𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Too many arts organisations are trapped in woke groupthink. They worship identity politics but despise English identity; they extol diversity but demand uniformity of opinion; they preach rebellion but depend on the state. A classic example is the South Bank Centre, Europe’s largest arts venue, with six resident orchestras. three concert halls and an annual subsidy of £18million. Opened in 1951 for the Festival of Britain, the Centre marks its 75th anniversary this year, but celebrations are mixed with dismay at how badly it has lost its way. One respected art critic wrote this week that the South Bank appears to be “floundering financially and artistically. It puts on a fraction of the serious arts events it once did”.

Woke recruitment means that 20% of its staff identify as LGBT and a quarter are from ethnic minorities, far beyond the proportion of such groups in the overall British population. The Centre’s schedule features events like a “Queer Rave,” an “Arab Film Club”, and an awards ceremony for “migrant and refugee writers”.

No-one epitomises this culture more starkly than the South Banks’s Chairman, Misan Harriman, a Nigerian-born photographer and political activist. Following accusations he has shared antisemitic posts online, peddled anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, and compared Reform supporters to Nazis, there have been calls for his resignation, though predictably the right-on luvvies have voiced their support.

In 1951 the Festival Director Sir Gerald Barry called its success “a tonic for the nation”. Harriman’s chairmanship is more like a depressant.

A distinctive voice sadly absent

Amid all the excitable coverage of turmoil at Westminster, one distinctive voice has been sadly absent, that of the Daily Express’s late political editor Patrick O’Flynn, who died exactly a year ago.

Thanks to his uncanny ability to read any political situation, his vivid language and his principled attachment to Brexit, his articles on the current scene would have been compulsory reading. He is greatly missed but he will always have a special place in the hearts of anyone connected with this great newspaper.

Progress?

In the 30 years since the construction of the world’s first steam-powered passenger railway in 1825 running between Stockton and Darlington, British engineers built 8,000 miles of new track. This century, all that has been laid are 146 miles of HS2, at an expected cost of £107billion. It will not open until 2039. That’s called progress.

The facts that expose alarmism

More green alarmism, this time from the independent Committee on Climate Change, which warns of a future surge in heat-related deaths. But here is one area where global warming could actually benefit mankind. The fact is that, across the world, nine times more deaths are caused by cold than heat.

Ministers are at it again…

The American writer and former State department official Charlton Ogburn said reorganising can be “a wonderful method for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization”. He could have been describing the Starmer Government, which frequently uses bureaucratic tinkering as a substitute for real action. Worried about illegal small boat crossings of the English Channel? Here’s a new Border Security Command. Concerned about sewage in the water supply? A new water regulator is on its way.

Ministers were at it again this week. In response to fears that criminals are operating out of dodgy shops like vape stores, they have just set up a dedicated High Street Organised Crime Unit based in the National Crime Agency, with a budget of £20million. But years ago we had a highly effective means of tackling all kinds of crime, without these structural extensions. It was called the police.