The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
One-trick ponies
There is never a shortage of politics in Scotland’s worldfamous festivals, most of which are under way in the capital. Separating politics from the arts completely would be impossible but some of us would rather open a vein than pay to watch an actual politician perform on a supposedly cultural platform. However, plenty of punters obviously think differently or the festival organisers would not have given so much space to politically themed events, many featuring our elected representatives.
The Edinburgh International Book Festival, for example, says reflections on recent political “earthquakes” will be at its heart this year – using writers as a “lens” to make sense of the world.
It wasn’t so long ago we headed to the book festival to hear authors discuss their books. Now you can catch Harriet Harman, Baroness Warsi and our own Nicola Sturgeon, who will address the role of women in the world.
Over at the Fringe, Alex Salmond will soon launch his daily (correct) one-man show at the Assembly Rooms, during which he will be “unleashed from the restraints of public office… for a bit of light-hearted banter and a few behind-the-scenes revelations about his time in power”.
Astonishingly, this appalling prospect appears to be sold out already, although it competes with more than 2,000 other options on the Fringe. If none of the above is to your taste, there is plenty of real art – music, opera, ballet and theatre – and ample opportunity to avoid politics in the festival line-up.
What is not so easy to miss, though, is the politicisation of the arts, a hardy annual for cultural ministers in particular, but an act that can be trotted out all year round if necessary.
Scotland’s Secretary for Culture, Fiona Hyslop, was at it at the weekend, to chime with the start of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Fringe. These events, she warned, are being put under threat by Brexit, and membership of the European Union is a crucial part of Scotland’s “open international cultural outlook”.
Not only did six per cent of those working in the creative industries come from other EU nations, but the sector has benefited from at least £59 million in funding from Europe over the period 2007 to 2016.
She is off to make the same point at a festival in France, where she will rail against Westminster’s hard Brexit and its likely effect on the free movement of artists. While I would dearly love to turn back the clock on the EU referendum and revert to complaining about the EU from within, it is rich indeed for a Nationalist to talk so.
The greatest threat to cultural collaboration here is not Brexit but the narrow perspective of a nationalist movement that hijacks art for partisan purposes. This phenomenon was at its worst during the referendum campaign of 2014, when the National Collective emerged, a mixed bag of creative types committed to the Yes cause and eager to use their ‘art’ as a political tool.
That year we had the likes of Alan Bissett’s The Pure, The Dead, And The Brilliant, shoving separatist propaganda down the nation’s throat, and others too numerous to mention claiming independence would release a Scottish muse.
Scotland has long produced its fair share of writers and actors, and a few top-notch musicians too. But the Nationalists aren’t interested in furthering the arts for the sake of the arts. If they were they would give a warmer welcome to the best practitioners, many of whom happen to live on our doorstep, in England.
Fiona Hyslop said last weekend that Scotland’s cultural and creative companies “should be able to recruit the talent and skills they need from as wide a pool as possible”. Yet when the country’s National Theatre hired Vicky Featherstone she was forced out by nationalist prejudice. Despite critical success, the Surrey-born director fell victim to pillars of the Scottish arts establishment, with Alasdair Gray, the author and painter, describing English people appointed to top jobs north of the border as “settlers” and “colonists”. Vicky Featherstone, he said, took on a role that should have gone to a Scot.
That was almost five years ago. These days the independence momentum has waned and even an SNP cultural minister must pay tribute to the very British beginnings of the Edinburgh festival, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this month.
In 1947 the first festival was conceived to lift the post-war gloom and unite a divided Europe. Kathleen Ferrier and Peter Pears starred with the Vienna Philharmonic and the national anthem was sung in the Usher Hall. There was no European Union then but art proved it could survive the ravages of the Second World War. It has since survived a bitter constitutional battle in Scotland and will no doubt outlive Brexit as well.