I’m noticing a definite air of ‘sticking it to the man’ this week. Having only recently graduated, I am of course a little biased in favour of the student protests in Whitehall.
Students protesting at Whitehall
The hell-raisers from the Golden Age of student protests are no doubt breathing a sigh of relief that Generation ‘Y’ seems to have finally got off its behind to do something proactive about its future.
However, the general public don’t unanimously share this supportive attitude. So whilst one man tweets that he is proud of his daughter for joining the protest, another demands that students who took the day off to protest should be suspended.
But the universal feeling that came across strongest was the disappointment that the press’s focus had been on the violence and mob mentality of the day. It’s frustrating to think of the individuals whose efforts to organise a national, worthwhile demonstration have been belittled because of the sorry few pyromaniacs who enjoy setting street cones alight.
Whatever the attitude to the Whitehall protests though one can’t ignore the public’s growing trepidation of the Government cuts in public spending. The Arts Cuts in particular pose the biggest threat to us as they affect a large percentage of our customer base.
The Arts Council, considered by the BBC’s Arts Editor Will Gompertz as “a big loser” in the cuts, face a 30% budget cut. The Arts Council distributes to numerous theatres, art centres, music venues and galleries nationwide, and a cut in their spending will directly affect the budgets of the venues that rely on them. We have to prepare for the eventuality that our customers won’t have the money they used to. So far our trading figures have remained strong, with a keen interest in our products leading to profitable sales despite cuts in arts funding.
The versatility of our products allows for a wider range of customers; the education sector makes up another large percentage of our client base and we haven’t suffered from a dip in interest from Arts customers either. Fingers crossed then that we keep avoiding what one I.T. student protester had written on his placard:
‘404 ERROR: No Funding Found’