Lowestoft Arts Centre
The four percent loss to our economic sector over 15 years as predicted by our government, through a hard or soft Brexit, will do enormous damage both our creative cultural community and our charitable sector.
In the business community, four percent is often most if not all of the profit margin, so this means investment in futures, marketing through arts sponsorship, philanthropic support of charities from homelessness to youth work to ecological projects etc will all suffer enormously.
The creative sector relies heavily on that four percent profit margin – the slack in a business-orientated society that allows creativity to flourish. It may seem like the icing on the cake to some. But without creativity and community entrepreneurial vision, we will have a society starved of the beneficial effect it has on well-being.
The charitable sector too will suffer directly from this loss of the four percent profit margin required for business to flourish. Witness already what has happened on the high street as profits have fallen due to the Brexit vote and other factors, such as unfair competition from offshore online retailers like Amazon.
This Brexit, whether hard or soft, is the start of a meltdown for a lost generation of creatives. This is something the narrow-minded, next-immediate-vote-focused politicians may not understand, but as a self-motivated creative, I do.
I say this with respect to all Leave voters, but mine and many other people’s life-long creative careers, community, and good charitable works are at risk.
Caroline Lucas is currently trying to raise funds to support a People’s Vote on the terms of the deal now proposed by the government, which would give people a chance to think about their future seriously. Please support her fund-raising initiative to back this People’s Vote proposal and write to your local MP to ask them to support it, too. Their donation page is here.
Ben Q – Lowestoft, Suffolk