of Knighton (CB): My
Lords, I declare my interest as a freelance composer and
broadcaster for the BBC, although at a somewhat less august
salary level than Mr Gary Lineker. The Minister would probably
accept, as we all do, that there is a difference between not
making political observations in programmes that you are aligned
to and being free to express your conscience when you are talking
about something which has nothing to do with sport or, in my
case, music. Does he understand that musicians feel
rather beleaguered, given the Arts Council England cuts, coupled
with this own goal of scrapping the BBC Singers, the only
professional group of its sort in this country?
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Culture, Media and Sport ( of Whitley Bay) (Con):
Questions about how people who work for the BBC use social media
and how their activity adheres to the BBC’s social media
guidelines are for the corporation to determine. The noble Lord,
who does not tweet, I think, and certainly not in a way that
causes any controversy, is right to draw attention to the
decisions about the BBC Singers and BBC orchestras, although
again those decisions are for the BBC to set out and justify to
licence fee payers, in the context of how it spends their money.
The noble Lord referred to Arts Council England cuts. I remind
him that the amount of money being dispensed by Arts Council
England in the new portfolio is larger than in the previous one,
and classical music accounts for a great deal of its musical
output. However, he is right to draw your Lordships’ attention to
this important issue.
