Thank you for contacting me about the cuts to culture funding in the recent Scottish Budget.
At a time when Scotland’s cultural landscape is already under threat from rising costs and falling incomes, it is incredibly disappointing that the SNP and Scottish Greens have again cut funding for Creative Scotland and other cultural institutions in their latest budget.
Scottish Labour had called on the Scottish Government to provide a package of support for the struggling culture sector through the immediate shock of what Creative Scotland have called the “perfect storm” of the cost-of-living crisis hitting on the back of the Covid pandemic, from which there had only been limited recovery. I and my Scottish Labour colleagues are disappointed that these calls have fallen on deaf ears.
The recent closures of the Edinburgh Filmhouse and Belmont Filmhouse in Aberdeen are two of the highest profile examples of the pressures facing cultural institutions across Scotland, but the cuts to Creative Scotland in the current budget go much further, threatening funding for Screen Scotland, the Youth Music Initiative and for Scotland’s festivals.
While Angus Robertson flies around the world advertising Scottish culture, he and his SNP colleagues are leaving Scotland’s cultural and performing arts sector on the brink of collapse at home, risking jobs and livelihoods and jeopardising Scotland’s status as a focal point for the performing arts.
Scottish Labour will play its full part in scrutinising the Scottish budget and I and my colleagues will continue our calls to ensure that the culture sector is preserved through this crisis.
Thank you again for contacting me on this issue.