---

Arts

My Lords, we have no finer champion of the arts than the noble Lord, Lord Bragg. He mentioned that one of the achievements of this Government is free entry to national museums, from which we have benefited enormously on Merseyside. My wife and I went the Lady Lever Art Gallery to see the Leonardo drawings shortly after entry was made free and we had difficulty parking the car. We repaired shortly afterwards to the local pub, which was empty. It is perhaps a measure of this Government that they fill the art galleries and empty the pubs through their wise arts policy. A second tangible example of an arts success story is Vocaleyes, with which I am associated. It helps poorly sighted and blind people to understand what is going on in the theatre, for instance. Resting actors are employed to whisper what is happening on stage to those who are in theatre to complement the dialogue which they hear. I am very pleased to say that it has received a substantial grant from the Treasury, with a matching grant from the Arts Council. It is extending its work to help those who are poorly sighted, or have no sight at all, to enjoy art galleries by having the paintings explained and interpreted for them. I hope later this year to mount an exhibition of the work of Vocaleyes to illustrate it to your Lordships. Its work needs to be better known, Today, I was on the No. 77A bus. Two American visitors asked me where the National Portrait Gallery with the Shakespeare exhibition was and where the Tate Britain was. I was able to advise them. They represented tourism to me, which is a hugely important component of the economy today. Within the tourism economy, the arts now make a major contribution. That has been recognised by the Government, but I would ask my noble friend whether they have any plan to revise and update the groundbreaking 1999 Tomorrow’s Tourism which will recognise the important role tourism has in contributing to our economy. VisitBritain recognises that one in five international visitors visits Britain for arts and culture. Cultural tourism attracts principally those who are over 50, highly educated and—crucially—with relatively high incomes. Undoubtedly, cultural tourism will have an important role to play in the 2012 London Olympics, just as it will in Merseyside and Liverpool where we are preparing for the 2008 Liverpool European City of Culture campaign. In Merseyside we are very proud of towns like Liverpool and, indeed, Chester, with their famous architecture—what my noble friend Lord Bragg reported as the frozen music of art. I support the inspired campaign mentioned by my noble friend Lord Howarth and the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Chester. But I must report a recent example of where things went wrong—when the BBC had to cancel a concert in Chester Cathedral because the cathedral could not be warmed up enough for those who were playing and those who were listening. I want to take the opportunity of speaking about the British Film Institute. I put down a question recently about the possible deterioration of the considerable arts heritage which is to be found at the British Film Institute—something like £1 billion would be needed to restore to pristine condition the holdings that it has there. Indeed, it has the world’s largest archive of film and television and the largest library of printed material relating to film, TV and video. I hope that we are able to do something in this important area because I regard it as part of our arts heritage. Those of the 4.5 million people who had the opportunity of seeing the ““Lost World of Mitchell and Kenyon””, whose reels were found in Blackburn in the north-west, will recognise and know that this footage of long-dead ordinary people pictured going about their lives a century ago has the extraordinary power to remind us of our own mortality—something which of course the best poetry does from time to time. Talking of poetry, in my library at my home in Chester, next to the poetry of Larkin, Yeats and Emily Dickinson is the poetry of the chess games of Capablanca with Alekhine and Lasker. The considerable artistry of these chess players has been little recognised in this country. It is something we need to do more about. Indeed, recently my noble friend Lord Bragg mentioned the 1851 exhibition in London. He might not have known that it held the first ever international tournament of chess in the world. Unfortunately, despite its wonderful artistic contribution, the premio tournament that takes place in Britain every year at Hastings is suffering from lack of subsidy. I hope and ask the Minister whether an improved subsidy for chess can be encouraged in order to preserve its contribution to the arts. I conclude by reminding my noble friend Lord Bragg of the traditional American folksong that says:"““The cuckoo, she’s a pretty bird,      She sings as she flies””. " The arts today are flying well but sometimes they just need a bit of public support and public subsidy to ensure they continue their flight.