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Dateline: 27th July, 2007
Inclusion Targets Claim "Insane", Says Randall Culture Secretary James Purnell's claims that BME inclusion targets in the arts have been met are "insane", Paulette Randall, the former director of Talawa Theatre, has told The Stage. "If only that were the case. I don’t know where he’s got this from or which theatres he’s been going to," she told the newspaper. "It’s not that progress hasn’t been made, but not enough. We are nowhere near." And Felix Cross, the director of Nitro, added, "I’d like to see his evidence that the battle has been won - I don’t believe that the evidence exists." When Purnell took over the job of Culture Secretary, he said that he wanted to throw away "the packaging of targetolatry" and told The Guardian, "When I was cultural adviser at Number 10 a decade ago, people talked about access and excellence… Coming back ten years on, people are saying to me, we can take all that for granted now, it’s in the bloodstream of British arts." His claim was disputed by opposition politicians, with the Lib Dem spokesman on Culture Don Foster pointing out that DCMS figures showed that arts attendance by BME groups has dropped by 5% since 2003 and the Shadow Culture Secretary Ed Vaizey added, "Leading black and minority ethnic artistic groups are woefully under-represented when it comes to the awards of grants from bodies like the Arts Council, particularly in London."
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