Four Observations on The Arts (2015) by Jeremy Corbyn

Four personal observations on Corbyn’s policy document, The Arts (2015). Each contributor has taken his or her own approach to reflecting on what this document tells us about how Jeremy Corbyn might approach cultural policy, should he ever find himself in Downing Street. What is noticeable across all of these observations is the degree to which each of the writers feels that they have “heard it all before”. Whether it was in the 1970s, the 1990s, in the promises of another party or in the pages of another report, publicly backing the arts appears to be a tactic that many of those offering a new political direction have chosen to adopt. This raises two questions. First why, when it comes to arts policy, the majority of these supposed radicals revert to primarily offering more of the same? And second, why do so many of those in the cultural sector who present themselves as the vanguard of progressive politics seem so keen to support pro- posed cultural policies that in their familiarity are so conservative?