Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy attacks ‘barbaric and damaging’ cuts to funding for arts

 
Carol Ann Duffy
AP
14 June 2013

Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy has warned that this year will be a “totally barbaric time for arts funding” as organisations prepare for further cuts.

She said this government appears “younger and more sassy, with a Prime Minister who plays The Smiths” but is proving to be even more damaging to culture than the Tories of the 1980s.

“Not to actively support culture by at the very least giving money to it is the equivalent of burning the Mona Lisa in the Louvre,” she added.

Ms Duffy, speaking at the Society of Authors Awards in London last night, said tourists knew they were visiting the country of Shakespeare, Wordsworth and JK Rowling, adding: “I think the arts are who we are in Britain.”

The society presented £70,000 to writers in sums from £1,500 to £8,000 at the ceremony. Ms Duffy said: “They are tiny sums of money but the sense of being valued and cared for can be the difference between the books being written or not.”

Culture Secretary Maria Miller is said to be battling the Treasury to minimise the impact but more cuts are certain. Ms Duffy said culture is a huge contributor to the economy and should be safeguarded, adding: “If not we will have a country full of Tescos and not theatres.”

Author Philip Pullman, the society’s president-elect and father of a Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra member, said he shared Ms Duffy’s fears.

Referring to the possible fall-out from a big cut to the Arts Council, he said: “It’s a dreadful way to carry on for what is penny-pinching. What are we killing?”

Winners last night included poets Simon Armitage and Paul Farley and London novelist Francesca Segal.

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