Creative Corner

See the windows under this heading for a series of campaigns on the Creative Industries

In October in the Lords we debated the Report of the House of lords Select Committee on Communication on Media Convergence 

See my speech here discussing whether the Government has a strategy to address the future regulation of media content in a technologically converged world.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201314/ldhansrd/text/131030-0001.htm#13103065000146

I concluded “I sense in all this no really coherent strategic intent, and perhaps no real intent at this stage to amend the Communications Act 2003. I look forward to the Minister’s reply but if we are not careful we will bumble along until well after the next general election, and that would be a mistake, as I think the committee’s report clearly shows.”

 

 

 

 

The potential for Music Tourism

On 11th July 2013 I took part in a debate initiated by Lib Dem peer Lord Storey on the  great potential for music tourism in the UK.

As I said: “We all believe that the UK is the centre of the world for live music but we need hard facts to establish this and the role that live music plays in generating tourism. The new UK Music report will be very welcome, especially if it can demonstrate what proportion of live music audiences is comprised of tourists as opposed to the local population, and the economic impact of their visit to the live music event.

I hope that this new information will really prompt the Government, DCMS, BIS, DCLG, Defra, the Home Office and the Treasury—all relevant government departments—to get together with VisitBritain, VisitEngland, UKTI, the British Council, the Arts Council and both the music industry and the tourism and hospitality industry to identify the real levers and barriers to growing music tourism at national level. We need a properly joined-up strategy, particularly in terms of reducing regulation.”

www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201314/ldhansrd/text/130711-0003.htm#13071180000289

Government Strategy for the Creative Industries

During the Queen’s speech debate in the Lords last May I argued strongly that we needed to recognize that intellectual property underpins our creative industries. As a champion for both we need a joint Creative Industries/Intellectual Property Minister not two separate Ministers. We need to continue to educate consumers on the importance of of  legal downloading and file sharing.

We should implement the Digital Economy Act both as regards the Initial Obligations Code for interment service providers and the application of Public Lending Right to audio and e books. We also need to continue to encourage  young artists to make their start in small small venues and deregulate leafleting control for small community and cultural events and find  new ways of financing of startup creative industries  through non bank lending such as crowdsourcing. We need to enhance and develop our skills base through implementation of Darren Henley’s Review of Cultural Education and maintain Government support for the arts in real terms.
See the link to the speech here:
Public Lending Right 
On 22nd May 2013 Floella, Baroness Benjamin initiated a short set of of questions on Public Lending Right to which I contributed.
see the Link here: