Whilst I have not been directly involved with the Leeds bid to be European Capital of Culture 2023, I have been around the edges of it and I am well aware of the huge amount of work that has gone into the bid and its submission.
As a director of art gallery The Tetley, as someone who has been invited to launch events for the bid, as someone who knows many in the artistic and cultural community, I know not only that a great effort has gone into submitting a bid for Leeds but also that there has been great hope and expectation of what winning could do for our great City.
It seems that Ministers recently received a letter from Martine Reicherts, director general in the education and culture department of the European Commission, stating that the British entrants' bids should be discontinued due to the outcome of the Brexit vote. Of course the applications will have been started years before the EU referendum in 2016, but why wait until now to say anything?
The EU has made it clear in a tweet (it is not just Donald Trump who uses Twitter inappropriately) the to be European Capital of Culture cities have to be in EU Member States or members of other European trade agreements.
Of course, the issue of Brexit was discussed internally during the bid and post the Brexit vote. Leeds City Council rightly pointed out that Bergen in Norway and Istanbul in Turkey had both been European Capital of Culture whilst neither country is in the EU. We thought we were OK.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the rules are - and these presumably can be debated, the fact that this has been announced after bids have been submitted and just four days before presentations were due to be made to panels has a distinctly bad smell around it. Leeds Central MP Hilary Benn calls it "blatent discrimination". I would go further. It is vindictive bullying. Leeds has spent time and money on this bid in good faith and the EU has now shown its true colours as the unelected, undemocratic shambles many of us know it to be already.
The prize was something like £1.3 million. But this is not what is of interest. The benefits to Leeds in winning this goes way beyond the financial award. It would give Leeds raised profile and a significant economic boost.
So I say this to the EU. Stuff your money. We don't need you to tell us Leeds is the European Capital of Culture. We already know that it is in terms of its theatres, dance companies, cinemas, music venues, art galleries, etc., etc. We should declare ourselves to be European Capital of Culture for 2023 and probably for a few more years too - and as for the EU, they can be the complete irrelevance the majority of this country cannot quite wait for them to become.
