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Sacha Lord, the Night Time Economy Adviser for Greater Manchester, rented the largest digital billboard in the city to display an ad of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the words: “I ignored 3.8 million self-employed… because they didn’t vote Tory.” The billboard is located directly above the Conservative Party Conference, which was held last week in the city centre. He also rented vans to play the digital ads on their backs.
Lord, who is the co-creator of Parklife Festival and The Warehouse Project, posted a statement on social media explaining his reasons. “During the pandemic we witnessed the complete and utter decimation of the events industry,” he said. “Freelancers were left with no financial support whatsoever.
“I witnessed families break up, marriages dissolve, houses repossessed. I even know of two people who took their own lives, they simply could not live riddled with so much debt. There were, in total, 3.8 million self-employed people who were left to fend for themselves. At the time, none of us could work out why was the Chancellor doing this,” he continued.
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Playing a previous interview of Sunak, Lord then said: “3.8 million people were left out to dry. The reason being, he didn’t believe they would vote Conservative. He put politics before lives.
“So if you were one of those people who were excluded, or had your lives ruined, this is for you. This must never, ever happen again. It’s a disgrace. And we should never forget the injustice these people suffered.”
Lord has previously called for the government to reinstate their former drug-testing policy. Parklife has offered on-site drug testing in collaboration with drug-checking charity The Loop for a decade. However, the charity were informed 48 hours before the festival that they had to apply for a license (which can take up to 16 weeks). It was the first time in ten years that Parklife could not offer on-site drug testing. Lord called the Home Office’s U-Turn a “reckless disregard for the safety of festival goers”, adding: “Without this facility we are putting people’s lives at risk”.
Meanwhile, the Music Venue Trust (MVT) recently warned that the government’s “failure to act on energy bills” will “inevitably” mean 2023 will be the worst year for closures since the MVT’s creation in 2014. They said: “We welcome the support for theatres, museums, art galleries and orchestras, but once again we note that all of the Chancellor’s announcements on tax relief for these sectors exclude Grassroots Music Venues and artists.”
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