Eyes right for some serious political support for the music industry?

Editorial Paul Williams

AS ALASTAIR DARLING ANNOUNCED during last week's Budget that he was raising the top rate of income tax from 40% to 50%, those with long memories may have recalled former Labour Chancellor Denis Healey's declaration more than 30 years earlier that he would squeeze the rich "until the pips squeak".

Given the Conservatives are now launching a review of the UK's creative sector, the Chancellor's tax hike is unlikely to be the only sense of political deje vu greeting the music industry as David Cameron's team push themselves as the party that can most usefully serve the business.

The industry has certainly heard these kind of noises from the Opposition before, most notably in the mid-Nineties when guitar-playing rock fan Tony Blair addressed the BPI AGM not too long before his first General Election victory.

Now, two years after Cameron spoke at the same event, it is the Tories' turn to try to convince the music industry they can most successfully represent the needs of the business at a time when the industry requires more support from politicians than ever.

By its nature, the music industry tends to be left-leaning in its political stance but it is hard not to be impressed by the team assembled by Shadow Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt to undertake this review, among them UMGI chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge, former BPI and Warner chairman Rob Dickins and Classic FM managing director Darren Henley. The choice of the person to lead the review is notable, too, given that former BBC director general Greg Dyke was a long-time Labour Party supporter and donor and even tried to get elected to the GLC on the party ticket.

It is easy for the Opposition to criticise those actually having to make the hard decisions in power, so Hunt's comments about how Labour has ...