Speeches by Bryant.

“Sorry, I do not know enough about the copyright hub. Alastair might know more; I think he was in the Department.”

“That has already existed.”

“Yes, I think it is. Every Government Minister who ever sits before a Select Committee would always love to have twice as much money to invest in everything, and there are areas where we still have a great deal of work to do. I think we have identified the key sectors, which I see as a spectrum in the creative industrie…”

“Thank you. Can I go now?”

“That has already existed.”

“Well, that is new, but not to this. It is part of the wider Government since the general election last year.”

“Thank you. Can I go now?”

“You are right. We have not highlighted sections where this is brand-new and nothing has ever been done before. The two things that are different from the past, as I say, are access to finance and R&D.”

“If I may, there is a slightly previous question to that one: how do we make sure that public service broadcasters in the UK are able to compete in a world where the cost of making an hour of high-end television is more like £4 million, rather than £1 million? Are there efficiencies that can be driven forward that make …”

“Yes.”

“Haha! Good try. Well, what tax relief would you put forward?”

“We have been giving £1 million for the last few years, and we have not made a firm commitment yet about what we will end up doing.”

“This is God’s own country and I am a mere servant.”

“Of course, but who are the creators in the film and TV industry? They are actors, designers, writers, hair and make-up, cinematographers—they are an enormously wide group of people. Some of them are freelancers. Those are some of the things that we want to take forward with the freelance champion. We will be looking at…”

“Bearing in mind what you said last week, Dame Caroline, I think it is about time that we celebrated the creative industries. This is not just a brief encounter; for many people it is a matter of life and death, and in the end there is hunger for change. I hope that by the matter of persuasion, you will accept that we a…”

“If only!”

“I hate to say that I will write to you, but I will have to write to you, because when we are doing it is not in my head. I did not think we would be talking about it today.”

“By “visual arts”, you mean painting and—”

“No, I would disagree. Last time I was before the Committee, I think I said that we need to have a mixed economy here, where of course there is inward investment. I want us to remain the best place in the world to make films and high-end television. I would say to our American, Canadian and other allies—in fact, I would…”

“I want to pay tribute to the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the way she conducted the spending review. In the words of Diana Ross, she reached out and touched our Department with £8.2 billion, meaning we can make this world a better place. For the heritage sector, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport is already…”