Sounding Board – Strong arm tactics

Frustrated in its diplomatic efforts to secure the independence of the arts from political intervention, the Arts Council of Wales has finally hit out at the Welsh Assembly Government for undermining its role and imposing political agendas on arts decisions. ACW Chairman Geraint Talfan Davies, who has been effectively sacked from his role by the Government, makes an impassioned plea for the preservation of the arms-length principle.

Knowing the huge quantity of newsprint that is devoted to the arts every day of the week in our national newspapers, it seems rather remarkable that  at the time of writing this piece  scarcely an inch has been devoted to a surprising conjunction of events in three of UKs four countries that could destroy a cherished principle of arts governance in this kingdom. Its the arms-length principle, but perhaps it is rather less cherished than some of us thought.

Gathering clouds

On 5 January a public row erupted in Wales when the Arts Council of Wales, after 14 months of restraint and frustration, went public on its opposition to the Assembly Governments plan to take control of six of Waless largest arts organisations. Two weeks later the Scottish Executive announced that it proposed to follow suit.

Only a week before Christmas the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) had discreetly published the report of the Peer Review of the Arts Council of England (ACE) that defended the arms-length principle with some vigour. It did so while gently trying to steer the ACE/DCMS relationship by intelligently exploring the very issues that are being decided by assertion rather than debate in my own country.

Creeping instrumentalism

No-one approaching this issue could fail to see that it is more difficult today to set out the arms-length principle in the pristine form that Keynes or Redcliffe-Maude might have done so decades ago. The instrumental agenda has provided government with a way of talking about the arts  and funding them  without that odd British sense of embarrassment. But despite Tessa Jowells brave shot at setting different parameters for the discussion, we are now finding that, like all ratchets, the instrumental ratchet works in only one direction.

Good reasons?

When the Welsh Assembly Government decided in 2004 to light a bonfire of the quangos, the First Minister made it clear that we could presume that we would be absorbed into the civil service unless there was very good reason not to do so. It was later made clear by its Permanent Secretary that there would be only three grounds for escaping the tumbril: first, bodies carrying out an audit or regulatory function; second, bodies that took decisions better kept at arms-length from Government; third, bodies that undertake functions or exercise professional judgements which are clearly non-governmental in character.

That a government could decide that an Arts Council did not measure up on either of the last two grounds for exception is an indication not only of how little store is put on the arms-length principle today, but also of how far down the slippery slope to a purely governmental function the arts have slid.

The Assembly Government decided to keep ACW in being, not on the grounds of either of these exceptions, but simply because it did not have the legislative power to dismantle the Council nor the right to take the Lottery function unto itself. Instead it sought to rebalance the relationship. The language is significant  not improve or clarify the relationship but rebalance it  hints of the zero sum game.

Deaf ears

As a Council we had, a year ago, resolved not to seek confrontation with the Government, but to seek to define these proposals in ways that could have been mutually acceptable and kept the arms-length principle in place. We know that such a solution is possible. We know that it is possible to give recognition to the role of national companies without tossing aside the arms-length principle and without destroying our present holistic approach to artform development right across the sector. We went public only when it was transparently clear that all our efforts to engage Government in a serious open-minded dialogue were not going to be reciprocated.

Defending the principle

Why the fuss? Why should we worry? We are told that the arms-length principle is obscure. Even in the arts there are some who will write it off as past its sell-by date (although it seems out of spirit with the times to write it off solely on grounds of age). It is, after all, rather younger than the BBC licence fee and has this much in common with that famous British mechanism  not everyone loves it, but few can think of anything better to put in its place.

We have had to ask ourselves whether we are simply defending a vested interest and whether our stance is a case of misplaced amour propre. We can confidently answer no to both charges. The Council has seen little but change in recent years, and we have put forward a programme of further change, including innovative proposals for producing closer partnership working with the Assembly Governments Culture Department. But there are deeper considerations too.

Freedom of expression

We know that present dangers generate a great tension between the demands of security and civil liberties. We know that fundamentalism in all religions is more strident today in its demands for safeguards from offence  Jerry Springer, the Opera and the Bezhti play in Birmingham are two of the most prominent instances. These things are not unconnected. They all impact on the arts. If civil liberties have to be constrained in the interests of security, all the more reason to ensure that the arts are truly and visibly independent, not least in a small community like Wales where honest debate can be blunted by our very closeness.

Small communities need the arts to be at their most challenging. Its sad that Wales has not witnessed the wave of overtly political theatre that has been so prominent in England. In Wales we need our writers and our theatre, in particular, to be held well back from the dangerous slopes of self-censorship. And, in the words of Julian Evans, writing in PENs recent volume on freedom of expression, we must take care that governments do not turn public space into their private arena where policy and expediency congregate rather than principles.

Geraint Talfan Davies is Chairman of the Arts Council of Wales.

For further background on ACWs situation, see AP issue 113, and p3 of this issue.