Cultural Diplomacy

14:59:00

Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall
asked Her Majesty’s Government:

What is their response to the Demos publication Cultural Diplomacy on the value of culture in the United Kingdom’s international relations.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Triesman)
My Lords, I welcome the report as a contribution to thinking on the role of culture in international relations. The work that I have been leading on implementation of the recommendations made by my noble friend Lord Carter of Coles in his review of United Kingdom public diplomacy has focused on better strategic planning and co-ordination. We have put in place new structures for planning and governance, including a Public Diplomacy Board. We are undertaking joint planning with key partners to address the major opportunities presented by the 2012 Olympic Games.

Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that encouraging reply. Does he agree with the Demos authors that this country’s arts and cultural institutions are widely respected and admired all around the world? Does he also agree that in the past decade the Government have invested in them significantly, helping to create new opportunities for international works, such as the British Museum’s Africa programme, which have contributed greatly to programmes of cultural diplomacy? Does he accept, however, that for the role of culture in international relations to develop, we need to maintain the investment that we are making in our arts and culture and should not allow them to fall victim to competing demands? I am thinking particularly of the forthcoming spending review.

Lord Triesman
My Lords, a number of cultural organisations make an extraordinary contribution to our diplomatic effort; even if it is not always identified as being a diplomatic effort, it has that impact. The DCMS has taken a pivotal role in co-ordinating many of those organisations. In the case of the FCO, we are working very hard through our new system and in particular through the British Council, which carries a huge burden for us in this respect, to make sure that the world knows about the cultural achievements and products of the United Kingdom. We will fight very hard to make sure that the funding remains in place.

Lord Chidgey
My Lords, the Minister may be aware that the Demos report, too, states:

“The United Kingdom boasts a strong tradition of international cultural exchange through the British Council’s presence around the globe”.
 

It also makes the point that we cannot afford to rest on our laurels. In 2005-06, the British Council was considering closing teaching centres in Istanbul and four other cities where public diplomacy benefit was thought to be “not that considerable”. This year, the British Council will be closing several other regional offices because of the reduction in numbers of government-funded overseas scholars coming to the UK. What assessment have the Government made of the effect of this withdrawal from locations around the globe in terms of the loss of benefit that their presence was and is bringing to the United Kingdom’s overall cultural policy?

Lord Triesman
My Lords, the report of my noble friend Lord Carter made it clear to all of us that we needed to have much clearer criteria when we established our priorities and that we needed to direct our resources to those priorities. That view has been shared by the British Council and other public diplomacy entities. The world moves, and the priorities will plainly move along with it. We now have greater coherence and are introducing, perhaps for the first time, methods of measuring whether we are beginning to achieve the things that we are setting out to achieve, rather than doing things and hoping that they will somehow work.

Lord Inglewood
My Lords, I declare an interest as chairman of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art. Bearing in mind the widely expressed concerns about funding in all quarters of the cultural sector, does the Minister agree that it would make a major contribution towards relieving some of the problems that exist if financial mechanisms could be devised by his right honourable friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer to encourage philanthropy from many of our fellow citizens who have made very large sums of money in recent years?

Lord Triesman
My Lords, I certainly acknowledge the role of philanthropy. There have been a number of other sources of funding, including very substantial ones from private businesses, which have supported exhibitions, musical tours through the British Council network, and so on. All these give us a greater capacity than if we were simply to rely on the Exchequer. We need to encourage all of that. There is a great benefit to everyone involved; philanthropists, of course, do it out of the goodness of their heart.

Lord Howarth of Newport
My Lords, does my noble friend recall that, when Nelson Mandela gave a talk at the British Museum, he said how proud he was that some of the most beautiful artefacts ever created on the continent of Africa were in the museum’s collection? Equally, was it not helpful when the British Museum's exhibition of classical Persian art and archaeology was jointly opened by our Foreign Secretary and the Vice-President of Iran? Will the Government consider how we can more systematically enable our culture to support our diplomacy and our diplomacy to support our culture? I declare an interest as a trustee of the Foundation for International Cultural Diplomacy.

Lord Triesman
My Lords, that is an excellent organisation. Of course, that is exactly what we must do, which is why I emphasise the work of the new Public Diplomacy Board in achieving that focus, making sure that we deliver it and that we can give good account of the public money that we spend; there is other money, as I have said. But the DCMS also does an outstanding job with the arts and cultural organisations to ensure that their international contribution is considerable. We have a new architecture and I genuinely believe that it is beginning to show the results that the House would wish.

Lord Howell of Guildford
My Lords, does the Minister agree that one of the best avenues for cultural diplomacy is the Commonwealth network? Does he share my dismay that the last annual report of the Foreign Office’s activities and priorities did not mention the Commonwealth at all, except on the front cover, where it could not avoid it? Secondly, he said a moment ago that he was fighting hard to preserve the cultural diplomacy budgets of the British Council and the World Service and so on. Who is he fighting and what is the problem?

Lord Triesman
My Lords, in the lead-up to every Comprehensive Spending Review, a large number of people compete for funds, and I am not afraid or ashamed to say that I compete along with them. That is the nature of the work that we do, and I am doing it. The last report, to which the noble Lord has drawn our attention on one or two occasions, was constructed around thematic priorities and therefore probably did not refer to international organisations or individual countries by name. However, I wholly share his view about the importance of the Commonwealth. At the last CHOGM meeting, I was able to see some of that work in Malta and, happily, large numbers of people from Malta going to see it.