PROMS FESTIVAL

That this House notes that the Proms is the world's most successful festival of classical music and congratulates the organisers, musicians and audiences that make it so; begs to differ with the Minister for Culture, Creative Industries and Tourism, the right hon. Member for Barking, in her comments reported in The Guardian newspaper on 4th March that the Proms fail to demonstrate that people from different backgrounds feel at ease being part of it; humbly submits that it is not the job of Beethoven or Brahms, Vaughan Williams or Vivaldi, Glass or Gershwin to make people feel at ease, although they do; and expresses the desire that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport refrains from insisting that the role of art is to be representative, a function it can perform perfectly well on its own if artists so choose.