In 2008 I attended the IPA President's debate at BAFTA on the importance of the creative industries to the UK economy. It was held just as the banks were crashing around our ears and Will Hutton made the point that the broader creative sector represented the second largest industry sector in the UK after finance - and that the future prosperity of the country rested in the hands of those present. I see that when he made that speech he had been making the same point for a year or more already. And his prescience in highlighting the dangers of personal indebtedness to the UK economy as far back as early 2007 is impressive.
Much to my surprise I see he's still making the same speech four years later. A skirt around Google reveals green papers in Westminster and in the EU on the importance of the creative industries. But nothing much actually seems to be happening.
Why not?
It seems to me that here is an enormous opportunity for the Lib Dems. In the week that Nick had been named in the Media Guardian's top 100 influential people on media - much of which includes the creative industries like advertising, film and television - it seems we are well placed to show leadership in this area and promote the core skills in both the applied and fine arts in which the UK excels.
I know from running a business in this sector that I'd welcome this. In fact, it's something I'd like to do.
Who's in?
I think it's very easy to point out that you would like something championed. But how, and to what demonstrable effect over and above the championing that it already gets? We have one of the most significant creative industries in the world, we must have been doing something right?
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