Good morning. Everyone who has worked in the arts, from the heads of major institutions to the creatives who depend on their funding, has been warning for years about the dire state of the sector. As investment dwindled and contempt for arts and humanities education became mainstream – fuelled by senior politicians dismissing these courses as “Mickey Mouse degrees” – making a sustainable living in the creative industries became increasingly difficult.
Since taking office as culture secretary, Labour’s Lisa Nandy has sought to undo the damage inflicted by years of austerity. Emphasising the economic value of the arts and creative industries, she has pledged to “bulldoze” barriers that stifle potential.
In a widely anticipated announcement yesterday, Nandy confirmed £270m in funding for England’s “crumbling” cultural infrastructure. Speaking at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon – on the 60th anniversary of the UK’s first arts-focused government white paper – she positioned the investment as a step toward revitalising the sector and Britain’s global cultural reputation. Nandy said: “For too many young people in this country, culture hasn’t just been erased from the curriculum, it’s been erased from our communities as well.”
However, the positive news is tempered by concerns over looming public spending cuts that may hinder that vision. Today’s newsletter places the funding news within the broader context of the government’s spending strategy.
Five big stories
Economy | Companies have ramped up hiring in recent weeks while consumer confidence has started to rise, research suggests, in a boost for Rachel Reeves as the government looks for signs of economic growth.
Local government | A record 30 English local authorities have been granted effective “bailouts” enabling them to borrow money to avoid bankruptcy, as ministers advised them against selling off prized local assets such as historic buildings, parks and allotments. The councils were given the green light by ministers to collectively borrow £1.5bn to plug significant budget gaps.
Health | Cancer death rates are 60% higher for people living in the most deprived areas of the UK compared with those in more affluent areas, according to new analysis by Cancer Research UK.
Israel | The remains of four people have been returned to Israel in what onlookers described as one of the “hardest days” for Israelis. Three of the four people have been confirmed as hostages – two children and one elderly man. However, one of the four bodies returned on Thursday is not that of Shiri Bibas, the mother of the two children, Israel’s military has said, calling it a “violation of utmost severity” of a ceasefire deal that was already precarious.
UK news | The UK government may have breached a young soldier’s right to life by failing to protect her from a sexual assault by a more senior colleague and from sustained unwelcome sexual attention from her line manager, a coroner has concluded.
In depth: ‘There is no sense Labour has grasped the delicate interconnected forces that underpin the arts’
After more than a decade of underinvestment and cuts, the arts sector is in crisis. While Britain has reduced its overall culture budget by 6% since 2010, other European nations increased theirs by as much as 70%. Local government funding for culture and related services has plummeted — down 39% in Scotland, 40% in Wales, and 48% in England. This decline, combined with an increasingly hostile attitude towards arts education, has resulted in what experts describe as “catastrophic declines in participation and enrolment” in the sector.
The impact is stark: organisations are struggling to scrape together the funds to survive, and job losses are widespread. Between 2010 and 2023, grant-in-aid funding for UK arts and cultural institutions fell by 18%, according to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
Against this backdrop, Lisa Nandy’s announcement marks a welcome shift. But will it make much of a difference?
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The breakdown of the funding
National museums, including the British Museum and the V&A, will see a 5% increase in their annual grants — which is about £15m per year. The government has also pledged £20m for a Museum Renewal Fund to support local museums, alongside £25m from the fifth round of the Museum Estate and Development Fund to upgrade museum buildings.
This funding boost follows repeated warnings that museums in England are at risk of closure due to financial pressures. A report by the Art Fund last year found that museum directors across the UK were deeply concerned about funding shortfalls, despite a rise in visitor numbers.
Arts education is also set to benefit, with £3.2m allocated to four cultural education programmes in the next financial year. In addition, an £85m Creative Foundations Fund has been announced to support urgent capital works aimed at keeping venues across the country operational.
A DCMS spokesperson told the Arts Newspaper that this latest funding package is new for 2025/26, but clarified that while some of it will go towards brand-new initiatives, other portions represent continued investment in existing programmes. However, concerns remain that this announcement does not address the full picture. The Night Time Industries Association criticised the package for “failing to support contemporary and countercultural spaces,” such as music venues, clubs, festivals, and other nightlife establishments.
Nandy responded to questions about whether the funding is sufficient by saying that government investment would encourage more philanthropic contributions flowing away from London and into the other regions. This concept – of private funds filling the gaps – was first proposed by the Conservative government over a decade ago. However, as the Guardian’s chief culture writer, Charlotte Higgins argues, it doesn’t quite work because “the UK simply doesn’t have as many rich people as the US, and lacks the kind of tax benefits that could turn on more philanthropic taps. The wealthy are also overwhelmingly concentrated in the south-east of England.”
