If I were a leader …

January 13, 2010 by
Filed under: Politics, The RSA 

Tomorrow is a big day for the RSA. We have our State of the Arts Conference, which we are holding in partnership with the Arts Council England.  The aim is to place in the calendar an annual forum for high powered arts policy debate, one that will rival several such conferences for the broadcasting sector. 500 people have signed up and we have a fantastic line up of speakers. Let’s hope it stops snowing.

Partly to get my head into the right place for the event, I went this morning to a breakfast briefing with Ben Bradshaw. The discussion put this proposition in my mind:

Can anyone imagine one of the Party leaders saying this?

‘We have to make some very difficult decisions about public spending. We could make these decisions on the basis of what touches our emotions most here and now or by thinking clearly about what matters most to the long term welfare of our country. This is the critical judgement we must make and it is the ultimate measure of our capacity as a political party to lead.

So today I want to announce that we will implement a three year freeze in expenditure in the NHS, schools and policing. These services have enjoyed year on year funding increases for a decade. It is clear that with strong and careful management they can maintain service quality while making substantial savings. I won’t pretend they won’t have to make difficult decisions but in each of these areas there are opportunities for us as parents, patients, carers and neighbours to help these services deliver their social outcomes on tighter budgets.

With the money that will be freed up by this difficult decision we will protect and indeed increase our investment in the creative and knowledge sectors which offer the best – and maybe the only – hope for the UK to come out of this recession stronger and more competitive. So we will accelerate our plans to provide high speed broadband to all homes, services and businesses, we will increase funding for science, higher and further education and we will take steps to make the UK an even more attractive place to set up, locate and grow creative businesses. We will, for example, provide tax incentives to the video game industry, a fast expanding area in which we were until recently world leaders but in which we are in danger of falling behind.’

I know my Labour friends will say the Government is doing most of what is in the third paragraph. The problem is that it lacks credibility unless they are willing to face up to what is in the second. There’s no point having a great industrial strategy if the country is bankrupt and seen as a risky place in which to invest.  

My political judgement – for what it’s worth – is that if a party leader said something like this it would lead the next day to some over the top doom and gloom headlines (plus predictable shroud waving from the BMA and teaching unions), but then to a major increase in the party’s credibility at a time when oters are, on the one hand, worried about the medium term prospects for the British  economy (‘what jobs will be there for my children when they grow up?’) and on the other hand,  are convinced no one is telling them the truth about the spending challenges ahead.

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14 Comments on If I were a leader …

  1. Livy on Wed, 13th Jan 2010 12:14 pm

    2. …leaders in video game industry? No.

    The business had boomed globally, growing by 20% in the past two years and we lost something like 15% of the total sector with falling investment in privately operated UK developers (down by about 60%).

    We simply don’t have the gaming culture of Japan nor the population of the US to ever compete on that kind of level.

    Strangely enough, Nintendo are one of the few global brands to make such huge profits during the economic meltdown. Not so long ago they were marked for death when Microsoft entered the race and the long standing paradigm of two rival consoles was finally shattered. The Wii managed the breakthrough on account of its affordability and hugely innovative control system.

    Then again, all the newly unemployed and coasting graduated affected by the credit crunch need something with which to occupy their time. Suppose it’s not so strange after all.

    Still, probably could not be less relevant to the overall cut and thrust of the post. To complicated for me right now, I’m still wording a response to the previous thing on Cameron and feigning objectivity may prove beyond me.

  2. Will Davies on Wed, 13th Jan 2010 12:52 pm

    3. You raise an important point (says he who has recently thrown in his lot with higher education). But isn’t there another crucial part of this same narrative:

    We will strategically, albeit slowly, reinvent the status and function of finance in British society such that it is constrained by the interests and needs of productive capital. A society that does not depend on the state to generate prosperity and jobs must look to private capital to do so. Yet overshadowed by the growth of the public sector and of financial services themselves, the dirty secret of Britain’s private economy is that it has been in stasis for the past 15 years. We need new models of credit and equity investment that have positive sum outcomes, most importantly in increasing the supply of houses, rather than the price. An even worse paradox, at this historical juncture, is that we increasingly look to private equity to generate start-ups, business growth and employment, when it typically does precisely the opposite. There are alternative ways of organising the relationship between the financial and real economy, and we intend to experiment with them and nurture them, even if this has the unfortunate short-term effect of destroying jobs and tax receipts in the speculative reaches of the City of London.

    Marxist nonsense, or too much time hanging out with Will Hutton?

  3. James Horn on Wed, 13th Jan 2010 3:33 pm

    4. Is there going to be much feedback or coverage of the conference through the RSA website?

    I was wondering if the videogame industry will feature in the State of the Arts conference (linking two separate points of your post together…)? As an arts industry, I guess it should be represented but I haven’t signed up as the list of speakers (whilst excellent) look to be focused on the established arts.

