What Was Creative Industries Policy? Film, Copyright and the Shift to Creative Economy

Abstract

No idea is more strongly associated with New Labour’s cultural policies than that of the ‘creative industries’. The term and some aspects of the way in which New Labour used it were picked up by national and local governments across the world (Cunningham, 2007; Flew, 2012; Ross, 2009). They were attracted not only by its seeming potential for justifying cultural expenditure of various kinds, but also by its association with the electoral success and modernising image of New Labour and its figurehead Tony Blair.