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More Meandering MusingsDateline: 23rd July, 2000 Every now and then I devote this weekly column to riding some of my own hobby-horses, half-disguising the rant under the title of "musings". Such an innocuous word: in fact, one which has a pleasant, almost restful sound to it. I should be done under the Trades Descriptions Act! For many years, I, and many like me, have been vociferous in our demands to the government that it should remove VAT from theatre tickets. It's been on my annual Christmas "wish-list" since 1997 and will, I am very much afraid, be there for quite a few years to come. (For those who don't know, VAT (value-added tax) stands at 17.5% in the UK, so almost 15% of the cost of every theatre ticket goes directly to the government - that's over £6 for the standard West End price of £35.) The ridiculous thing is, books are zero-rated - that is, publishers do not have to charge VAT on top of the book's price - so if you buy a copy of a play, you don't pay tax, but if you go to see a play (which is, after all, what plays are for!), you do. Whilst logic and common sense have never been the forte of politicians, this seems particularly silly. I can't even discern in it the somewhat twisted logic that applies to VAT in relation to food, where, if you buy, say, a piece of fish and some potatoes, slice the potatoes into chips and then fry the lot, you don't pay VAT, but if you go to a fish 'n' chip shop and buy them ready-cooked, you do. The news that the Institute of Entertainment and Arts Management has added its voice to the campaign is welcome but, unfortunately, not likely to make any difference. Britain is one of the highest taxed countries in the western world, and although successive governments have pad lip service to the idea of reducing taxation, all they have actually done is shift it from direct (e.g. income tax) to indirect (e.g. VAT) taxation, and, whilst they will listen to public outcries about tax on, for example, children's clothing or newspapers, the removal of VAT on theatre tickets is never going to be an issue which will move the public to indignation. It is, I'm afraid, a lost cause. Money for ACE Much as I admire Peter Hall for his enormous - and brilliant! - contribution to theatre over the decades, his political pronouncements display what can be most kindly described as a certain innocence. His Shadow Arts Council's latest letter to Gordon Brown shows that all too well. For the Arts Council to ask for an increase of £100m is a bit like asking for the moon, but for the SAC to suggest the government should give more is like asking for it to be served with caviar and a bottle of Krug. This is not to say that Hall and the SAC are not right. They are, but the suggestion is so out of touch with political reality - and, no matter how much we may dislike it, the funding of the arts is a political matter - that it (a) has no chance of success, and (b) makes the writers look foolish or, worse, arrogant, in the view of the public. Government support for the arts It is a fact that New Labour has, since it came to office, significantly increased the amount it spends on the arts. It also recognises the major contribution that the creative industries make to the economy. (And so it should: as last week's news story showed, one in ten Londoners work in them.) It has also increased its financial support for the British film industry. It has even gone some way to restoring the arts to their proper place in education, although its continuing tacit refusal to implement the Robinson Report or even to publish it, sends out a different message. However virtually every sector has suffered from years of cuts and needs the same kind of increase. We have schools that are falling apart, a public transport infrastructure which is a joke, long hospital waiting lists, a shrinking police force, an army that was sent to Kosovo with inferior equipment which often didn't work... The list goes on and on. Yes, we must lobby for increased arts spending, but if we overdo it, we run the risk of alienating the public, who will tell us that, for them, hospitals and schools have a far higher priority. Articles Indices:
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