Former SNP MSP accuses Scottish Government of ‘eroding’ the arts and 'serious retreat’ over culture support

A former SNP MSP and chair of Holyrood's culture committee has accused the Scottish Government of going into "retreat" over its support for Scottish culture and "shamefully" ignoring the contribution it makes to the economy.

Joan McAlpine has accused the Government of “eroding” the arts and being “squeamish” about championing Scottish culture.

And she warned the Government was going against its own national culture strategy by re-imposing a 10 per cent cut on Creative Scotland months after the move was scrapped in the wake of an industry outcry.

Joan McAlpine is a former chair of the Scottish Parliament's culture committee. Picture: John Devlin

Writing in Holyrood magazine, Ms McAlpine said it was "reductive philistinism” to suggest culture was “a luxury to be sacrificed in tough times”.

The former MSP, who represented the south of Scotland from 2011 to 2021, is now leading efforts to secure the future of a farm near Dumfries where poet Robert Burns wrote some of his most famous works.

Ms McAlpine, who also highlighted a recent move to drop winter festival funding, which had affected the annual Big Burns Supper event in Dumfries, suggested the SNP would pay a "political price" for targeting the arts.

She wrote: "During the 2014 referendum, there was an understanding that confidence is essential to national self-belief. Eroding culture diminishes our faith in ourselves, our country’s standing in the world, and hope of future progress."

Joan McAlpine is a former chair of the Scottish Parliament's culture committee. Picture: Allan Milligan

The Government has been hit with a furious backlash after reneging on a commitment to restore a planned £6.6 million cut in Creative Scotland's budget. The decision was taken despite warnings of a growing crisis for venues, events and organisations over the impact of prolonged standstill funding, inflation, soaring costs, pay demands and reduced audiences since the pandemic.

Ms McAlpine said the SNP had been quick to see how cultural events could extend the tourism season and support jobs after coming to power in 2007, with a commitment to raise Scotland's global profile through culture continued "under successive ministers and stretched across government departments”.

She said: "An impression has arisen that the Government is now somewhat squeamish about being too enthusiastic about our own culture and history. The Robert Burns App, launched for the Year of Homecoming and downloaded by 150,000 people, is no longer supported.

"Even the delayed 700th birthday of the Declaration of Arbroath at the National Museum of Scotland was low-key and short-lived. The financial commitment to the Winter Festival programme was dropped in 2022. That decision to switch the lights off was particularly hard on events outside the capital, such as the Big Burns Supper.

“The Government said the decision was ‘based on the need to focus finite resources in order to mitigate the impact of the cost-of-living crisis’. That explanation marks a serious retreat from our understanding of culture as essential to our happiness and wellbeing.

"It shamefully ignores the contribution of the creative industries to economic prosperity. It is reductive philistinism to suggest culture is a luxury to be sacrificed in tough times – the bread versus circuses argument.

“It’s not something that would ever have been suggested by Fiona Hyslop, our longest-serving culture secretary.

“Given the scale of the cost-of-living crisis, the logic of this argument is to dispense with the entire arts budget and burn the theatres down. For many in the arts, that metaphor is not too wide of the mark.”