a ban on resellers marketing more tickets than an individual is allowed to purchase, ensuring platforms are responsible for false information and creating a system for platforms selling secondary tickets to enable sanctions should these rules be breached. Published almost three years ago, the fact that these have not yet been actioned is troubling and I am pleased to see that they pledge to crack down and implement them. There are many stories of people paying extortionate prices for tickets and any work to help combat this should be welcomed.
Finally, the Liberal Democrats are promising to protect National Lottery arts funding. The funding, allocated by Arts Council England, acts similarly to Creative Europe in that it allows groups or individuals to apply for grants for their creative endeavours. With arts funding always at risk, a promise to ringfence this is a positive move that will allow funding to continue to be provisioned, even with an unstable economic climate. I would have liked to see this increased as well, but this is a positive step which indicated the will of the Liberal Democrats to support the arts.
This manifesto for Arts & Theatre is overall a positive one. There are several key promises made in it that would undoubtedly have beneficial effects for those concerned and for our wider sector, which is crucial following the events of the past few years. There are areas which I feel need to be improved on, a key omission, and some parts that I think are presented in a slightly different way to what the reality is likely to be, but the Liberal Democrat manifesto is a largely good start to the General Election 2024 Manifesto season for the Arts & Theatre industries.
The Liberal Democrats’ General Election manifesto was released on June 10th and can be accessed here. The 2024 U.K. General Election will take place on July 4th
