The sound of revving engines can be heard from the direction of the ‘Music Manifesto’. The long-awaited National Singing Programme is having a final coat of gloss applied before being wheeled out, gleaming, from the hangar, ready for take-off. How much? Ten million big ones! And lots of jobs are being advertised for pilots, mechanics and the like, who will help it fly somewhere. In all there are 37 vacancies, whose salaries add up to £500,000 for initial six-month contracts, with the possibility of extension to three years. Nice work?… To quote Richard Morrison in The Times on 22 August: ‘Most impenetrable jargon of the week? The government has set up a “National Singing Programme” to put songs back in schools. Its first priority? Recruiting trained music teachers? Buying pianos? Er, no. It is advertising for a “Workforce Development Strand Practitioner Networks Manager”. Not to be confused with the “Workforce Development Strand Regional Partnerships Manager”, which, apparently, the scheme also requires. If anyone out there has the faintest idea what these glamorous titles mean, they could earn themselves £26,500 a year.’ Quite so. But we wouldn’t be surprised to hear that the chaps with rubber truncheons have been round to see Richard already.

The flight manual, otherwise known as the National Song Book, is still under wraps. A suitable altimeter – which can show depths as well as heights – is probably also being worked on. We are not quite sure whether to believe the persistent and malicious rumours that it will include such British-made gems, from the production line of what we are assured is one of our most important ‘industries’, as We Don’t Need No Educashun or Glad to be Gay; though doubtless the appropriate (in every sense) boxes will need to be ticked before it’s time for chocks away.

A little while ago, a leading ‘Manifesto’ protagonist was kind enough to suggest, in his blog, that our doubts about whether the ‘Manifesto’ has any policies sounded hollow and politically contrived in the face of its 69 recommendations. Well, we have news for him (and possibly for others too): recommendations ain’t policies. Consequently, it is with some satisfaction that we carry a feature this month by the distinguished composer and academic Piers Hellawell, who cannot be tarred with the brush of hollowness and political contrivance: he observes politely that aims of the Manifesto are all very nice (which we’ve never denied) but their application may be pernicious (which we’ve never tired of pointing out).

Professor Hellawell’s essay is a major contribution to this year’s Battle of Ideas festival, which we are proud to be supporting. The Battle is an uproarious weekend of robust debate, where free speech is not just permitted, but enforced. Do come to the Royal College of Art on 27-28 October, and especially the Battle for Music on 27 October. You will hear speakers who, far from being just another brick in the wall, see themselves as windows, bringing light into a darkling world of ignorance, prejudice, cliché and banality. If anything is crucial for our art in these curious times, it is this debate. Visit www.battleofideas.org.uk and make a booking….

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