Yes, the government's support for the arts is welcome - but why did it take so long?: Nick Ahad

George Osborne tweeted on Sunday night that there was a ‘big package of government support coming from the arts tomorrow’. On Sunday afternoon, a few hours before the – incredibly welcome and I cannot stress that enough – announcement that there would be £1.57 billion made available to Britain’s cultural organisations to help them through the pandemic, I was making notes for this week’s column.

The notes included my incredulity that the Government had been encouraging people to go to the pub since 6am the previous morning and had handed pub chain Wetherspoons a £48m loan and it had done this while seeming to allow our cultural heritage go to the wall.

Later that evening it was my column notes that went to the wall as I saw it there in black and pink in the Financial Times, confirming Osborne’s tweet that the cavalry was on its way.

I watched Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden all over the news channels the following morning confirming that there was a rescue package in sight and the British arts sector, which had begun to look like a guest character in an episode of Casualty, was about to be brought back to life.

My celebrations were muted. I was relieved, of course, but why had it taken the enormous collective efforts of almost anyone with a connection to the arts industry – from Dame Judi Dench to Sir Sam Mendes – to get to this point?

Why did the argument for the arts have to build to a cacophony before the message was heard and we received a response?

Look, the money is an absolutely necessary lifeline. It means that the Leeds Playhouse, York Theatre Royal, Slung Low, Rash Dash, Sheffield Crucible and all those other arts organisations that bring us so much joy will still be here when we come out of the other side of this pandemic.

I am grateful for Dowden’s announcement (although I wish I hadn’t read about it on the timeline of George Osborne), but I think too much gratitude sends the wrong message.

We should never have reached this point at all. Simply, why did we spend so long being told that a pint was worth more than the point we were trying to make about the arts?

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