As the Freedom in the Arts report showed, much of the creative world in the UK is now creative only in thinking up new ways to conform, and to demonstrate allegiance to the correct ideological positions. Jo Bartosch at The Critic:
Those hoping to reach an audience soon learn that colouring outside the lines is professional self-harm. The punishments are subtle but brutal. Books aren’t burned — they’re simply never stocked. Theatre commissions vanish. Festival invites evaporate.
This conformity isn’t state-imposed. It’s enforced by a neurotic and sanctimonious cultural elite. Behind every exhibition and funding bid lurks a politburo of clipboard communists — curators and commissioners more obsessed with ideological hygiene than aesthetic merit.
These dinner party bores seem to believe that we are on the cusp of a fascist uprising, and that the best way to deal with this is to suppress difficult conversations lest the impolite masses rampage through the dessert course. Consequently, the straplines and programmes of the UK’s major galleries have all the joy and creativity of a Stalinist five year plan. The Tate’s strategy boasts of an intention to “increase our holdings of women artists, LGBTQ+ artists, minority artists and artists of colour.”
Meanwhile the Barbican has a 17 point anti-racism action plan and is “rolling out zero tolerance training.” The Globe threatens to “create a diverse, inclusive and anti-racist organisation” meanwhile the National Theatre is committed to “making major strides in diversity and sustainability”. The only conclusion is that without the careful stewardship of their betters, galleries, theatres and literature festivals would become circuses of hate, with gay bashing in gift shops and KKK parades during the intervals.
In 1957, Russian-American artist Ben Shahn warned: “Without nonconformity we would have had no Bill of Rights or Magna Carta… no science at all, no philosophy.” He was right. The arts used to be a space for dangerous thinking, charting our progress as a species and helping us all to aspire to better lives. Safe art is not only unsatisfying, it is a product of fear and a sign of decline.
Culture follows courage. And right now, ours is moribund — ideologically policed, and creatively anaemic. Artists once acted as society’s conscience, not its compliance officers. If even they are too afraid to speak freely, who will?
It used to be rebellious artists against the stuffy establishment. Now, well…
Love him. https://t.co/cEORwELIFf
— Graham Linehan 🎗️ (@Glinner) May 8, 2025
Mick Hartley 
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