Proms not multicultural enough!
 

Margaret Hodge criticised for Proms attack
You can't make this stuff up :(

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

The queen is far to white too dont you think? Get her on the sunbed.

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

The Proms are quintessentially British!

Well, OK, let's have some Bollywood in to diversify it... :rolleyes:

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

anyone can go
no dress code
£5 to get in

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

But the music is Nationalistic & not inclusive.... :confused:

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

This made me laugh:

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

I quite like them, but notwithstanding there was only one concert last year i really liked.

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

From the OP link:
"She said: "The audiences for many of our greatest cultural events - I'm thinking in particular of the Proms - is still a long way from demonstrating that people from different backgrounds feel at ease in being part of this.
"I know this is not about making every audience completely representative, but if we claim great things for our sectors in terms of their power to bring people together, then we have a right to expect they will do that wherever they can."
A BBC spokesman defended the Proms saying: "We are proud that the BBC Proms is world-renowned for the way it combines excellence in classical music with an ongoing commitment to bringing it to the widest possible audience.
"Indeed, this has recently been recognised by three nominations for audience development in the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards."
The Proms were founded in 1895 to give everyone the chance to hear live classical music with low ticket prices.
It is the biggest classical musical festival in the world with more than 70 concerts in the Royal Albert Hall over eight weeks in the summer. "


... and it's still going strong!
And - oh, I do like tuning into the Last Night especially.

Silly woman - I take her point but: it's called 'tradition'!

Maybe she'd like everyone to "feel at ease" at the Download, Isle of Wight, V, O2, Day Out and Glasto festivals too. Oh, and my son's band does a pretty sick<edit 'tight'> metal gig.:D

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

If I said what I really thought about such politically incorrect attitudes (yes that's not a typo), that get spouted by this government's so called leaders, I'd have to ban myself from this forum. :mad:

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

Well if she is not happy easy don't go to them don't watch them on tele and if she is really offended go on a jolly to india or whereever. Personally i think it is time this government got on with doing what governments are supposed to do and stopped trying to interfere in the lives of ordinary citizens and take their "we think we know better" attitude and shove it where the sun doesn't shine. Other benefit to that is if they have an obstacle up there might make it harder for them to talk out of it quite so much.

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

I was wondering if Mosques or Synagogues are perhaps not multicultural enough....what about C of E churches?....All those hymns being sung without so much as a nod to multiculturalism :D

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

Seems a pity this woman can't get on and do the job she is paid to do instead of interfering in an event that is the most accessible and successful classical music festival in the world.

The BBC is right to be proud, and I recall that some meddling with the Last Night a few years ago was not well received either here at home or with the wider international audience. People around the world love it for what it is.

Over the 8 weeks of concerts it showcases music old and new from around the world, anyone who judges the Proms on the patriotic Last Night, that is really just a bit of fun for the loyal promenaders, is ill informed and does not understand what the Proms is all about. When I've attended Proms concerts it is heartening to see people of all ages, colours and creeds just there to enjoy the music, not to make a social statement as they do at the highly elitist and heavily subsidised opera and ballet, and maybe this is where she should be looking to make them more accessible to the masses!

Long may The Proms continue without political inteference!!!!

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

Well of course Brown doesn't want his ministers telling us what they really think - he'd much rather they carry on misleading the public about what their real agenda is.

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

I'm much happier that she's spouting whiffle in the papers rather than attempting to do a job that might actually damage things, given her record. Ghastly, ghastly woman.

Anyway, everyone's missed the point here - what she's arguing for is that the Proms should be made less elitist, less highbrow, more acceptable to people who might, say, watch ITV talent shows without requiring medication. Since the Proms aren't particularly elitist or highbrow at the moment, what does that say for Government attitudes to things that are actually culturally or intellectually challenging (in other words stuff that I might enjoy, like the fine performance of Salome at the Royal Opera House I attended a couple of weeks back)?

The crux is that there are large numbers of British institutions that Margaret and co. aren't going to force to be more representative in a million years - the Sun, for instance, or Big Brother have been mentioned (see http://www.chickyog.net/2008/03/04/m...the-dark-ages/). Both would have to be made more intellectual if people like me aren't to be excluded, but we can't possibly have that, can we, it might exclude the thick and feeble-minded.

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

LOL BB you really think anyone wants an intellectual big brother people watch it as they can then feel superior about themselves and realise life is not all bad.

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

intellectual big brother?? mmmmm....we did have for a short while but she (germaine greer) got bored, couldnt blame her really :D

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

bu..bu..but..I'm being excluded from enjoying the BB cultural spectacle...due to my intelligence...I demand it be made more inclusive...waah....

Absurdity successfully reduced to.

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

Ha ha honest from what i have seen when the wife watches rejoice in your exclusion me i normally head for the pc things like big brother put me in the perfect mind for counterstrike.

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

I am horrified to think this excuse for a Minister for Culture even thinks to consider the mind numbing Big Brother wall-paper TV for the mentally challenged in the same context as The Proms!

But I suppose she has never been to the RAH to experience the spine tingling performances to a packed auditorium on Beethoven night, or any other night for that matter! And if these people she talks about can watch Big Brother on E4 then equally they can savour the majority of the Prom concerts broadcast on BBC4 as they probably need to have pictures, rather than tune into Radio 3.

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

Blimey, anyone who watches BB to feel superior must already be plumbing the depths of inferiority :D

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

Yup - when this, Eastenders, property porn, and cooking is on TV, I just log on and bliss out.

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

Silly bint. That multicultural enough for her? ;)

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

Hey, is HMG multicultural enough? I mean they're nearly all Scots aren't they? Or maybe it just seems like that ..........
:)

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

Part of Margaret Hodge's point is that she's some sort of weird immigrant concoction* and therefore knows what she's talking about. No, she doesn't.

Wikipedia suggests, unkindly, that she was known as 'Enver Hodge' during her time at Islington Council, after the late Albanian dictator.

* born in Cairo, offspring of German and Austrian Jewish parents, apparently.

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

Being discussed on BBC1: for anyone who is interested.


Finished now.

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

I saw that, it was quite interesting. Margaret Hodge didn't impress me at all. The trade union guy (RMT?) was impressive, which surprised me because of all the guff I've read about him concerning the train strikes.

Some good points were made. This government desperately needs intelligent "working class" MPs in positions of responsibility.

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

I'd say that's more agricultural than multicultural :D

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

May I direct you to Jon Cruddas, who's about the best of the few that are left. Certainly talked the most sense on Radio Five's phone-in yesterday and has a good record, apart from falling for the Iraq lies, which he now regrets and wants an inquiry into.

Crow? He's about the most leftwing person in Britain in any position of power and you don't get up there and stay there in the current world unless you've got a couple of brains. He's a bit of a rabble-rouser and will spin and exaggerate when required, though.

Anyway, what was he saying, for those of us who missed it?

Re: Proms not multicultural enough!
 

You can see the whole programme here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search/...ind+Programmes

Afterwards, you can pin this to your dartboard: