Less varied evening diet while the Proms are on?

[Vile Consort]

I'm not an expert, but we were told that the budget cuts would result in more solo recitals and chamber music relays and fewer orchestral ones. and that's exactly what has happened.

The tickets are usually cheaper for recitals than for orchestral concerts. Presumably that feeds through into what the BBC has to pay. And it's obviously far simpler technically to broadcast a smaller ensemble: far fewer microphones are needed, for a start. So it seems perfectly reasonable that it would be cheaper to relay a solo recital or small ensemble than a full orchestra.

[Vile Consort]

Most people aren't getting richer.
Over the last 10 years, it is the top 10% who have been getting richer, and perhaps better educated, at least in how to keep power and wealth.
Many people in(and out ) of work, have had a terrible time of it. Pay rises in many companies are a thing of the past outside of board level.
The people who runs things like the Proms CHOOSE to dumb down, or whatever you want to call , because the folks at the top dont want the rest of the population thinking too much, and are worried because they know that, in truth, those people are capable of serious thought.
It is a fear driven agenda.

Over the last five years people haven't been getting richer, but I was thinking in the longer term - say 50 years.

If the people at the top don't want people to think, why have they hugely increased the number of people going to university?

[Flosshilde]

I'm not an expert, but we were told that the budget cuts would result in more solo recitals and chamber music relays and fewer orchestral ones. and that's exactly what has happened.

So the budget cuts have been beneficial, then ?

[teamsaint]

Over the last five years people haven't been getting richer, but I was thinking in the longer term - say 50 years.

If the people at the top don't want people to think, why have they hugely increased the number of people going to university?

I take your point about time scale.
I'm not sure that the current university system majors on people thinking too deeply. I would say it majors in getting young people badly indebted at a ridiculously early age, encouraging a hedonistic and consumer culture,and producing enough functionaries to keep the wheels of the economy spinning.

Creativity and original thought is all too often discouraged . The university system is the supposed pinnacle of an education industry where thought, creativity and originality are ruthlessly squeezed.it doesnt have to be like this. This is the choice of those who designed the system.
Pushing young people through hoops, and charging them £20 k a year for the privilege, is not the same as teaching them to think.

On a broader canvas, there are reasons why our culturural landscape is dominated by junk papers and magazines, vacuous reality TV, 24 hour rolling "news", debased music, (including predigested classical), wall to wall, 24/7 football and so on. The reasons are by design, not luck.
Stop folk thinking, and the job of keeping people working and indebted for 50 or so years is done.

[Vile Consort]

What's your evidence for your penultimate sentence?

[teamsaint]

What's your evidence for your penultimate sentence?

it is an opinion. But the evidence on, for instance the BBC, is there for all to see. Check out the figures for arts and music coverage on BBC1 , for example.

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/regulatory_framework/service_licences/tv/2013/bbc_one.pdf

BBC1 has to provide at least 40 hours of music and arts coverage per year. That's about 45 minutes a week.The nation's number 1 TV station, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The 40 hours thing is a decision, not luck. The BBC management /board deliberately marginalises music and arts, (place where people could be encouraged to think and explore for themselves). It wasn't always like this. Decisions are made, and there are consequences.