Ed Vaizey

I’m very sad to hear that Chad Varah, the founder of Samaritans, has died, aged 95.  Read about him HERE.  Samaritans was founded by Chad more than half a century ago, and still provides a 24/7 telephone (and text) service for thousands of distressed people.  It’s manned by volunteers and still the biggest service of its kind in the world.  I am a Young Ambassador  for Samaritans, and when I get my act together and regsiter it, chairman of Samaritans all-party group.

I went tonight to the second annual Train awards.  Train is a fantastic organisation started by the local churches in Didcot.  It’s overseen by the local Baptist Minister, Keith Nichols, and employs a youth worker, Paul Gander, to engage with young people in Didcot.  They take them on residential courses, organising DJ’ing, football and skateboarding competitions, and then award the youngster certificates to recognise their achievements.  It’s a great organisation and I was proud to be asked along to say a few words and hand out the certificates. I even got a plug for the blog from the mistress of ceremonies, Claire Wren, who noticed that I had whinged that nobody read it.  Whingeing is good though, I have never received so many comments.

A long time ago, Chris Smith was ridiculed for suggesting we could hang great works of art on tube trains.  A silly idea yes, but a provocative way of saying that there are imaginative ways to get art out of museums and into the community.  Reading Museum, which I visited today, is doing just that.  An HLF grant allows them to pack up little bits of art and artefacts (1500 in all) into cases, with explanatory notes and catalogued on the web.  These are then made available to local schools for use in lessons.  So little Jonny gets to go to class and handle real Roman pottery, or a Victorian police man’s handcuffs, or an exotic Australian plant.  Great stuff.  And when he grows up, the local business he works for can hire works of art, or sculptures to hang in his office.  Or even biscuit tins, as one firm has done (Reading was the home of Huntley & Palmer, and the museum has a brilliant display of biscuit tins, which H&P invented).  fantastic stuff.

Yes folks, I am afraid my love bombing of the Lib Dems has come to a grinding halt, thanks to the lame comments from their arts spokesman on John Tusa’s brilliant report on the arts for the Conservative Party (which you can download HERE).  The report is entirely independent, and was put together by 8 people who work in some for or another in the arts and have a passion for it.  It is meant to provoke a thoughtful and interesting debate.  Instead we got this:

Responding to the publication of the Conservatives’ report A New Landscape for the Arts, Liberal Democrat Arts and Culture Spokesperson, Dan Rogerson MP said: “These plans are unaccompanied by any suggestion of how they would be funded. How do the Tories plan to pay for a new Department, exponentially increased funding of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, further roll-out of Renaissance in the Regions and a raft of tax changes? People won’t easily forget that it was the Conservatives that recently questioned free admissions to museums and neglected the heritage sector while in government.  While the report may contain some worthwhile proposals, no doubt the arts and heritage sector will remain suspicious it is more about gaining publicity than a genuine commitment to invest in the cultural life of Britain.”

This is wrong on every count.  They’re not Tory proposals; we didn’t neglect heritage; and the report didn’t get any publicity!!   Oh, how I long for the new politics, when a Lib Dem spokesman might have said “We welcome this independent report as a valuable contribution to the arts debate and will study it with care instead of firing off a knee-jerk, cliched press release”

The British Board of Film Classification is the kind of quango I can live with.  For a start, it doesn’t cost the taxpayer a penny - it is paid for by the film companies and distributors.  It seems a relatively modest outfit in terms of size and budget.  And it is pretty conservative (with a small “c”) in its aprroach to films, as well as being innovative at the appropriate time.

One fascinating fact I learned is that while the BBFC classifies films, it is up to individual local authorities to give permission for them to be shown.  You may remember a few banned David Cronenberg’s film of Julian Barnes’s novel “Crash”.  But the top spot must go to Glasgow City Council which banned The Life of Brian - and still bans it!  If I was a council leader, I would use these powers much more often - after all what real power have local authorities really got nowadays.  How about a go ahead council leader banning, as a matter of principle, all American films?  Or taking a small but determined stance against the march of Harry Potter?  It would create the most enormous row - but it would make local voters take their councils seriously again.

In case you are wondering whether this is relevant to my constituency, Sue, no sooner had I been to the BBFC than I got a letter from a constituent complaining, with some justification, about the nature of some adverts shown during films aimed at children.

I have written about the Queen’s Speech HERE, on the Guardian’s Comment is Free.  I was mentioned by Gordon Brown in his speech, and I haven’t been so excited since the Big Man turned to me in the Division Lobby in July and said “Hey, How Ya Doin’” (this was during his Big Tent phase).  He mentioned me by recycling a joke first used by Yvette Cooper during this year’s Labour Party Conference, which is always dangerous, as she has even less of a sense of humour than he does.  Anyway, the gist of the joke is that I don’t want any extra housing in my constituency, and I want it in Andrew Smith’s seat next door.  The trouble with the joke is that I am getting loads of housing but absolutely no money to upgrade infrastructure such as the A34, so I am opposing it, and Andrew Smith is getting no housing even though he actively wants it, because he has the infrastructure.  Funny old world.

If you’re wondering why I haven’t blogged for a few days it is because so few people leave comments, so I assume nobody reads it.  In fact, I had to leave it 8 days before Tim Montgomerie from Conservative Home noticed, and I am still not one of his recommended blogs.