§ 36. Mr. FlynnTo ask the Minister for the Arts what percentage of his budget he intends to spend in the current year and next year on (a) opera and (b) poetry.
§ The Minister for the Arts (Mr. Tim Renton)I estimate that in the current financial year about £1.5 million will be spent on poetry and £30 million on opera. That represents about 0.77 per cent. and 15 per cent. respectively of the Government's 1991–92 grant in aid of £194.2 million to the Arts Council. Figures for 1992–93 are not yet available.
§ Mr. FlynnGiven that for every person who attends live opera, at least 1,000 more buy and enjoy reading poetry, will the Minister change his priorities and become the first legislator to acknowledge the unacknowledged legislators of the world? Why does he persist in being munificent to Mozart and bounteous to Beethoven, but a Scrooge to Hughes and a meanie to Heaney?
§ Mr. RentonHaving just bought Seamus Heaney's latest book for Christmas, I can at least deny that I myself have been mean to Heaney over the festive season.
I think that the hon. Gentleman forgets that a good many operas are based on poetry—for instance, "Gawain", "Orpheus and Euridice" and "Dido and Aeneas". There has been a close connection between opera and poetry over the years; given the interchange of thinking between the two subjects. I do not think that the problem mentioned by the hon. Gentleman exists.