Who’d shut down a whole department just to get rid of one politician?
Opinion
Closing down DCMS could bring savings as its various functions are moved to other departments, but is it worth losing a dedicated voice for media and other creative industries at the cabinet table?
It seems a touch extreme, even in the current febrile state of politics, to be planning to close down the Department for Culture, Media & Sport just to get rid of Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary.
Her political career has been in decline for some time and it certainly didn’t help being on the left wing of Labour and standing unsuccessfully in the leadership election against Sir Keir Starmer.
Once upon a time, and it seems a long time ago, Nandy was made shadow foreign secretary in Starmer’s first shadow cabinet. Then it was down all the way — first to shadow communities secretary in 2021 and, by 2023, shadow international development minister.
That presumably would have been that — but for an unexpected election result in Bristol.
Amid the Labour landslide, the Greens took the seat of shadow culture secretary Thangam Debbonaire, creating a vacancy as she went to the House of Lords. The sudden leg-up for Nandy seemed like a second opportunity to re-establish herself at the top table of the Labour government.
Rising to the challenge
The perception is that Nandy did not rise to the challenge and, as plans to shut down DCMS and redistribute its portfolios continue apace, with no cabinet or government vacancies available, it looks as if she is off to the back benches.
There were anonymous briefings to the Mail on Sunday earlier this year suggesting that, fairly or otherwise, she spent little more than two days a week on her job and was on the way out in any reshuffle.
Certainly, there seemed to be little public impact from her brief in her 10 months in office.
The Society of Editors conference, one of the main media gatherings of the year in which serious policy issues are discussed by leading journalists, was a case in point.
More often than not, the culture secretary of the day turns up. Last year, not only did Lucy Frazer speak but, perhaps influenced by the looming election, Rishi Sunak was also there in the flesh.
This year: nothing.
The Society of Editors had been in talks with Nandy’s office for months and was expecting her on the day. A call came just before the event that, because of an unexplained diary clash, she would not be able to attend.
There was no mention of any possible substitute, perhaps in the form of the excellent creative industries minister Sir Chris Bryant.
Money-saver?
Despite all of the above, it still seems extreme to close down an entire department that has had a seat at the cabinet table for 33 years just to get rid of one politician who has not set the world alight.
Of course it is extreme — and implausible.
The decision is made of duller stuff: civil service reform and a stated desire to cut the cost of the civil service by 15% and make it more effective.
A powerful politician on the rise with Starmer’s ear might have been able to make a fight of it to save her department. Nandy is in no such position.
If The Daily Telegraph is right and DCMS, created by David Mellor as the Ministry of Fun, is on the way out, does it matter and will much money be saved?
The answer of course is no — and yes.
Since its creation as the Department of National Heritage — actually a good name that aptly described its purpose — covering arts, broadcasting, film, sport, architecture, historic sites, royal parks and tourism, it has always been a bit of a ragbag.
This has got worse as other activities were added, such as The National Lottery and, at various stages, some of the matters digital.
Could they be broken up and the various bits reallocated among other departments such as Communities, Business and Trade and Education? Of course. Government departments come and go and are endlessly renamed. After all, broadcasting was once in the Home Office alongside police and prisons, and Science, Innovation & Technology is every bit as creative as the creativity of the arts.
It’s difficult to see huge savings coming from abolition apart from the cost of the building and getting rid of the secretary of state’s private office.
Civil servants carrying out the specific functions would still have to be employed, but would simply carry out their work elsewhere.
Voice at the top table
Despite the disparate nature of the DCMS portfolio, is there a considerable danger of harm and loss if it is broken up as part of a bureaucratic plan for reform that will probably not achieve the savings anticipated anyway?
Indeed there is.
Starmer wants growth above all and the creative industries, however loose the definition, are one of the areas of the economy with the greatest growth potential.
After 33 years, DCMS has a way of working and an understanding of how different parts of the creative industries interact and add up to more than the sum of the parts. That would be lost when these parts are scattered through different departments.
Above all, what would be lost would be a dedicated voice for media and other creative industries at the cabinet table — and that loss could turn out to be crucial.
In the revolving door of culture secretaries, whether they had that title or not, four names stand out. The first was Mellor, who loved music and sport (Chelsea in particular); Chris Smith, who loved literature; Virginia Bottomley; and the longest-serving of them all: the late Tessa Jowell, who was culture secretary for six years.
Then it was into 12 culture secretaries in 13 years under the Tories — always people on the way to somewhere else. And, finally, appropriately enough, there was Nandy…
And the best culture secretary we never had? That has to be Ed Vaizey, the Conservative minister for the creative industries for six years but always overlooked for the top job.
Far too creative and idiosyncratic, that Baron Vaizey.
Raymond Snoddy is a media consultant, national newspaper columnist and former presenter of NewsWatch on BBC News. He writes for The Media Leader on Wednesdays — bookmark his column here.