Ecclesiastical News

 By New Worker correspondent

About a fifth of workers at an important London establishment are at risk of redundancy when the government’s job retention scheme ends in October.

It’s Westminster Abbey, where funds are very tight because it has been closed to visitors and its income is down by more than £12 million. As the Abbey no longer has land and serfs it is dependent on tourists.

The Dean, the Very Rev Dr David Hoyle, said the coronavirus had dealt a “shattering blow” to the Abbey’s finances. It was truly heart-breaking to hear him add that the Abbey’s financial reserves would be depleted by a third from September and they would continue to fall as visitor numbers were not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels for up to five years.

In a normal July, the Abbey gets 1,000 visitors per hour, many of whom buy tourist tat to keep the Right Rev in surplices, but not this year.

As all New Worker readers will be aware, the Abbey is a Royal Peculiar, which means it is owned directly by the Queen and thus is not eligible for funding by the Church Commissioners.

The Abbey has already scrapped regular Sunday services in next door St Margaret’s and the professional choir at St Margaret's will be disbanded. Worshippers will be told to merge with the congregation in the Abbey.

Elsewhere the Church of England’s 42 cathedrals expect to be down more than £28.4 million on what they thought their budgets would be this year, with another £15.5 million expected to be lost next year. Lincoln Cathedral is already seeking voluntary redundancies or a reduction in hours amongst its 120 workers.

The Association of English Cathedrals warns that job cuts will hit all Anglican churches, but the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government says faith organisations have access to government support including the Coronavirus Community Support Fund.

Theatre industry faces bleak future

Nuffield Southampton Theatres (NST), an institution comprising two venues in Southampton, is set to close permanently. The theatre, which has run for over 50 years, went into administration in May after it suffered a severe drop in ticket sales amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even though the Government announced an emergency support package to help protect the future of theatres, several venues such as NST have still had to close.

Philippa Childs, head of BECTU, the union representing over 40,000 staff in the media and entertainment industries, said the horizon is not looking good. Due to social distancing measures and uncertainty, many theatre companies say they cannot see themselves re-opening before 2021.

“The theatre industry is in a pretty parlous state, theatres were told to close down back in March. Since that time, they've been dark pretty much,” Ms Childs said.

“Some theatres have already started to cancel pantomimes, which is a money spinner for theatres – they rely on the money from pantomimes in order to survive throughout the year.

“Generally, theatres don't have huge reserves, so this period of having absolutely no income has been quite devastating for them. We've seen some go into liquidation, and we've seen a lot in the last couple of weeks starting to talk about redundancies.”

Part of the industry's frustration is that the Government has not issued a roadmap out of the crisis with clear dates for theatres to work towards.

The concern is not just about the finances of the industry but also about how it can continue in a post-lockdown world with social distancing measures.

“If you know lots of British theatres, the buildings are old, the entrances are very narrow, the toilets are very small, the seats very squashed together. So the idea of even one-metre-plus, and people being able to go back to the theatre at one-metre-plus is not financially viable and actually, I wonder, how enthusiastic people would be under those circumstances anyway. It's a pretty bleak picture for UK theatre at the moment,” said Ms Childs.

       On 4^th July, the Government announced that theatres could reopen but could not stage live performances. As the key selling point of any theatre is that of its live performances, many within the industry were left scratching their heads on how to continue to operate under the guidance.

A number of major theatres quickly looked to use technology in order to keep their services open.

“Theatres are all about live performances, so those that have the facilities and the abilities to do so are putting on some performances that can be streamed,” Ms Childs said.

The Royal Opera House and the National Theatre were quick to offer such services, but smaller theatres were not and are still not able to do that.

“I think the frustration is that people want to have a date to work towards, they want to have some protocols that they can work around. So they can look at their buildings and think about, when the time comes, they can get back into the building and put on a show and that they've got everything in place to be able to do that.”

Many are concerned that a continuation of restrictions could mean that the industry is set to lose more revenue.

The Government recently announced a new £1.57 billion emergency support package to help protect the future of theatres, galleries and museums in England.

This was well received by many in the theatre industry, who saw it as a lifeline to keep the arts sector afloat.

The support fund for cultural organisations is made up of £880 million in grants and £270 million of repayable loans.

The Government said the loans would be “issued on generous terms” and decisions on who will get the funding would be made “alongside expert independent figures from the sector”.

Ms Childs was quick to release a statement on the emergency package, praising the Government for offering their support to the sector but warning that it was too late for some small theatres and rapid action was needed to “stem the tide of redundancies and closures that are emerging in the sector”.

“We will now be scrutinising the details of this package to make sure it lives up to the real needs of our sector," she said. “The terms of these grants and loans must recognise that there is still a long journey to recovery for theatres and live events and this package is the first cautious step towards reviving the sector.”

Xinhua

Hard Times Indeed

By New Worker correspondent

Life under Lockdown is tough for all, but one sadly neglected minority group’s sufferings have gone largely unnoticed. Get your hankies out as you prepare to shed a tear over the unspeakable hardships that are presently being suffered by outrageously rich people. It is extremely difficult to look after your 14-bedroom mansion when your servants cannot come in to work. The obvious lesson is that you need live-in servants rather than having people coming in every day.

 It was truly heart-breaking to read in a recent issue of the Times about the woman who took a Brillo pad to her expensive enamel bath in the absence of her maid, or the person who took one of their chandeliers apart to clean it and could not get it back together. Others have had trouble finding where the vacuum cleaner is kept.

Some vain people are reported to be having manicures through their letterbox and others have ended up in hospital from foolishly injecting themselves with fillers to keep wrinkles at bay. Money obviously cannot buy elementary intelligence.

Fortunately help is at hand. Recruitment agency Polo &Tweed have ridden to the rescue.  They normally supply and train butlers, maids and nannies for the idle rich, but now their website is full of useful advice such as: “You really should be cleaning your fridge regularly” and after washing your fridge shelves: “Make sure everything is thoroughly dried before you put them back into the fridge.” It also advises: “Get into the habit of every time you enter the house from outside, to leave your shoes at the door. By not taking your shoes off, you would bring in all mud, sand or dirt from outside into the house which will only result in more cleaning, vacuum cleaning and mopping tasks for you.” Not the sort of thing you would notice with a team of servants.

In the absence of an active market for lackeys, Polo & Tweed are helpfully offering online courses that impart these gems of wisdom about domestic science that will be received with the same sense of wonderment as if it were Stephen Hawking discoursing about quantum physics.