Thread by @Mich_Barnette

THEATRE TWITTER - it's not enough to be loud on social media about arts support. Here's what I'm doing and I hope you'll join me in doing it:

(thread)

1) WRITE TO YOUR MP TODAY and put pressure on them. I'm told we need to ask for an URGENT QUESTION to be tabled.

There's a deadline every day to submit a UQ. If accepted, they'll get a couple of hours to prep and the relevant minister HAS to appear in parliament

It's at the beginning of the day, and MPs can bid to be in parliament once the floor opens. That means, if enough of us put pressure, and our MPs show up, they can attest that their constituents are also worried.

This will likely be the right option if you're in a labour hold

If you want a template, here's what I sent to @PutneyFleur & @TracyBrabin

Here are the deadlines for UQs:

Monday - 11.30am
Tuesday and Wednesday - 10am
Thursday - 8.15am
Friday - 8.30am

If you're in a Tory constituency:

2) write to your MP and ask for an end of day debate. Something along the lines of 'your government is in charge and you need to make a change'

This would be taken at the end of the day in the main chamber. Any MP can ballot to be there.

3) Every 6 weeks or so every department of government HAS to answer oral questions. All ministers of that department MUST attend. MPs can also submit questions.

You should ask them to put forward questions about a SPECIFIC ARTS FUNDING PACKAGE that is NOT related to NPOs

(for those who don't know, NPOs are National Portfolio Organisations - there's already a question on this being tabled tomorrow by a Southampton MP)

4) SIGN THIS SPECIFIC PETITION - if it's not on the parliament site, they don't care. You can also write to your MP and flag that there are 145k+ signatures, so there IS support for this and should be taken seriously

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/3207…

We need MPs behind this. We need them behind this NOW. We don't need lip service. We don't need to be placated. We need to find any way to save our sector.

Further resources:

Here's the Arts Index for 2007 - 2018, you'll want to look at this for stats about how much funding we've lost in the last decade and how that's impacting us now

forthearts.org.uk/publications/a…

And here's a report commissioned by the @Creative_Fed on the impact of COVID-19 on the Arts:

creativeindustriesfederation.com/sites/default/…

Just to flag - error here! Saw St Albans and wrote Southampton publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmquesti…

If you want to write to your Tory MP, here's an example shared by @dreamalongjoy 👇

https://twitter.com/dreamalongjoy/status/1275460081388224512

Update: there IS a debate happening tomorrow but now is NOT the time to take pressure off your MPs!

Look at the Parliament schedule: it is NOT a debate specific to theatre. That means we may he overlooked in favour of others and because it’s so broad Dowden may not be there

So here’s what’s going to happen. We’re going to watch the debate. I’ll live tweet it for those who can’t/don’t want to. If we get brushed over, WE WRITE AGAIN and specifically talk about how the debate was inadequate and we don’t believe government is taking us seriously