At Wales Online Rachael Misstear reports that Author Julian Ruck attacks taxpayer-funding for Welsh writers, as:
Yes, fun though it is to bash public spending on culture (and 'culture'), let's get all the facts and numbers (and not just support for culture, but also for nonsense like sport, etc.) out in the open, and then let's discuss it, okay ?
(Admirably, Wales Online let Literature Wales' chief executive, Lleucu Siencyn, respond to Ruck.)
He said: "The Welsh publishing industry is nothing more than a parasitical, elitist carbuncle on the hide of a struggling Welsh economy.Ruck apparently makes a big deal about the fact that: "from 2008 to 2012, grants to Welsh writers totalled £1,409,493" (and local publishers received even more than that over the same period). All well and good to point those great sums out -- but nevertheless, to also put that in some perspective, note that, for example, the Welsh National Opera is getting £6,011,414 -- more than four times as much -- from Arts Council England for the 2012-2013 season alone (i.,e. more than sixteen times as much, per annum -- and, much as I love it, surely if ever anything was an elitist carbuncle it's opera).
Yes, fun though it is to bash public spending on culture (and 'culture'), let's get all the facts and numbers (and not just support for culture, but also for nonsense like sport, etc.) out in the open, and then let's discuss it, okay ?
(Admirably, Wales Online let Literature Wales' chief executive, Lleucu Siencyn, respond to Ruck.)