Metropolitan cultural mafia in concert once more

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/dec/18/metropolitan-cultural-mafia-in-concert-once-more

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The proposed £278m concert hall (Report, 17 December) is a prima facie case of the metropolitan cultural mafia at work. The problem with the arts in England is there is no concrete policy for the arts that distributes public funding in an equitable, structured way. Not a squeak from the Arts Council, and in times of austerity monies are promptly found to conduct a self-fulfilling feasibility study. What’s wrong with Simon Rattle going to the Sage Gateshead or for that matter the Fairfield Halls, Croydon? The crucial factor of the annual running cost also seems to have been ignored. The bottom line is that the new hall will be at the expense of arts activity outside London and under-represented, poorly funded music such as jazz and folk.Chris HodgkinsLondon

• I am surely not alone in being shocked to discover that London’s concert halls are “outshone by halls in Birmingham and Gateshead”. Who has allowed these provincial cities to start “threatening the capital’s current pre-eminence in the music industry”? But rather than spend £278m to remedy this disgraceful situation, there is a cheaper solution which is in tune with the government’s austerity programme. Simply close down immediately all such offending concert halls outside the M25, along with their attendant orchestras and musical outreach activities. Large sums of money would be saved. Nobody in London would be inconvenienced. And who else matters?Andrew MacMullenDurham City

• Let’s have a new concert hall in London – the more the merrier. But, please, let’s have more daytime classical concerts. I’m 76 and the sheer pleasure of theatre matinees is brilliant for me.Jude McGowanLondon

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