Month: September 2024

Watteau was one of the most original and influential French painters of his era. …reports Asian Lite News

A temporary export bar has been placed on Le Rêve de L’Artiste, a painting by influential 18th century French artist Jean-Antoine Watteau.

The work, valued at £6,075,000 (plus VAT of £215,020), is at risk of leaving the UK unless a domestic buyer can be found to save the work for the nation.

Watteau was one of the most original and influential French painters of his era. He was a leading figure in the development of the Rococo style and inventor of a type of painting known as the Fête Galante, often small cabinet pictures, exploring the psychology of love, usually within a landscape setting.

His popularity in Britain amongst his contemporaries is evidenced through Le Rêve de L’Artiste being bought in 1736 by the first Prime Minister of Great Britain, Sir Robert Walpole.  The painting was hung in Lady Walpole’s dressing room in 10 Downing Street for the remaining years of his administration.  

Le Rêve de L’Artiste is an ambitious and complex picture featuring two dozen characters in a  surreal, structured environment depicting some of the artist’s own dreams. The painting is unlike much of Watteau’s other work which largely presents natural landscapes as idyllic and untamed.

Arts Minister Sir Chris Bryant said, “This painting was once owned by our first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, and was hanging for several years in 10 Downing Street, so Watteau’s Le Rêve de L’Artiste has a fascinating connection to British History, offering us insights into the tastes and development of art in Britain in the 18th century. It portrays the artist’s dream, but perhaps its surreal fantasia inspired political dreams as well. Either way, it is an important and unusual work by a genius. I hope a UK buyer has the opportunity to purchase this work so it can continue to be studied and enjoyed by the public.”

The Minister’s decision follows the advice of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest. The RCEWA Committee found that the painting met the third Waverley criterion for its outstanding significance to the study of the collections in which this picture was included as well as the early and highly unusual depiction of dream imagery.

Committee Member Mark Hallett said, “This beautiful, enigmatic painting showcases Watteau’s extraordinary originality, and provides us with one of Western art’s earliest and most profound representations of the process of artistic creativity. It gives us a fascinating insight not only into Watteau’s thinking as a painter, but into wider eighteenth-century concepts of inspiration and imagination. As such, Le Rêve de l’Artiste has a special, almost unique status in the artist’s output. This is a work that cries out for further research, interpretation and appreciation, and that fully deserves being retained for the nation.”

The decision on the export licence application for the painting will be deferred for a period ending on 29 November 2024 inclusive. At the end of the first deferral period owners will have a consideration period of 15 Business Days to consider any offer(s) to purchase the painting at the recommended price of £6,075,000 (plus VAT of £215,020). The second deferral period will commence following the signing of an Option Agreement and will last for six months.

ALSO READ: ‘Bangladesh could ask for Hasina’s extradition from India’

The new figures demonstrate the scale of the challenge facing Keir Starmer’s government, which aims to halve the government’s spend on consultants during this parliament….reports Asian Lite News

Private consultants were paid a “scandalous” £3.4bn by public bodies last year, new figures reveal. The statistics, from outsourcing data company Tussell, show that government spending on private consultants was £1.3bn (62%) higher in 2023-24 than 2019-20. They also reveal that the surge in consultant spending seen during Covid has failed to come back down to pre-pandemic levels.

The new figures demonstrate the scale of the challenge facing Keir Starmer’s government, which aims to halve the government’s spend on consultants during this parliament. The Financial Times reported last week that KPMG has won a government contract worth up to £223m to train civil servants, beginning in August.

Since Labour won power, nearly £650m of new government contracts to consultants have been awarded, many agreed before the transition to a new government. They include the deal with KPMG to oversee civil service training for the next 15 months – the second biggest public sector contract awarded to the firm.

Prem Sikka, an academic specialising in finance and accounting and a Labour peer, said: “The whole thing is scandalous because the real problem is that we’re living in an era when there is a cult of hiring consultants. Consultants contribute little. There is no way you can walk into a complex organisation for a few weeks, understand the issues, join the dots and prepare a meaningful report.

“If you are using consultants, that means you have no in-house, institutionalised knowledge, because when these consultants walk away, whatever they know goes with them. This then makes you forever permanently dependent on consultants.”

The total cost of consultants at the Department of Health and Social Care, its agencies and NHS bodies was more than £570m in 2023-24, according to Tussell. This has fallen significantly in the last two years, but compares with about £310m in 2019-20 before consultancy costs rose dramatically to help cope with the pandemic.

At the Home Office, spending on consultants in 2023-24 rose to £237m last year as the government worked to clear asylum backlogs and launch the now abandoned Rwanda scheme. That was almost double the £121m recorded the year before.

Meanwhile, the Department for Transport spent £165m on consultants last year, often to advise on infrastructure projects such as the HS2 high speed railway, and the Ministry of Defence spent £86m.

The money was largely spent by government departments and public bodies with a small group of firms such as PA Consulting and Accenture, which made £247m and £240m respectively from government contracts in 2023-24.

The “big four” firms – KPMG, Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers and EY – collectively were paid just under £900m in 2023-24.

KPMG temporarily withdrew from bidding for government contracts in 2021 after a series of corporate scandals, including being found to have forged documents and misled regulators over audits for companies including the now collapsed Carillion.

Government use of consultants has been criticised in the past, including up to about £1m a day paid to private consultants to work on the Covid test-and-trace programme, which a Commons committee concluded was an “eye-watering” waste of taxpayer money that “failed to deliver on its central promise of averting another lockdown” despite “the vast sums of money” invested.

