Britain needs a national arts policy

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/commentisfree/2019/mar/31/britain-needs-national-ethical-arts-policy-letters

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Mark Lawson’s article draws attention to the ethical angst and perhaps hypocritical nature of arts patronage among established institutions (“How will our museums survive if they subject every donor to an ethical audit?”, Comment).

The industrialist Sir Henry Tate was the early benefactor of the Tate Collection. Tate’s fortune was founded on the importation and refining of sugar, a commodity inextricably linked to slave labour in the Caribbean. The British Museum is full of artefacts purloined from around the world. The problem is that there is no policy for the arts in the UK, a policy that would ask: where are we now? Where do we want to be? And how are we going to get there? An intrinsic part of the national arts policy should be an ethical policy so that funded organisations can be held to account. Chris HodgkinsWest Ealing, London

Mark Lawson is wrong to suggest that those calling for ethical funding of the arts “do not rely on financial audit or legal due diligence, but on a subjective sniff test”. Many simply want to see cultural institutions implement the sector-wide standards that already exist, which means ensuring that a donor’s values are consistent with their own.

Engaging with the ethical questions surrounding collections and donors does not lead to the “spectre of a museum that stands completely empty” but could instead lead to one that is filled with visitors who feel welcome precisely because it responds to their concerns.Chris GarrardBramley, TadleyHampshire

Academy alarm bells

Regarding the blocked drains at Gillotts school (“My school stinks, but there’s no cash to repair the pipes”, News): Gillotts school was a comprehensive under the Oxfordshire local education authority, an excellent comprehensive within what was a strong LEA. However, the school elected to become an academy, presumably to gain more supposed autonomy and funding.

If Gillotts had remained under local control, one wonders whether support either directly from the LEA or indirectly from the local community would have been more forthcoming.Ian GiulianiHenley-on-ThamesOxfordshire

Fewer Finns, more happiness

I agree with Rachel Kelly (“To look on the bright side of life, copy the Finns”, Comment). Yes, do let’s be more like the Finns, who are the happiest people in the world, whereas we are much lower down the scale.

How though? Our consuming, striving, hurrying culture seems to lead us to depression, anxiety, obesity and diabetes.

Could this also be something to do with population density? The UK population is around 67m, with a density of 275 per sq km and our population is predicted to rise to 70m by 2029. Finland has a population of less than 6m and only 18 per sq km. It is suggested that countries with a smaller stabilised population growth enjoy a higher income level and therefore more wellbeing and happiness.Sheena HowarthFernhill HeathWorcester

Don’t sweat it, Barbara

Dear Barbara Ellen, please do not worry and please do not worry the readers of the Observer: you do not have to suffer exercise (“Let’s stop pretending exercise is fun. Like work, you’ve just got to do it”, Comment). If you want to be healthy and avoid some of the terrible illnesses of our generation, you need to be reasonably physically active, but you don’t need to sweat it out in a gym!

You should try to be active daily and should do at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity such as cycling or brisk walking every week. The best thing is to build it into your life: get off the bus a stop early, park the car further away, walk up stairs, but find something fun to do once a week: dancing, football, tennis. The evidence is compelling that regular physical activity helps to prevent chronic diseases (heart disease, strokes, diabetes, cancer, hypertension, obesity, depression) and premature death.

Rather than telling the “brutal depressing truth”, there’s a really good-news story: if we are all a bit more active, eat and drink a bit less and a bit better and don’t smoke, we can prevent three-quarters of these serious illnesses and save almost half the costs to the NHS. So start changing now and enjoy feeling happy, well and full of energy!Christine Hancock, founder and director, C3 Collaborating for HealthLondon SE1

Students still make the grade

Professor Dame Janet Beer of Universities UK is right to warn against politicians “confusing grade inflation with student and teaching improvement” in British universities (“Top universities told: cut first-class degrees or be fined”, News). Tory secretaries of state for education have a habit of questioning any signs of examination results’ improvement with a kneejerk reaction to the right, raising suspicions about the real value of the grades. Michael Gove in 2010 did just that. Clearly worried that GCSE and A-level results in state schools were equalling, and in some cases, surpassing those achieved in the private sector, he made changes to the methods of assessment to increase their “rigour”, with more emphasis on final examinations and no coursework.

Anyone with any experience in education would have been able to predict the effects of the government’s higher education policy, especially the increases both of unconditional offers and first-class degrees, with universities desperate to get “bums on seats”, but ignoring teaching improvements and “students working harder than ever” are typical of Tory myopia.

Why is there no indignation from the education secretary, Damian Hinds, about the grade inflation that is so obviously apparent in the IGCSE and Pre-U examinations that most private schools now prefer to GCSE and A-levels?Cambridge Assessment’s IGCSE and Pre-U examinations both allow pupils’ coursework, which the head of Ofqual recently described to the education select committee as a vehicle for “mark collection”. Could private schools’ increasing preference for Pre-U examinations, rather than A-levels, have something to do with them being more lightly regulated, having no requirement to follow Ofqual’s “additional rules” which, for example, require comparison with similar qualifications when setting a grade level, and being largely set and marked by teachers in the independent sector? Defenders of this two-tiered system will claim the high ability of the Pre-U entrants as the reason, but the British public have been fed the right-wing propaganda that private school pupils are brighter for long enough. If they really have more ability, why enter them for the easier option in the first place?

Bernie EvansLiverpool

Pro-Wales, anti-Brexit

I was proud to be one of the marchers in London last Saturday, with the large contingent who travelled from every corner of Wales (“One million join march against Brexit as Tories plan to oust May”, News). Wales has always been a part of Europe and gained by having a voice in the forum of Europe to fight for its identity and precious language.

The social and political problems in the Valleys and the countryside, the homelessness spiralling out of control in our towns and cities have nothing to do with Europe. The fault lies with our failed government’s vicious policies of austerity: they cut benefits, undermine public services and the NHS, move on rough sleepers, attack union rights and encourage zero-hours contracts.

The referendum started as an argument between the Tory party and Ukip and ended by fracturing every aspect of society by class, region, nationality, race and religion with its distortions, fear and lies.

But that Saturday, we saw more than a million people coming together to share in a vision of the future, celebrating diversity and difference.

Labour, Plaid Cymru, the SNP, Liberal Democrats, anarchists, independents – and even Tories – were able to unite in rejecting Theresa May’s government and its policies of tribalism and division.

Let’s keep having these conversations and, as the 6 million who signed the recent petition have asked, repeal article 50 and get some sense in the debate on Europe.Wendy LewisCaerphilly

Prickly pier connection?

The saga of the sale of Hastings pier to a businessman with a poor track record is a fiasco (“Hastings pier… what went wrong?”, New Review). Are you quite sure Chris Grayling wasn’t involved?Dave HeadeyFaringdon, Oxfordshire