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A defence dilemma
The funding announcement comes as pressure mounts on chancellor Rachel Reeves and the government’s public spending plans. Under harsh focus is the government’s aim to increase spending on defence from 2.3% to 2.5% of GDP, which would amount to £5bn annually by the end of this parliament, though it has not made clear yet when this change will happen.
Defence experts have said though that this investment is still far short of the kind of investment that would revitalise and rebuild the military. Between 2010 and 2024, day-to-day spending on defence was cut by nearly £10bn in real terms. The results were palpable: a recruitment crisis led the number of troops falling from 100,000 full-time trained personnel in 2000, to approximately 70,000 today. This analysis has prompted some experts to say that the increase should be 2.65%.
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of defence staff, said in an interview last year that the British army is not as strong as it should be because of “historic underinvestment” that has resulted in “deficiencies in people, equipment, stockpiles, training and technology”.
To pay for this increase without borrowing money or raising taxes, only leaves spending cuts as an option. Earlier this week, Sky news reported that the government has asked unprotected departments, like DCMS, to model real term spending cuts of up to 11% ahead of June’s spending review.
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An unsteady future for the arts
A shift in tone and attitude towards the cultural sector is a welcome change for those who work in the arts. However, with real-terms cuts looming in the coming months, concerns remain over whether this support will be sufficient. According to the Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre, the theatre sector alone requires an estimated £300m over the next decade for essential repairs and to prevent closures.
As Charlotte Higgins, points out: “There is no sense that Labour has yet grasped the delicate interconnected forces that underpin the arts. It is not OK to shove everything together, from ballerinas to florists, into a thing called ‘the creative industries’. The arts are different, and they need attention.”
What else we’ve been reading
You may have heard about 2024 YR4, that asteroid with a tiny chance of hitting the earth in 2032? Physicist Carrie Nugent has four reasons why we should be OK. Among them: the asteroid is, helpfully, “likely not terribly large”. Charlie Lindlar, acting deputy editor, newsletters
After a huge sinkhole appeared in a Surrey village, wreaking havoc on the local community. Sammy Gecsoyler spoke with residents about how they are coping with this bizarre situation.
Middling reviews be damned, ten Guardian writers have teamed up to pick the ten moments in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy that had them sobbing into their popcorn-and-large-Coke combos. Charlie
Ben Quinn’s comprehensive report on Arc—a conference where far-right ideologues gathered to exchange ideas, build networks, and, for the American attendees, engage in “ideological finger-wagging” at European populists over the continent’s political landscape—is both terrifying and fascinating.
Jay Rayner has written his final Observer Food Monthly column after 15 years, emptying his notebook with a list of dos and don’ts of dining. “Gravy stains down your shirt are not a source of embarrassment; they are a badge of honour,” he offers, wisely. Charlie
Sport
Ice hockey | Canada’s men’s hockey team defeated the USA 3-2 in overtime on Thursday night as the North American rivals turned what had been a tune-up for the 2026 Olympics into a geopolitical brawl over anthems and annexation as much as international hockey supremacy. “You can’t take our country – and you can’t take our game,” Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau posted on X in a cross-border callback to US president Donald Trump’s chatter about turning one of the United States’ closest allies into a 51st state. Earlier on Thursday, Trump had called him “Governor Trudeau”.
Tennis | Jack Draper reached the Qatar Open semi-finals in Doha after fighting back to beat Matteo Berrettini in three gruelling sets. The British men’s No 1, sidelined for a month with a hip injury before his return to action this week, overcame the 28-year-old Italian 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 and faces Jiri Lehecka in the last four. Unseeded Lehecka earlier created a major upset by dumping out world No 3 and Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
Football | Lucy Bronze described the Spanish players who were involved in the trial of Luis Rubiales as “incredibly brave” and said England players stood with them in their fight for change, on the day the former head of the Spanish football federation was found guilty of sexual assault.
The front pages
“‘Don’t be fooled by Putin’: Lammy warnings as Ukraine tensions rise,” is the Guardian’s splash today, as the UK continues to tread a fine diplomatic line.
“Starmer under pressure to raise defence spending to 3%”, is the main story over at the i, while the Times runs with: “Starmer to offer youth visa scheme for Europe.” Meanwhile, the Mail runs with: “Don’t let big tech steal UK’s creative genius.”
“Washington opposes phrase ‘Russian aggression’ in G7 Ukraine statement,” writes the FT, while the Independent’s take is: “Bully boy Trump tries to gag Zelensky.”
Highlighting the story of a young female soldier, the Express says, “‘No apology will ever bring our daughter back’”, and the Metro: “Hounded to her death.”
“Trans doctors given clean records,” is the top story on the Telegraph. The Mirror has: “700,000 reasons to smile” on emergency dental appointments, while the Star focuses on the “bonkers” weather with: “Scorchio.. with a bit of snow!”