Economist Mariana Mazzucato, director of the University College London Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose and co-author of the The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilizes Our Governments and Warps Our Economies, described the government’s relationship with the sector as “parasitic”.

She said: “We’re facing challenges from digitalisation to climate and more, and these require huge amounts of collective intelligence, capacity and capability. And if you don’t invest in that within the state, of course, you will become addicted to other [organisations].”

Mazzucato added: “One of the biggest issues is not just the rise in consulting spending but that these consultants coming in have very little knowledge about the stuff they’re consulting on.”

She said the new government would not succeed in dislodging its reliance on consultants “without investment within the civil service”.

Previous governments have made multiple pledges to reduce reliance on consultants since 2010, but last yeardepartmental restrictions implemented by former prime minister David Cameron were quietly removed. These required central authorisation for contracts over certain limits, initially set at those lasting more than nine months or exceeding £20,000.

Officials say that Tussell’s figures are typically higher than recorded in annual departmental reports, which is likely to reflect different methodologies. A government source said: “We are taking immediate action to stop all non-essential government spending on external consultants as we tackle the £22bn black hole in the public finances this year, which was left because of the recklessness of the previous government.

“Through our plan to halve the amount spent on consultancy services in coming years, we are determined to deliver a saving of £550m in 2024-25 and £680m in 2025-26.

“We will develop a plan for a more efficient and effective civil service, including bold measures to improve skills, harness digital technology and improve public services.”

ALSO READ: ‘Bangladesh could ask for Hasina’s extradition from India’

The issue is likely to be raised by both Labour and Tory MPs when parliament reconvenes after the summer recess on Monday….reports Asian Lite News

The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is under fresh pressure this weekend over controversial plans to limit winter fuel allowance to the poorest pensioners, amid claims that it will cause “severe hardship” to millions of elderly people.

The Observer has learned that the country’s leading charity for older people, Age UK, has written to Reeves with a specific proposal it believes will be fairer and that would prevent around two million pensioners being deprived of a payment it says they badly need.

The UK chancellor revealed plans in July to introduce a means test for the winter fuel payment, where only those on pensions credit would qualify, as part of a push to plug what she said was a £22bn black hole in the public finances left by the previous Conservative administration.

But many Labour MPs have reported being bombarded with complaints from constituents furious at the plan, which was not in Labour’s election manifesto. Last week, on a visit to Scotland, Reeves was told by a group of anxious Labour backbenchers that they did not believe the plans were fair.

The issue is likely to be raised by both Labour and Tory MPs when parliament reconvenes after the summer recess on Monday.

In a letter to Reeves, Age UK has put forward a detailed plan suggesting that, rather than limiting winter fuel payments to those on pension credit, the allowance should also be paid to two million more pensioners – those on a range of other benefits including housing benefit, council tax support, attendance allowance and carers’ allowance.

Confirming the move, Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: “Age UK has written to the chancellor, explaining why we oppose the means-testing of winter fuel payment and asking her to take action to safeguard the estimated two million pensioners who, as things stand, are set to lose it and who will experience severe hardship as a result.

“We think that, if the policy is to be introduced at all, then it shouldn’t happen so quickly, and if it is to happen in the future, the pool of pensioners entitled to winter fuel payment needs to be made far wider. There are different options for how to achieve this, but there’s no time to do any of them – or to make a big difference to pension credit take-up either – in the few months left this year.

“It’s important to understand that by aligning the means-testing of the payment with pension credit, the government is removing it from all pensioners whose annual incomes are above about £11,500 if they are single and £17,500 if they are a couple.

“We accept that the state of the public finances means that people of all ages who can afford to contribute more should be asked to do so, but surely no one can reasonably suggest that a widow living on her state pension and a tiny occupational pension, taking her income to a meagre £13,000 a year, is someone who ought to be in that category. And yet this is the result of the government’s decision. They need to think again.”

Reeves says that she is having to take “tough” decisions – more of which she will reveal in her first budget on 30 October – to fill a £22bn financial black hole left by the previous Tory government.

Writing in today’s Observer, Reeves says that on entering the Treasury she was briefed by officials about the alarming state of government overspending and told drastic action was needed to keep the economy stable.

“That first month it was made clear to me that, unless I acted urgently, market confidence in the UK’s fiscal position could be seriously undermined. That would have meant higher debt, higher mortgages, and higher prices in the shops. I was not prepared to let that happen.”

She says she took difficult decisions, including cancelling road projects, reviewing the new hospitals programme and asking government departments to find savings, as well as limiting winter payments to all but the poorest pensioners.

She adds: “I know these are tough choices, especially on winter fuel. They were not the choices I wanted to make or expected to make, but they were the right choices to put our country on a firmer footing. Because by taking the tough decisions now to protect the public finances we can begin the process of change.”

Asked if ministers would consider adopting Age UK’s plan and perform a partial U-turn, a government spokesman said: “We are absolutely committed to supporting pensioners and giving them the dignity and security they deserve in retirement. That’s why, through our commitment to protect the triple lock, over 12 million pensioners will see their state pensions increase by almost £1,000 over the next five years.

“But given the dire state of the public finances we have inherited, it’s right that we target support to those who need it most while we take the difficult decisions needed to fix the foundations of our economy.

“Over a million pensioners will continue to receive the winter fuel payment and eligible pensioners will also be able to benefit from the £150 warm home discount scheme from October to help with their energy bills over winter.

“We are urging pensioners to come forward and check their eligibility for pension credit to ensure as many people in need as possible have access to this support.”

ALSO READ: ‘Bangladesh could ask for Hasina’s extradition from India’