Labour on culture

Educating people on the value of intellectual property rights, reforming EU copyright legislation and defending arts spending have been highlighted in recent speeches by Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw and Business Secretary Peter Mandelson. The latter, speaking at Labour’s inaugural ‘c&binet’ forum for the creative industries in October, tackled the subject of unlawful file-sharing. At the same event, Bradshaw challenged the EU on its wish to extend copyright to 95 years, saying “the current system is a mess”. Speaking to Labour’s Progress group this month, Bradshaw warned that the Tories would cut arts spending, and pointed to Gordon Brown’s personal intervention to prevent the cancellation of major capital projects in London as evidence of Labour’s commitment to the arts. See Ed Vaizey’s ‘Local thinking’ p7