This has had me shaking with rage and grief for the last hour or so, so a few thoughts on it: https://www.itv.com/news/2020-10-06/rishi-sunak-suggests-musicians-and-others-in-arts-should-retrain-and-find-other-jobs

1. It's clear that this is now the party line of Johnson's iteration of the Tories: Artists and creatives have worthless careers and will not be supported by their government.

2. This is hardly surprising. The arts teach compassion and dissent - two things the Tories are diametrically opposed to. Their stance is purely ideological.

3. This ideology is writ large because we know that Sunak et al. are wilfully ignoring the widely touted figures that British arts industries bring nearly 11 billion to the economy each year.

4. The arts are a huge part of what makes Britain great, but there is no room for that in the Tories' diminutive vision of this country post-Brexit. They want it to be a cesspit of frustrated middle managers because that's all they are.

5. No true hope, no true aspiration, no true passion, or joy or anger. Just Nandos and outlet centres and disappointment, in a big ugly tax haven.

6. But what really makes me angry about all this is that Sunak and the others clearly think that being a professional creative is easy. You just sit about and fart out a picture or a tune or some words and rake it in.

7. Anyone actually in the creative industries will know the opposite is true. Breaking in is difficult, building a career is difficult. Most of the time you're wildly underpaid and yet you work at it almost every single day. If you're creative your work is your life.

8. To learn that your government - the people who are supposed to at the very least protect your basic interests - think that your life is worthless is deeply distressing. I've already seen tweets on here about the mental health cost of Sunak's shat out prescription.

9. Unfortunately I suspect that the Tories don't give a damn about that either. The people we have in power are thoughtless and lazy and incompetent. They have worked half as hard as all of us, and yet are completely protected by their unearned privilege.

10. So until we get them out it seems that we're on our own. The next few years are probably going to be very grim, but I know that we will continue to be artists because it our nature.

11. And what I hope we commit ourselves to is the idea that if any single member of Johnson's cabinet tries to enjoy a play or a concert or an art show - then we drive them out. If we should change our careers, then they are not welcome to participate in the arts.

12. PS - If you're a Tory 'artist' then shame on you. You're a traitor to creativity.

13. - PPS - I know Sunak has revised his statement (so that now he's talking about everyone, not just creatives) but 'artists should retrain' is a sentiment publicly shared by several prominent Tory MPs recently, so it's clearly a talking point amongst them.