Ed Vaizey

Last night was a great night for British film - with The Queen (ITV) and the Last King of Scotland (Film4) getting gongs, and Venus (also Film4) getting a good showing.  Martin Kettle had an interesting piece in Saturday’s Grauniad which asked Helen Mirren to thank the subsidised theatre when she won.  In the event, she thanked the Queen.  Anyway, it got me thinking.  The Government is about to plough £9 billion into the Olympics, and it justifies it on the basis of regenration and sporting glory.  It’s true, we do all feel great when we win the Ashes, a big football match or Olympic gold.  But don’t the Oscars show that we all feel great when we “win” at the arts as well?  And shouldn’t we make an even bigger deal when our artists win Tonys, Globes, Baftas and no doubt hundreds of other art prizes around the world?  Because they are equally good examples of Britain’s greatness, in my view…And the arts are also, by the way, a pretty cost effective way of regenerating spaces and palces too.

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