Margaret Hodge and The Proms

The BBC are full of Margaret Hodge's remarks on the Proms. Apparently "The Proms attract too narrow a section of society, culture minister Margaret Hodge has suggested in a speech...The Proms attract too narrow a section of society, culture minister Margaret Hodge has suggested in a speech..."The audiences for some of many of our greatest cultural events - I'm thinking particularly of the Proms - is still a long way from demonstrating that people from different backgrounds feel at ease in being part of this," she added."

Strange in September Margaret Hodge wrote on her DCMS blog that (my emphasis) "Monday saw me at The Albert Hall on a balmy evening to marvel at Daniel Barenboim and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra performing Schubert’s 5th symphony and Bruckner’s 4th. It was a glorious evening which demonstrated yet again what a fantastic institution the Proms are. There’s a lot of fuss (rightly) made about the Last Night each year but for me it is the season as a whole that means the most. A wonderful part of summer in London, the Proms had the hang of broadening access decades before it became a Government staple.


Nicely consistent there Margaret Hodge.

Margaret Hodge is of course the woman who whilst Children's Minister had a rather embarrassing time as the paedophilia scandals from the time she was Leader of Islington Council came to light. As Melanie Phillips wrote "as leader of Islington council from 1982 to 1992, spectacularly failed to deal with a paedophile ring abusing children in her council’s care."

You might also want to read this Evening Standard article or pursue your own enquiries on Google.