§ 5. Mr. David Clarkasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if she will request the Arts Council of Great Britain to accept the subsidy responsibility of the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain in the same manner as she did with the National Youth Orchestra and other organisations concerned with the musical education of young people.
§ Mr. ClarkDoes the hon. Gentleman realise that the Arts Council gives an annual grant to the National Youth Orchestra because it received a request from his Department to do so? Does he also realise that the National Youth Brass Band has asked for parity with the National Youth Orchestra? Will he reconsider the matter, because the brass 1702 band movement has a great deal of cultural support in many parts of the country?
§ Mr. van StraubenzeeI should not want any answer of mine to be taken for one moment as making comparisons, certainly not derogatory comparisons, between the National Youth Orchestra and the National Youth Brass Band. I must remind the hon. Gentleman that the decision to support the orchestra was taken in the lifetime of the last Government. I make no point of that, but it was taken then, and therefore I cannot know what pressures, if any, were exerted. The hon. Gentleman's request is essentially one which must be addressed to the Arts Council.
§ Mr. FauldsDoes not the hon. Gentleman comprehend that the obdurate attitude to which he seems to be a party smacks very simply of social discrimination?
§ Mr. van StraubenzeeI think the hon. Gentleman is wildly out of date, because any cloth cap image there may have been to brass as such certainly does not exist today.