Britain has had some unlikely arts (and shadow arts) ministers over the years. But none so far-fetched, perhaps, as Dan Jarvis, latterly Major Jarvis, company commander in the Parachute Regiment, who won the Barnsley Central byelection last March and is now three months into his role as shadow culture minister. It's a swift rise and it's easy to see what a valuable scalp he is for Ed Miliband's Labour: an officer who has just received an MBE for his military record, and who has been a committed Labour member since his teens. But is Jarvis, whose last frontline role was with the Special Forces Support Group in Afghanistan, right for the job of culture spokesman?
The night before we met, he was helping launch Labour Friends of the Forces, set up to "demonstrate the value Labour places on the defence community". This, understandably, seems more comfortable territory for him than the arts. As Jarvis himself says: "I have never tried to pretend I was in and out of the ballet every night of the week prior to getting this job, because I wasn't." His personal circumstances have also militated against a committed cultural life: his wife died of cancer in 2010, leaving two young children. The children now live in Barnsley, cared for during the week by Jarvis's new partner and other family members; the balance between his domestic life and the draining Westminster merry-go-round is kept workable by being "incredibly well-organised".
Impeccably courteous, with a tough-looking, stringy physique that speaks of military life as well as an abiding love of the mountains, Jarvis's very mode of speech recalls his former career. He talks about bearing "a torch of responsibility" for both Barnsley and the cultural sector. He will, he implies, bring a military vigour to the job: "I need to apply rigorously the standards that I have brought from outside." He talks of the most challenging part of his army career: his deployment to Afghanistan in 2007, when he left his late wife, who had already had two bouts of cancer, at home with their children. "She was adamant I should go," he says. "They were tough, dark times. Politics can be brutal. But I don't think things could ever be how they were at that time in my life. I do think it's given me a perspective. If people say something mean to me on Twitter, it's not the end of the world."
He has set in train various pieces of work he hopes will be of use to the arts, including a "vision for growth through our creative industries". These industries, he says, "are a massively important sector of the economy. They account for 8% of GDP, put £50bn into the economy, millions of pounds of exports, two million jobs." Jarvis comes out with such figures as if they are a revelation, which perhaps they are for him: it's a reminder that he is coming at the subject from a position of almost complete ignorance. Still, he seems to have the appetite and energy to master the issues. He's working on creating an index of value for the arts (again, veteran watchers of cultural policy will feel a sense of deja vu), and setting off on pilgrimages to get a sense of the arts in the regions. "Frankly, it's a joy – most of the people within this world are naturally interesting characters. There are some great characters in the British army, but by and large it's a different kind of person to someone I would be sat next to at the theatre or the ballet."
What of his own hinterland? Army life, he says, left little in the way of leisure time. "But reading is something people did a lot because the reality is you might not have electricity. If you are deployed in a forward operating base, to have a book with you is a good way of trying to shut off from the world around you." What did he read in Afghanistan? "Something like Charles Dickens is a good thing because it's very descriptive … I am interested in political biographies and diaries. Alan Clark's diaries and Chris Mullin's. If something is genuinely funny, that's quite a good thing."
I'm intrigued: what Dickens did he read? "Well, I think I've probably read them all at different times. When people ask me about Afghanistan, my favourite way of describing it is through a Dickens quote: best of times, worst of times. I am not going to say I spent hours reading Dickens in Afghanistan because I didn't and that's not how it was. But I did dip in and out. I quite enjoy having a number of books on the go. My bedside cabinet has seven or eight books on it."
I wonder what he's reading at the moment, and he confesses to Mehdi Hasan and James Macintyre's recent biography of his boss, Ed Miliband. He likes Wilfred Thesiger, author of classic travel books Arabian Sands and The Marsh Arabs, although "he was quite a peculiar character … not someone you'd want to share a tent with". Somewhat wistfully, he adds: "The nature of my life is I can't go to the Hindu Kush and spend weeks or months there, or the Himalayas or the Karakoram or K2. As Basil Fawlty said, 'That particular avenue of pleasure has been closed off.' But I can access it, albeit briefly, through books."
He tells me he has come to understand the deep emotional power of images. When his wife died, he was drawn to a photograph of the Welsh mountain Cader Idris, taken by his friend Robin Goodlad. "I have probably been up that mountain 50 times," he says. "There's a great local legend that says if you spend the night on the summit, as I have several times, you either end up as a madman or a poet. It's very isolated and remote. I got hold of Robin's photo and put it in my bedroom and I found it comforting." How on earth did he cope? "You have two options. You deal with it or you don't. If you have two kids, your ability to be up on the moors wailing about it is limited. I have always been at my best when my back's been against the wall."