    The videogame industry’s place in the arts world (and business world for that matter) is a strange one (which I’d love to discuss further if there is ever the forum) as it is viewed with a certain level of shame by the ‘grown-ups’ – arts and entertainment coverage rarely accepts it (the BBC website shuffles it into the Technology section, well away from the arts) – yet as a sector bringing £1bn to UK GDP, employing 28,000 (9000 in development), surely we should be taking it rather more seriously?

    Completely off tack I know, but there you go…

  4. Livy on Wed, 13th Jan 2010 4:14 pm

    5. Hmm…. I’m not so sure James. Not because I disagree, I just doubt it’s something you can sell. The same reason neither the BBC nor mainstream newspapers have an MMA section on the Sports webpage. And a better case can be made for that than trying to justify computer games as art.

    Education however is a different story. Before long I’ve no doubt we will see many more examples like Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training on the Nintendo DS. I mean, even the senior civil servant from The Thick of It was playing it in her lunch break :)

  5. rhian on Wed, 13th Jan 2010 5:06 pm

    6. As someone who works in health-care, the idea of a 3 year freeze for the NHS makes my blood run cold.. Can we set aside some funds for geriatric medicine, decent hospital nutrition & improved community services for the elderly, before we start talking about computer games (and olympics)?

  6. Livy on Wed, 13th Jan 2010 5:12 pm

    7. …sorry :(

  7. Brian Hughes on Wed, 13th Jan 2010 5:42 pm

    8. “a three year freeze in expenditure in the NHS…” – but we’re not even up the Western European health-spending levels yet are we? To say nothing of North American ones. And some of our schools are still failing our most needy pupils.

    It’s the question that Attlee sort of posed. Are we really saying that one of the wealthiest nations in the world can’t afford to treat its citizens when they’re sick or to educate all its children?

    A really bold politician might try to tell our largely infantilized, tax-averse electorate that it can’t expect Fortnum quality products if it only pays Asda prices. But such a politician wouldn’t survive in a senior post for the day…

  8. James horn on Wed, 13th Jan 2010 6:11 pm

    9. Not meaning to come across as some sort of videogame industry champion, but surely as an industry it contributes to the nhs as much as any other business area?
    The point of discussing such things is that the growth of British business funds the exchequer, allowing an increase in funding to health and education over time.
    The main thrust of what I am talking about is recognising an area that britain excels in and supporting it (by taking it seriously).

    Returning to Livy’s point re: games as art, what I’m interested in is seeing them viewed as culture. At some point in the future, we may see them straying into the realms of ‘high’ art, but currently they should surely be viewed as entertainment? Perhaps being more artistically valuable than some current tv?

  9. Brian Hughes on Wed, 13th Jan 2010 6:12 pm

    10. Or my really bold politician might try reminding our l i, t-a e that we live in a smallish European island rather than in a super power and that perhaps we might reduce our defence spending to German or Italian levels and use the savings to protect and indeed increase our investment in the creative and knowledge sectors.

    Then he could collect his P45…

  10. Livy on Wed, 13th Jan 2010 6:29 pm

    11. James, you can already make a convincing cultural case with respect to music and games like Guitar Hero, not to mention the fact that record labels have for some time earned royalties from their music being used on game soundtracks. The earliest example I can think of would be something like GTA, when you’re driving in the race car and can use the L & R buttons on the controller to literally change the radio stations and listen to famous songs. Genius.

    Brian, I think it’s already been said. This has infuriated me for the past 2 hours because I can’t for the life of me remember who it was, but went along the lines of “The British electorate want American levels of taxation and Scandinavian public services”.

    I think it may have been a New Labourite; help us out MT?

  11. Will Davies on Wed, 13th Jan 2010 6:47 pm

    12. James – government economists typically respond to arguments such as your’s by saying “that’s wonderful that your industry is doing so well. So what exactly is the problem you want us to fix?”

  12. rhian on Wed, 13th Jan 2010 8:04 pm

    13. It may well bring in funding for the NHS over time, but people in my hospital are periodially being asked to bring in their own pillows..so we’re not really interested in hanging around for the next teenage whizz kid to set up another gaming company..its just an excuse for more concentration on youth, technology and boys toys instead of caring properly for the older generation and the government knows it..

  13. James Horn on Thu, 14th Jan 2010 9:24 am

    14. Aaargh – Just found there was an event about gaming LAST NIGHT at the RSA – gutted to have missed it…

    Will have to watch on Vision when it’s available.

  14. Livy on Thu, 14th Jan 2010 11:26 am

    15. Seriously? Tsk tsk…guess that one got by me.

    Rhian…. patients required to bring in their own pillows, seriously?

    It’s a point well taken. Also made me re-consider my previous stance on the educational value of computer games. I was considering buying a Nintendo DS for the morning tube journey as I get all the papers and journals for free at work; after all, why spend a whole extra pound every day?

    But then… the cost of a Nintendo DS is equivalent to over 2 years worth of daily papers, so I’m left wondering which would give me more of an educational bang for my buck.

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