Voters in “Red Wall” seats will replace “people from metropolitan bubbles” on the boards of Britain's museums and heritage bodies to stop them bowing to pressure from “woke” activists over contested history. Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, said on Saturday that he wants people from the North and the Midlands to join the management of top cultural organisations and give them “the courage to stand up against the political fads and noisy movements of the moment”. Separately Robert Jenrick, the Communities Secretary, said he will amend regulations so that buildings used by the public have separate ladies and gents lavatories, in a blow for campaigners who want more gender-neutral facilities. In an article for The Telegraph, Mr Dowden said he will take “not a Maoist approach but a ‘moreist approach’ to our heritage”. He said: “I want more statues erected; more chapters added to our national
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Dowden had said that “it was the EU letting down music on both sides of the Channel – not us”, before EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said that he “regretted that the British didn’t display any greater ambition”.
Now, with music fans encouraged to keep signing a petition to help and write to their MPS, the industry are calling for differences to be put aside and for answers to be found.
“At the moment, there are no positives,” said Mark Davyd, former concert promoter and CEO of the Music Venue Trust. “The amount of negatives is up for discussion. The best that we can hope for is reaching a point where there are no negatives. A pithy statement is basically to say that the live music industry has been asked to accept a No Deal Brexit.”