“I Will Not Be Fighting Culture Wars”: UK Shadow Culture Secretary Seeks To Draw Dividing Line Between Labour & Conservatives As She Sets Out Stall On AI, BBC & Freelancers
The UK Labour Party has set out its plan for the film and TV industries, drawing a dividing line between itself and the ruling Conservatives as it slams the government for “getting themselves all tied up in culture wars of their own making and failing to support a pipeline of talent.”
Delivering her first major set-piece at the Creative Cities Convention, Shadow Culture Secretary Thangam Debbonaire said she will “not be fighting culture wars” but instead will focus on arts and culture being central to Labour’s “Phase One” plan if it gets into office. Her boss, Labour leader Keir Starmer, is plotting “a decade of national renewal in Britain.” The election is expected later this year and Labour is currently sitting around 20 points ahead of the Conservatives in the polls.
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Debbonaire set out Labour’s position in thorny areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), the BBC and the ailing freelance workforce.
On the former, she revealed Labour will seek to strike trade deals with other countries in order to “maintain and promote the UK’s strong copyright regime.”
Addressing the debate, she said “Labour believes both in human-centred creativity and the potential of AI to unlock new creative frontiers,” as she branded copyright and IP the “bedrock of our successful creative industries.”
“It is the way that we protect the raw materials of the creative industries – the creative output and imagination,” she added. “Getting this right will be good for the screen sector as a whole, as well as individual creatives, to protect the films and shows you’re invested in.”
Addressing AI came at a good time for Labour, with producer trade body Pact and the British actors union yesterday criticizing the Conservatives for “kicking the can down the road” on legislation regarding the fast-moving tech.
“Big decisions” on public broadcasting to come
Positing that she will “work constructively” to make sure it continues to operate, Debbonaire swung in behind the BBC, the nation’s 100-year-old pubcaster, which has had an up-and-down relationship with the ruling Conservatives over the past decade.
She praised “the plurality” of the British broadcasting system and said its existence “cannot be taken for granted.”
“There are big decisions to make about the future of public sector broadcasting in the next few years,” she added. “We have to make sure that – together – we are communicating the importance of public sector broadcasting. To our national life, and to our economy. In a year when so many people across the world are going to the polls, when disinformation and the reckless re-writing of history are running rampant, the integrity and impartiality of the news has never felt more important.”
Another of Labour’s big manifesto promises has been to forge what it terms a New Deal for Working People. Debbonaire stressed that this will extend to the ailing film and TV freelance workforce, with around two-thirds currently out of work, according to union Bectu.
As part of the New Deal, Debbonaire said freelancers will have the right to a written contract and be given health and safety add-ons, blacklisting protections and whistleblower safeguards, while Labour will also “clamp down on late payments.”
“Tied up in culture wars”
She lambasted the Conservatives for “failing to support a pipeline of talent for the creative industries.”
Instead, she said they have “denigrated arts degrees and got themselves all tied up in culture wars of their own making.”
“I will not be fighting culture wars although I accept I will have to respond to them,” she added.
Debbonaire, whose constituency is in Bristol where Creative Cities is taking place, said she has been spending her time meeting actors, make-up artists and runners at Pinewood, Elstree and Bad Wolf Studios in Cardiff. “They make art and culture. Not government,” she added. “Their creativity, technical excellence and imagination are the raw materials of our creative industries.”
Earlier this year, Debbonaire’s opposite number, Lucy Frazer, brought in measures that the government said would be worth ￡1B ($1.24B) in tax relief to the creative industries over five years, including 40% relief for indie movies.
Debbonaire was speaking on day two of Creative Cities. The event has also featured the bosses of Netflix UK and Channel 4, along with creatives from The Outlaws and Mr Bates vs the Post Office.
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