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Smaller creative businesses and individuals as well as global brands must fit into c&binet

C&binet | 08 Oct 2009, 11:50

C&binet comment: Ben Bradshaw, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

What do Lily Allen and Peter Mandelson have in common? They both featured in questions that I unfortunately didn’t have time to answer in my hour-long webchat on the Number 10 website last Monday.

At a rough average of four minutes for reading, thinking and typing time per question, I managed to respond to 13 questions – but that amounted to only a fraction of the number that came in.

My thanks to everyone who contributed – and my apologies to those that I didn’t have time for. Rest assured, the c&binet team have access to the log of questions and will feed them into the thinking for c&binetforum.

One thing that the webchat did forcefully remind me of, was how important it is we keep front-of-mind the interests of the individuals and small businesses that a make up the vast majority of the creative economic community.

C&binet is – and has to be – as much a forum for individual technicians, illustrators and musicians as it is for NBC Universal, Virgin Media or Google.

In clearing spectrum to make way for next generation mobile services, what are the consequences for the equipment used by sound engineers or small venues? How do we make the support structures of government less remote to small scale outfits – as Alan Mcglone asks in the comments to my earlier blog below?  How do we make sure we are weighing all the potential consequences – for creativity as well as revenue – when we look to modify rules for a changing world?

I for one don’t agree that pub rock is dying as a consequence of the smoking ban, as Mickey Flynn commented on my last posting – but Mickey, I do pay tribute - not just to your military service, but to your entrepreneurial use of this blog to promote your music!