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The reporting of the UK’s current Chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak caused a stir within the artistic community due to his comments in an ITV interview. And therein lies the rub, as Shakspeare said.

Retrain

Originally hailed for his efforts to mitigate the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, the controversy came in his suggesting that those within the arts and culture sectors should retrain, despite many seeing the problem was created by the Government in the first place.

Adapt

The headline came from an ITV tweet which has since been deleted and changed “to reflect that the Chancellor’s comments were about employment generally and not specifically about the music or arts sectors.” Their headline now reads: “Rishi Sunak says people in ‘all walks of life’ are having to adapt for employment”. You can read what he actually said here.

On Twitter @evolvepolitics responded to @itvnews with, “There’s a literal video proving he was answering a question specifically about the music and arts sector. You’d rather disavow your own entirely accurate reporting than stand up to the Tories. Pathetic,” the tweet said.

Rethink. Reskill. Reboot

Then there was the short-lived Rethink. Reskill. Reboot ads which were pulled after a massive backlash. What with the MP’s payrise of £3,000, the £10,00 they received at the start of the pandemic and the school meals row, the damage was done and the artistic community responded vigorously.

#Fatima

Artists and musicians shared their anger under the ‘#Fatima’ hashtag with Fatboy Slim calling the ads ‘shameful’ and accusing the Government of ‘throwing the arts under the bus’.

£10billion a year

Yet, according to Arts Council England, the arts and culture industry contributes more than £10billion a year to the UK economy, with £3 spent on food, drink, accommodation and travel for every £1 spent on theatre tickets.

Despite this many felt that what Sunak said shows how little the Government know or care about how the country’s artists have been affected by the pandemic.

Connections

Interestingly Sunak’s director of communications at the time was Allegra Stratton, who left her position as ITV’s News editor at the start of the pandemic and is to become the new face of Downing Street’s daily televised press briefings. She formely worked for the Guardian and the BBC. In 2011, she married James Forsyth, the political editor of The Spectator, the conservative magazine which Boris Johnson used to edit.

Alienation

Adding further to the general public’s sense of alienation, Rishi Sunak is a former head boy at Winchester College, Oxford graduate and married to Akshata Murthy, daughter of Narayana Murthy, the sixth richest billionaire in India, who gained his fortune by co-founding IT firm Infosys, an Indian multinational business consultancy, whose revenue is listed as US $13 billion as of 2020.

Hedge fund

Rishi also became a partner at a hedge fund whose dealings led to the government bailout of the Royal Bank of Scotland, precipitating the financial crisis of 2007-2008. The couple are understood to own “at least four properties” which include a five-bedroom mews house in Kensington valued at around £7million.

Therefore, it is not hard to see why he could have little idea how most people in the UK, and especially artists, struggle to get by. Below are responses from some of North Devon’s most talented creative artists.