Make Way For The Ministry Of Culture
The National Heritage Department could soon be renamed the Ministry of
Culture. National Heritage Secretary Chris Smith said he was considering changing the name of the Department to reflect the "forward-looking nature" of its role.
"I would hope that before too long we could come up with a new name that gave
something of the flavour of the forward-looking nature of what the department is all about," he said.
Mr Smith said that the word heritage reminds people of the past, not of a dynamic New Labour future.
"I would actually quite like to change the name of the department because at
the moment, of course - although heritage is a very important part of what the
department does, it's only a part and it's a name that really has a flavour of
the past about it...Whereas this is a department which primarily is interested in the future - all the work on film, broadcasting, the media and the cultural life of the country ..."
National Heritage Department
The department, covering the arts, media, heritage and sport, was created in
by John Major in 1992.
Former Tory MP David Mellor, who lost his Putney seat at the election, was
appointed the first National Heritage Secretary and the position was subsequently nicknamed by the press as "Minister For Fun".
The department has become one of the largest of its kind in the world and taken
responsibilities from the departments of trade, and sport.
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