DECEMBER 15 2022 saw the Scottish government announce its budget for 2023-24 and though not as damning as what is on offer from the Tories in Westminster, as Roz Foyer of the STUC said “we needed strides, not steps.”

Despite the wonderful PR and public image — bold is not one of their strengths in this circumstance, and realistically the STUC proposed alternatives weren’t really radical either — it just demanded enough of a spine to carry them out.

However, as the Marxist Notes on Music columnist, I’ll focus primarily on yet another attack on culture. The main cultural body funded directly by the Scottish government, Creative Scotland, had their fund cut by £7 million, 10 per cent down on their 2022 funding. Depending on how you measure inflation, this means Creative Scotland would have been £4-10m short even if its budget remained unaltered.

With the current chaos around post-lockdown return to normalcy, the present economic crisis, and already numerous closures on the horizon; including Edinburgh’s Filmhouse and Aberdeen Belmont Filmhouse.

With the potential closure of other venues including the National Galleries of Scotland, who had already raised alarm bells last October about the current “perfect storm engulfing the Scottish cultural sector,” Scotland risks the desintegration of an already under-appreciated sector

Creative Scotland’s task is difficult it has promised to maintain portfolio of organisations for another year and are looking at the Lottery Funding to plug the £7m hole.

The increase of costs brought about by inflation and the cut in funding means the number organisations and projects they can support will be reduce.

Arts in Scotland will either have to look to other sources of funding, or just do less to make sure artists are earning what they deserve — this means the number of jobs will be reduced.

A catch-22 situation is in the offing where artists are forced to take a pay cut or do less and struggle to make ends meet.

Unlike the debacle with Arts Council’s portfolio funding, this problem is entirely manufactured by the Scottish government and shows how little appreciation of the arts the actually have.

Every independence movement had an arts campaigns supporting it. Though these were of varying merit, and not all captured the mood of the nation or peoples in question, they still existed.

This is true of contemporary Scotland, and many artists in numerous settings do support independence. The SNP in particular have been very eager to show their “dedication” to Scottish culture, be it trying to introduce more Gaelic on public signs, encouraging the usage of Scots, searching for a Scottish “musical sound,” and every year taking great pride in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Though in most instances, manufactured is the word that best describes these efforts it is nowhere near as positive as the efforts in Wales to rejuvenate the Welsh language and culture.

Encouraging Scots maybe a noble effort, however it’s a form of Scots that no-one really speaks, because it ignores differences between West and East coast, class characteristics.

The searching for a Scottish “musical sound” was met with controversy a few years back in the lead up to the anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath. However, nothing materialised except efforts that were almost cartoonish in their treatment of Scottish music and ignoring the majority of composers, with the exception of James MacMillan, who is simply too big to ignore.

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is something to be proud of even when it conveniently ignores its radical origins in the labour movement in Edinburgh. The prohibitive pricing of tickets and registration of performers means that working-class people are increasingly unable to get involved or attend the festival.

This round of cuts to Creative Scotland shows how much the SNP dislike the welfare state, which can support people in Scotland from the cradle to the grave, preferring instead a free market haven.

However, as we know all too well the free market will destroys what it can in the name of profit.

Scotland needs its culture to explore and find itself naturally. It needs its culture to supported so it is an actual workable life. It needs a vision which has humanism at its core. Sadly that doesn’t seem to be reflected in the Scottish governments policies.

But hey, don’t worry, at least they aren’t those fucking Tories.