The film producer and Labour peer David Puttnam has an essay in this week’s New Statesman, in which he deplores the recent decision to abolish the UK Film Council. Charting the history of film funding in Britain, Puttnam argues that the Tories have displayed an ignorance of history:
Tragically, instead of building on everything that has been learned, the present government has set about destroying the UK Film Council – to little purpose and with even less of a plan. In doing so, the Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, would appear to have acted without any sense of the role that his party, and Margaret Thatcher and John Major in particular, played in breathing new life into an industry that, in 1990, had still to recover from the blow dealt to it by the abolition of the Eady Levy and the withdrawal of tax allowances.
He concludes his piece by inviting Jeremy Hunt to debate the future of British cinema:
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At some point, long after Hunt and his team have left the Department for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, the work of rebuilding a coherent film policy, organised and controlled by a single body, will have to start all over again. It would be extremely helpful, therefore, if the Secretary of State were prepared to debate with me and others in a public forum, so that we might better understand why he and his coalition partners, in making their decision to demolish the UK Film Council, failed to take account of any of the lessons of recent history.
So, will Hunt take up the offer? The New Statesman would be delighted to host such an event if so. Over to you, Secretary of State . . .