Issue 230
March/April 2024


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Mar 28, 2024

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Editorial Comment

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Birmingham today…

ALONGSIDE this column a working musician expresses some of the horror that will be widely felt at the prospect of the city of Birmingham becoming a virtual music-free zone.

For the near bankrupt city council the situation may be all too understandable. Years of cuts have taken a massive toll on all services and, faced with withdrawing support from life and death services, aiding the arts may seem almost frivolous.

But, as pianist Gusztav points out, there are strong economic arguments for supporting the arts. It is an area of soft power in which Britain is particularly strong and our orchestras and musicians are at the forefront of this movement.

What must worry everyone who cares about our cultural life is that what is happening in Birmingham today could so easily happen nearer home tomorrow.

Take the BBC, for instance. The knife that has so fatally wounded local radio and reduced the strength of many news gathering departments could soon be poised over some of the many orchestras the BBC supports.

Maintaining an orchestra is a massively costly operation and an accountant looking for easy pickings will almost certainly start to ask questions.

In Scotland we need to be particuarly vigilant over the future of the wonderful BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Not all that many years ago, the BBC Scottish came under severe threat. A rearguard action was successful then in staving off the threat, but we need to be on our guard.

We also need to do all we can to support our musician friends and their employers, by both singing their praises and – whenever we can, now we are no longer Covid bound – getting out and paying to listen to their song.

In a very real sense the same applies to many other areas of the arts. The problems facing the Edinburgh International Festival have been well documented. As with so many other cultural undertakings, the continued existence of the Festival has been described as something of a 'miracle'.

We are going to need many miracles in the years ahead.


A (very) broad church?

THE TERM dancing in the aisles may conjure up some strange visions, but this is literally what has been happening in some of our most sacred cathedrals in recent months.

'Silent' discos – where the participants all wear earphones and jive around to what only they can hear – have become a highly lucrative reality. 'Offerings' of as much as £25 a head have been sought from the participants.

Faced, as they are, with annual running costs well into the millions, such seemingly extreme measures are all too understandable.

While some congregations have reacted in horror, others have welcomed the initiative, pointing out that, in the past, churches have enjoyed a far wider spectrum of activities than they do today.

There may be hope here for the future of so many of our threatened churches. More creative uses than being boringly turned into dwelling houses could open up as we become an ever more secular society.

Time to bring on the dancing girls – and boys?


The long march for peace

CONFLICT IS ALWAYS ugly and there are some very ugly areas of conflict around the world at the moment.

Russia's endless bombardment of Ukraine, accompanied by ruthless suppression of any dissent is bad enough. The name of Navalny must shine out like a beacon in these terrible times.

In the Middle East, despite occasional glimmers of hope, the suffering in Gaza seems endless.

Throughout the world horror has been expressed at all the suffering, accompanied by a sense of helplessness.

It is against this background that many thousands, throughout the world, have taken to the streets to express their feelings.

In some areas of political life these manifestations of strong emotion have, disgracefully, been described as "hate" marches.

While in any gathering of many thousands there are bound to be some whose motives are highly suspect, the vast majority of those taking to the streets are doing so in search of peace.

Much of the organisation is being done by bodies such as the Stop the War movement, whose aims are entirely laudable.

Scoring cheap political points against them is sick.



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