The Welsh government have said that they’ve had to make some tough decisions recently, with smaller budgets than they’d anticipated, despite assurances that UK and Welsh Labour governments would be able to work better together. Arts funding seems to be the big name on the chopping block and Plaid Cymru aren’t happy.
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00:00The way we engage with our culture can have a direct impact on our well-being as a nation,
00:08including on our health. Access to culture shouldn't be seen as a nice-to-have. In fact,
00:12our cultural heritage is something we celebrate in music, in theatre, in dance, in literature,
00:18in Welsh and in English, the land of song. Even our national anthem celebrates it, Gwlad
00:23Beirdd a Chantorion. And we should build on our strengths as well. The cultural sector
00:27employs 80,000 people in Wales, but the lack of government support for the sector is deeply
00:33worrying. Being a government means you need to make tough decisions and you need to prioritise.
00:41We took some tough decisions last year when it came to culture and we decided that we
00:47needed to put more money into the health service. Of course, priorities need to be shuffled
00:53around and things like the NHS is a key place to increase funding where possible. But plied
00:58Cymru leader, Strinath Yardworth, thinks that the level of cuts to the arts has been far
01:02too much and has meant Wales, the land of song, has had some of the lowest arts funding
01:06in Europe. I find it troubling that the First Minister doesn't feel a sense of shame or
01:11regret about this and she seems to be in denial about the impact that government decisions
01:18have had. And this certainly isn't something that was about a tough spending round last
01:23year. The truth is that under successive Labour governments, Wales has slipped to the bottom
01:29of the European League table on cultural spend. As I say, decisions have to be made. There's
01:35an allocation for this financial year, £30 million, to the Arts Council of Wales and
01:43there was that additional money that came in, as I suggested. But on top of this, we've
01:47given job protection funding, resilience fund, an extra £1 million in resilience fund
01:54to support organisation resilience.