Cutting spending and upping taxes on the arts and culture will hit everyone, not just Wilders´ left wing elite, writes Sue Baker.

You can get the measure of a government by the way in which it treats the arts. In the case of the new Dutch government it has already become apparent that they know the cost of everything and the value of nothing, as Oscar Wilde so succinctly put it.
One of their first acts was to announce subsidy cuts for the arts of €400,000 plus a rise in value-added tax (btw) on theatre tickets from 6% to 19%. The subsidy cuts have now been reduced to a mere €200,000 but the VAT rise is still on the cards.
Such has been the outcry that VVD MPs are looking at an increase in the tax on insurance premiums rather than on theatre tickets. But Geert Wilders’ PVV is putting up strong opposition to this move on the grounds that we all need insurance but we don’t need to go to the theatre.
Borsato or Shakespeare
It must sound like a real vote winner to Wilders, but is he sure none of his voters goes to the theatre? He clearly has something against what he would term elite theatre – the Shakesperian and Chekovian plays, the opera and ballet productions. But there’s more to theatre than that.
Do PVV voters really never want to take their family to a musical or have a night out with friends swaying along to Dutch artists such as Marco Borsato or René Froger?
It is worth noting that he does think they go to football matches – value-added tax on these tickets will remain at 6%.
Still, he’s in good company. Most governments have no idea of the capacity of the arts to enhance the world and to earn a great deal of money in the process. Politicians like Wilders and prime minister Mark Rutte always sound understanding when questioned about the arts, but they have absolutely no idea of the social, spiritual and economic importance of the industry.

Sue Baker is DutchNews.nl´s arts correspondent