Alison McGovern MP – 10 Minute bill

It's a pity Alison McGovern had not heard about the cut of The City Gallery before she used Leicester as a good example.

Here are some excerpts (followed by the full BBC footage):

Alison McGovern MP – 10 Minute bill.

… I think diversity in our cultural services, provided by local authorities, is a truly good thing. I think, in my own experience, I’ve seen great local authorities lead on culture in as diverse places as Kent, in my own part of the world in Merseyside, in Leicester. We’ve got some visionary local authorities and I play absolute tribute to what they do in making sure our towns and cities are ones that we can be proud of …

… What kind of country do we want to be? Do we want to be the kind of country where culture is, by-and-large, for those who already access it? Or, do we want to be the kind of country where culture is for everybody, and local authorities take there responsibility in involving people? …

… I think we all know in our own constituencies the importance of the local art gallery, the museum, that group that brings young people from schools into the local theatre and gives them the confidence of their first performance. I think we’ve all seen that, and my reason for raising this bill Mr. Speaker was just to ask this question: Do we want the kind of country where that’s available for everybody, where the secretary of state takes the responsibility, that’s not prescriptive, it’s not demanding, it doesn’t require great funds. It just allows an appeal that local people could make to the secretary of state to say: ‘Please stop we don’t want our local services to close’. I think that’s important for all of us…