Something for the weekend
Our critics’ roundup of the best things to watch, read, play and listen to right now
The White Lotus season three | ★★★★☆
Eight to a dozen affluent Americans, half of them hiding a dark secret as they head to a glamorous location for a luxury vacation, the other half complicating the issue by creating some dark secrets of their own. A dead body ruining everyone’s fun but increasing the audience’s exponentially. Shiny unhappy people getting their just deserts by the end of an immaculately plotted eight-hour series. Yes, my friends, we can only be back at the White Lotus. Written and directed as ever by Mike White, this time he is taking us, his new gang and one or two familiar faces to Thailand. The precision of the storytelling and the realisation of every character, from the most central to the most peripheral, remains masterly. Exquisitely shot, scripted, paced and performed, it’s a sumptuous feast for all the senses. Come on in, the water’s lovely – until the bodies start floating past. Lucy Mangan
Music
Sam Fender: People Watching | ★★★★★
More than anything, People Watching reaffirms that Fender is a very good songwriter indeed: strong on melodies, handy with a roaring, emotive, arena-friendly chorus, and exceptionally gifted with words. Never lecturing, his lyrics take consistently surprising angles – Wild Long Lie is a self-loathing meditation on cocaine, not as a pop star’s indulgence, but an aspect of everyday post-pub life back in North Shields – and are sharp enough to confront head-on the dilemma facing any songwriter whose success is founded in keen observations of the everyday: that success, by default, removes you from the circumstances that inspired you in the first place. Whether his gaze rests on his past, his present, or the gulf that lurks between them, there’s an urgency about what he has to say, its bleakness and realism at odds with the stadium-scale euphoria of the choruses. Alexis Petridis
Film
I’m Still Here | ★★★☆☆
The subtlety and dignity of Fernanda Torres’s Oscar-nominated performance in Walter Salles’s new film has been rightly praised. This is a kind of mother-courage true story: the case of Eunice Paiva, a Brazilian woman who had to keep her family together and shield her five children from despair when her activist husband Rubens was brutally “disappeared” in 1971 by the military dictatorship. They refused even to admit he had been arrested, or later officially admit his death, in a state-sanctioned act of cruelty which was only finally acknowledged in the mid-90s after decades of campaigning, when the government issued a formal death certificate. I’m Still Here is a drama which intelligently seeks to intuit the courageously maintained calm that Eunice imposes on herself and the children when the thuggish secret police arrive. Torres is effectively the still centre of a heartfelt but also somehow numbed and sometimes even strangely placid story. Yet, this might well be precisely the experiences of the families of the “disappeared”, their emotional responses stunted and amputated by the state. It’s a very intelligent performance from Torres. Peter Bradshaw
Game
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage – Tape One (PC, PS5, Xbox) | ★★★★☆
It’s 1995 and introverted teen Swann is facing a final quiet summer alone in the rural town of Velvet Cove, Michigan. But in the parking lot of the local video store, she meets fellow 16-year-olds Nora, Autumn and Kat, and the four girls bond over their boredom and frustration with small-town life. Soon, they are inseparable, spending their days hiking in the nearby forests, making camp fires, confessing their secrets – until they discover a spooky shack hidden out among the trees and decide to make it their base. But when their swirling emotions seem to awaken a supernatural presence, something terrible happens and the girls swear each other to a lifelong secret. The narrative swaps back and forth between two timelines – the adult characters reminiscing in 2022 and their pivotal summer together in 1995 – and your actions in one affects outcomes in the other. The mystery at the heart of the game is subtly introduced and there’s much to anticipate from the second part (or “Tape”). Mostly though, it’s the characters that stick with you. Three days after finishing the game I’m still thinking about them, worrying about them, inhabiting that old shack with them. Keith Stuart
Today in Focus
A German election road trip with the far right on the up
This Sunday, millions of Germans will head to the polls to vote in the country’s federal elections – historic not only because they will determine who will be the next chancellor, but because they come at a time when the far right in Germany is polling better than in any other period since the second world war.
Regardless of the result, it is a remarkable development for a country so haunted by its Nazi past.
Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
British archaeologist Dr Piers Litherland had been working in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings for more than a decade when he discovered a debris-filled staircase, leading to a tomb.
Initially assumed to be the tomb belonging to a royal wife, it wasn’t until months of clearing work was complete that Litherland and his team revealed the truth about their find: they had just discovered the first tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh to be found in more than a century.
“It was only gradually, as we sifted through all the material – tons and tons of broken limestone – that we discovered these small fragments of alabaster, which named Thutmose II,” says Litherland. Thutmose II was the husband as well as the half-brother of Hatshepsut, one of Egypt’s greatest pharaohs and one of the few women to rule in her own right.
“This discovery solves a great mystery of ancient Egypt: the location of the tombs of the early 18th dynasty kings,” says Litherland. “The tomb of this ancestor of Tutankhamun had never been found because it was always thought to be at the other end of the mountain near the Valley of the Kings.”
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Bored at work?
And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until Monday.
