This is a very nice book, with very good intentions, and nothing
at all surprising anywhere. It’s a pat on the back for anyone
who’s ever been ‘creative’, and nod to the aspirations of everyone
who ever wanted to be. It’s a justification for the inspired renaming
of the heritage department as ‘media, culture and sport’. It’s a
little chat about the crazy world of government backing for the
arts… and it has a Damien Hirst print for a jacket.
You will have heard a lot of this before in the ‘Cool Britannia’
spiel that has been spewing from the media recently. It’s the
one about the fantastic film industry, which will be encouraged
even more by tax breaks and educational grants. And the one about
pop music- it might be for the kidz, but we’re all kidz at heart
really, none more so than sexy Mr Smith and his happy band of
Oasis-loving government ministers. Both of these can be sold anywhere
in the world – everybody loves a good tune. This of course is a
key point – these industries are Britain’s most important exports
in a time when trying to sell anything else we produce is hard
enough on home turf, let alone globally. So this is how we keep
up with the Jones, give them the Full Monty, and stand back and
watch them buy the soundtrack, the sequel and the cuddly toy.
Smith is in fact against the ‘Cool Britannia’ tag, it’s too shallow,
and makes our cultural strengths seem fragile and momentary, when
in fact they always have been here and they always will. Nothing
you’ll read here is untrue, or unpleasant, it just has that
ring of spin to it, a sort of blinkered optimism that fails to
recognise that culture may involve exclusion as well. Indeed the
endless mini-lectures on exactly what ‘culture’ is get very tiring,
as though the newly titled department has just been force-fed
Margaret Mead and Raymond Williams for a month. When the words
‘synergy’ and ’empowerment’ appear I feel despair. But perhaps
Chris can paint, or write a tune, or better still, convert these
speeches into a multi-media animation event.
From one modern cliché to another then, as ‘multicultural
diversity’ and ‘accessibility’ jump into the excitingly covered
discourse that is this book.
No elitism here, because a community arts project in Brixton is
just as crucial as Pavarotti in the park. It starts to get a bit
like the blurb for a new energy drink. "Creative Britain-the
imaginative juice!" pepping up our lives, our social consciences
and our economy. I’d certainly buy it, and it’s going to be flooding
a market near you sometime soon.
It goes on, about the lottery, libraries, classical music, all
of it worthy, all good ideas. I have no disagreement with the
political agenda set out here, but I ask you in genuine wonder-
who reads a book like this? And for what reason? Some names, some
numbers and more spin than my tumble drier? For all his talk
of the fantastic cultural production we’re so good at, Mr Smith
has sweetly avoided competing with anything his department legislates
for.
Reviewed by Rachel O’Riordan
