Debate: Government Bailout for UK Museums, Galleries, and Theatres

This discussion board post presents a debate regarding the UK government's bailout for museums, galleries, and theatres. The debate is structured around political, economic, and social arguments, with each section outlining points for and against the bailout. The political section discusses the role of cultural services in thriving locations and the need for a place-based approach. The economic section highlights the significant revenue and employment generated by the arts and cultural heritage, contrasting this with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The social section examines the importance of government support for affected sectors. The post includes references to academic journals and online resources, providing a comprehensive overview of the debate and supporting arguments. The debate covers the positive and negative aspects of the government's actions.

Debate

Table of Contents
Government bailout for the UK’s museums, galleries and theatres................................................3
Political........................................................................................................................................3
Economic.....................................................................................................................................3
Social...........................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

Government bailout for the UK’s museums, galleries and theatres
Political
For: Council cultural services, as well as other services like as planning, business support,
roadways, and environmental health, are critical to developing thriving locations that people
desire to visit (Banks and O’Connor, 2020). As a result, it helps to the growth of the economy,
and the UK government supports museums, galleries, and theatres as a result.
Against: Because each region's tourist economy is unique, stronger national coordination of UK
tourism must be supplemented with a locally led, place-based approach to recovery by
supporting other industries that have a detrimental influence on UK museums (Bailey, 2019).
Economic
For: The arts and cultural heritage of the United Kingdom are not only beloved in the United
Kingdom, but also the envy of the rest of the globe (van der Burg, 2020). Theatres, live music
venues, museums, and galleries are extremely important to our economy, generating £32.3
billion in revenue and employing around 680,000 people in 2018.
Against: The coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on such industries, forcing thousands of
businesses to close their doors (Helwig and Siddi, 2020). Loans, company rate breaks, and self-
employed and furloughing plans have all been granted by the government to help them get
through the crisis.
Social
For: The government should support a bespoke insurance policy to restore confidence in the
theatre, festivals, and events that have been affected by the delay in full restoration (Savage,
2019).
Against: Prior to COVID-19, culture was associated with 42% of all in-bound tourism-related
spending (Walmsley, 2021). Despite support from existing financial support systems, many
theatres and performing arts venues continue to confront substantial financial instability and are
at risk of closing.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bailey, M., 2019. Changing tides of industrial democracy: Red Clydeside and the UCS work-in
as political heritage. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 25(12), pp.1319-1338.
Banks, M. and O’Connor, J., 2020. “A Plague upon Your Howling”: art and culture in the viral
emergency. Cultural Trends, pp.1-16.
Helwig, N. and Siddi, M., 2020. German Leadership in the Foreign and Security Policy of the
European Union. German Politics, 29(1), pp.1-7.
Savage, K., 2019. Tourist in the (K) Now: social Rapportage and the performative rapport of
social media. International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, 15(3),
pp.311-325.
van der Burg, T., 2020. How price controls can cut the number of COVID-19 bankruptcies. LSE
COVID-19 Blog.
Walmsley, B., 2021. Engagement: The new paradigm for audience
research. Participations, 18(1), pp.299-316.
Online
Debate on promoting tourism in the UK, House of Lords. 2021. [Online] Available through: <
https://www.local.gov.uk/parliament/briefings-and-responses/debate-promoting-
tourism-uk-house-lords-24-june-2021>./