Proving his point?

At the weekend Sir Jonathan Mills, the outgoing director of the Edinburgh International Festival declared that his last Festival will remain 'politically neutral' in the Independence Referendum debate. He said the EIF would not be commissioning anything about the independence debate for the 2014 festival, ahead of the vote on 18 September 2014. Instead the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War and the Glasgow Commonwealth Games will be inspirations for the programme.

He feels, “there’s no way of me, as a British and Australian citizen, predicting or having the requisite feel for what might happen in the independence referendum,” before claiming “I’ve had to start to put in place plans for next year’s festival before the date of the referendum was even set. My planning hasn’t coincided or been influenced by that event.”

Which all sounds a little like disappointing excuses. I subscribe to the view that 'Everything is Political', even if you choose not to contribute to the debate, but Mills, "would not wish our festival to be anything other than it has always been, which is a politically neutral space for artists."

Hmmm.

I think art should connect to people but this sort of decision seems to perpetuate the idea that high art is irrelevant. Mills, who probably has to steer a careful course with his dependence on public funding, suggested that the Fringe was in a much better position to address the issues of the independence referendum as it could react more quickly.

So it was interesting at this morning's photocall in George Square to see that London comedian Lee Nelson is already mixing comedy and politics more than a year out from the big vote. We had to wait for Lee to turn up - apparently he was waiting for the courier to deliver his new tartan hat. To be honest I can't see his contribution doing much to help the 'Better Together' campaign that he appears to be tacitly supporting!