I HAVE ALWAYS agreed with the thesis that the State
and its offshoots will have to take over the patronage of the Arts from others from whom it has taken the means of patronising anything. The clause in the 1948 Local Government Act which gave powers to local authorities to spend a sixpenny rate on the entertainment of its citizens was a step in the right direc- tion. The trouble so far has been that no one has been able to screw out of a Minister the extent to which the boroughs have taken advantage of the privilege—it is not a ministerial responsibility. The secret, for London at least, has at last been nosed out and published in a booklet by the Arts Com- mittee of the LCC, and amounts to the depressing conclusion that no borough spends more than twopence and only seven more than one penny on entertainment in a year. The amounts spent vary very much—ranging from Willesden, which spends £10,000, to Kensington, Chelsea and a number of others, which spend nothing at all. A charitable West-Ender might believe that this is because all their enterprises pay for them- selves, but I doubt if any of them show the enterprise of less etiolated boroughs like Willesden, Tottenham and Islington, which organise festivals, carnivals and film shows, brass bands, talent contests and art exhibitions, and are prepared to lose, between them, more than £30,000 in the process. The idea that recreations, particularly those that involve the active support of ordinary amateurs, are a social amenity and an important responsibility, is growing, but not growing fast enough.
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