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No 140 May 2001

General Election 2001

The three main political parties in England have now published their Election manifestos, and all include policies on cultural/museum matters. The following headline museum issues come from the manifestos, and from recent policy statements by the parties:

Free admission to National museums is number ten in Labour's '25 steps to a better Britain'. Admission charges are not an issue for the other parties, with the Conservatives preferring to focus on their proposal to create endowments for cultural institutions, using £2 billion generated from privatising Channel 4 television, and £1 billion from the balances in the National Lottery Distribution Fund. They also propose that Lottery funds be used to help local authorities form self-governing trusts to run their museums where appropriate.

The Liberal Democrats would replace the Millennium Commission with a Local Initiatives Fund to provide grants for libraries, arts and museums. They also propose that the cost of maintaining Listed Buildings be lowered by cutting VAT on renovation and repairs, and providing an equal, lower VAT rate for both repairs and new-build.

The Conservatives say they will reduce patronage in appointments to National museums and galleries, and support Friends' organisations. They also propose to assess the impact of changes covering the conditional exemption of works of art from tax, and, if necessary, take action to encourage both public access to, and the retention of, private art collections and individual works.

The Labour Manifesto promises that, from 2002, Culture Online will offer tailored access to the national collections over the Internet.

Both Labour and Liberal Democrat Manifestos propose referenda on elected Regional Assemblies in the English regions, while a Conservative government would abolish the existing regional tiers of administration in England. The Liberal Democrats propose the creation of a Funding Commission for the Nations and Regions to allocate central government funds to Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the English regions on the basis of need.

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Foot and Mouth Disease

Enclosed with this mailing is the next form in the series recording the impact of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) on museums. Would all museums complete it with data for April only. We still have not received a number of the March forms, which were returnable by 30 April. We urge museums - even if they see themselves unaffected by FMD - to return any outstanding forms as soon as possible, so that we can establish a comprehensive picture. The data we collect, along with that of the other area museum councils, will be important in establishing the extent of a case for central government support.

The March survey suggests that a number of museums in the East Midlands suffered a drop in visitor numbers or income due to FMD, and that this had led to displacement reflected in other museums experiencing a rise in visitor figures. Some have reported no perceptible difference for March.