Retrain and Adapt

On the 6th October, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak spoke about the £1.57bn culture package that the government has put together to try and aid those in the creative sector who are suffering due to Covid restrictions and job losses. However, the way in which he addressed them was deemed “insensitive” as he told musicians and artists that they needed to adapt and look for new opportunities amidst difficulties finding work in a pandemic struck nation. 

It’s safe to say that people working within the creative sector weren’t pleased with the response that they received. After spending months urging the government to help, it clearly feels disheartening to be told they should simply retrain and look for new jobs. This essentially comes across as the government not recognising the creative sector and the job roles within it as valid careers to receive aid and ultimately has caused a lot of anger, frustration and upset. 

Tom Craven, a music photographer, shared a post to Instagram with a strong message for Rishi Sunak. He stated “Hi Rishi Sunak, as you think arts are not a viable job, I challenge you to go a whole month without Netflix, Prime, YouTube, Spotify, Social media, paintings, photographs, theatre, poetry, radio etc. and see how empty your life is as you want them all to retrain in other jobs...” This was a powerful message to direct towards Rishi Sunak, truly putting into perspective how much of our modern society is built around the arts and creative sectors. 

After the backlash that was received from these comments, Rishi Sunak responded with a tweet to address the controversy. "An earlier @itvnewspolitics tweet falsely suggested I thought people in arts should retrain and find other jobs...I’m grateful they have now deleted that tweet. I care deeply about the arts which is why our £1.57bn culture package is one of the most generous in the world”.

Despite this tweet and the care package that the government has set out for the creative sector, there are still many movements and causes working to try and support those that this package doesn’t reach. The creative sector has suffered intensely due to Covid and desperately needs support instead of being told to adapt to the new way of life.