Back the man destined to save the Swan

It is no exaggeration to say that this is the best possible news the city has had for some time.

The confirmation that the ailing theatre will soon be under new management has yet to be ratified by council cabinet, but nothing - short of something completely unforeseen - can now stop the wheels of change turning.

There is only one direction. And that is forward.

After months of uncertainty, blood, sweat and no shortage of tears, a solution has been found to the Faithful City's arts crisis.

No one should be under any illusion about the problems that Chris Jaeger will face. All eyes - both friendly and hostile - will be on him. Indeed, there will be some who may wish to see him fail.

But the vast majority of Worcestershire people will be joining the Evening News in wishing him well. For, as this column has pointed out in several occasions, there was only ever one candidate for the job.

In this one-horse race, the larger-than-life figure of the man who took the Huntingdon off life-support machine was always the only possible choice for a council under phenomenal pressure to find a solution.

Make no mistake. The future and fate of the arts in Worcester will soon be in the hands of the Deansway big guy with the Midas touch.

But the news of his impending appointment does not only gladden the hearts of theatregoers everywhere. There must be a number of Conservative councillors who will also be breathing more easily, not least Tory leader Stephen Inman.

This is the man who had the misfortune to grasp the nettle only to fall into that cesspit concealed in the undergrowth. And he certainly came out plastered from head to toe.

Scenting a quick kill, Worcester's Labour group threw a bit more for good measure, until the hapless councillor was positively steaming.

But to no avail. For he has now come up smelling of roses.

Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to recap on the campaign of disinformation by the Labour group. This was achieved by the omission of certain crucial details.

One of the reasons why they jumped on the Swan bandwagon - a case of blatant politicking if ever there was one - was the naked eagerness to create the impression that the council had withdrawn the Swan's funding completely. This was not the case.

Nowhere in the many self-righteous pronouncements was the public reminded that the grant top-up - agreed by the then-ruling Labour group - was for three years only.

This was the Worcester equivalent of Wacko Jacko's Neverland. At no point did anyone on the Labour group come clean and suggest what the long-term strategy might be.

If it was to throw taxpayers' money at it, then fair enough, thanks for being honest - but apart from MP Mike Foster's idea for a Swan "poll tax", no one said a dicky bird.

And at no time was it admitted that at some time a decision would have to be taken regarding the issue of extra funding. In fact, when the Tories took control, they extended the top-up by a further year.

Contrast this to the utterly fatuous suggestion by Labour group leader Adrian Gregson that the Tories had an anti-arts policy (You Say, Saturday, January 11).

This is the same correspondent who closed his letter by referring to a Swan board that included "many talented, committed and able people with experience in business, entertainment and Conservative Party politics."

So the Tories hate the arts - yet are present on the Swan board and are also able and talented, eh?

Make up your mind, Councillor. Are we singing from the same hymn sheet here?

However, if the Labour group was blundering around in the dark looking for scapegoats it was at least united on one thing. Don't mention Government funding, whatever you do. Meanwhile, nostrils were twitching with the whiff of May elections.

Coun Ian Imray hit the nail on the head when he wrote a letter challenging Mike Foster to admit the role of the Blair Government.

Referring to Whitehall's grant to Worcester City Council of three per cent - the smallest rise possible - he said: "Can you deny, Mr Foster, that this is the smallest grant in the country and that nowhere in the country received a smaller increase than Worcester?"

LATER on, in the same letter, Coun Imray took Coun Gregson to task, saying: "I remind him that his group only granted the theatre an additional grant for three years.

"If he and his Labour colleagues were so committed to retaining The Swan, why did they not make the grant permanent?"

Even You Say regular Peter Nielsen - an avowed Left-winger always happy to stick it to the Tories - joined the condemnation of New Labour's enthusiastic continuation of the Thatcher government's rate-capping policies of the 1980s.

Meanwhile, as the politicians scrambled for the moral high ground, the starry-eyed romantics who wanted the Swan to fund their acting careers courtesy of the taxpayer depleted the world's ink lakes with a writing campaign of almost unprecedented proportions.

With a few exceptions, the strategy - apparently orchestrated via the Swan's own website - followed a set format along the lines of wicked council/threat to tourism/philistines run the shop and should be strung up. Or words to that effect.

Not one of these letters came up with a solution other than the council taxpayer should just keep on subsidising the Swan forever and a day. Excuse me, but where else is such a financial philosophy the accepted wisdom?

There was a tragic naivety about that letter-writing campaign. Meanwhile, the amateurs had to bite their tongues and remained silent regarding what they really thought about the Swan's management.

True, a former inhabitant of the Moors broke ranks and agreed with the general thrust of a Phillpott File that called for Chris Jaeger to be given the top job.

But, as I said a few weeks ago, there was never a Plan B - and in the real world of negotiation and clinching deals, there always has to be more than one proposal on the table. It's called good business sense.

Which brings us neatly back to Chris Jaeger, the man who will soon - God willing - be putting Worcester on the theatrical map, right next to where he has placed the Huntingdon Hall.

With a change of branding, keeping folk-based music at the hall and developing the Swan as a receiving theatre - but not neglecting the amateur scene - there is no reason why Worcester shouldn't give Malvern and Stratford a run for their money.

For the first time in living memory, the possibility of the Faithful City as a centre of excellence in all the artistic disciplines is a very real prospect.

Indeed, Worcester is on the cusp of an exciting new era. And this is why all men and women of good faith should recognise this fact, put aside political differences and work to place this city right where it belongs - at the very top of artistic endeavour.

Leading from the front will be Chris Jaeger and his dedicated team. And that is why everyone must give him their blessing. The prize is a city with a flourishing entertainment scene that could - and should - be the envy of the Midlands.

Chris Jaeger needs your support. For if anyone deserves it, then it must surely be this man who now bears a very heavy responsibility on his shoulders.