The traditional question to politicians beginning an arts job is what they've seen recently at the cinema: a rough-and-ready indicator of how in touch they are culturally. Jarvis doesn't even get on to the scoreboard, saying: "This position doesn't afford luxurious opportunities to stroll out to the cinema." But he does watch films on DVD: recently Hope and Glory, John Boorman's 1987 tale of a young boy growing up during the Blitz; and 1994's Muriel's Wedding. He also enjoys The X Factor.
I had previously suggested to Jarvis that he see Michael Sheen in Hamlet at the Young Vic in London. What did he think? "It's quite a long production. I arrived at a quarter to seven and didn't leave till after 11. I confess, I turned my phone on during the interval. I still find, to be honest, that it takes me 45 minutes to an hour to ease into watching something because my mind's still whirring away. But I thought Michael Sheen was amazing. By anybody's standards, it was a deeply impressive performance."
Jarvis is a confusing proposition as shadow culture minister. On the one hand, there is his self-confessed unfamiliarity with the subject. But that is offset by what is clearly a burning sense of duty, wrought from years in the army, to do a job well. The danger is that as soon as he has assimilated enough to be an effective shadow to Ed Vaizey, he will be reshuffled. Needless to say, he counters this, saying that he hopes he and his boss, shadow culture secretary Harriet Harman, will be doing their current jobs in government in three and a half years' time.
"I have genuinely become passionate about this," he says. "I see great opportunities to do great things. I'm not doing this on the back of a fag packet."
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9 January 2012 10:03PM
I've got to be honest - I'd rather have someone like this guy, who recognises he isn't the world's leading expert on the subject but is happy to learn, as opposed to some numpty that thinks a 1st in PPE makes them God's gift to any subject they decide to accept.
Plus - almost uniquely amongst politicians - he actually has experience of life beyond westminster (or indeed, north of Oxford). In fact, can he replace someone more senior please?!
9 January 2012 10:03PM
Mr Jarvis, you may well enjoy Howard Brenton's 'The Churchill Play' ... or take your children to see 'War Horse'. Best of luck with familiarising yourself with the brief. We need someone with combat experience to defend the budget slashing of mindles Tories.
9 January 2012 10:07PM
This is the shadow arts minister speaking? Wow, the UK's fucked.
9 January 2012 10:11PM
Respect to the man and admiration for coping with his personal circs but thank goodness he will never have to do the job properly. Surely his experience and qualities would be better used elsewhere? I detect not a mote of true empathy with an arts brief here - not important, oh, unless you plan to be a culture minister. Not quite a Jennie Lee in the making IMHO.
9 January 2012 10:12PM
After the devastating failure of the Republican austerity, Roosevelt placed great importance on the Arts when re-building the American economy.
Jarvis should learn his brief well - he'll need it.
9 January 2012 10:13PM
Wilfred Thesiger, author of classic travel books Arabian Sands and The Marsh Arabs, although "he was quite a peculiar character … not someone you'd want to share a tent with". .... '
Dan Jarvis sounds a bit homophobic here, does he not? Bit odd for someone taking up an arts portfolio?
9 January 2012 10:13PM
What...?
9 January 2012 10:14PM
Perhaps Labour should approach Kenny Branagh for the shadow defence brief...
Seriously, I'm with JCooper. Give him a chance...he has one massive plus in my book, no bloody PPE....
9 January 2012 10:14PM
Ted Hughes´ poetry may well appeal - and I´d make a special case for his slim translations of The Oresteia of Aeschylus and The Metamorphoses of Ovid which are probably the best introductions people like us have to the Classics: his Oresteia in particular is visionary, violent, hard and unsparing and possibly my favourite book.
Ted Hughes. That´s my recommendation. The greatest English poet since the Romantics.
9 January 2012 10:15PM
Your kids need you more than the arts do.
Come back when they've grown-up...
9 January 2012 10:17PM
Thank you for posting something remotely positive about Labour for once. Sure beats reading critical reports about Ed, on top of more praise for Tory it-girl Louise Mensch.
So Mr Jarvis isn't perfectly versed in arts and culture. I've heard him interviewed on several occasions since he won the Barnsley Central by-election. A pretty decent, humble man who no sense of pretension! Qualities one rarely finds in today's British politicians.
9 January 2012 10:17PM
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9 January 2012 10:18PM
I wish this guy could be our defence minister, i bet he would shake up Whitehall!
Imagine the experience a CC 1 Para could bring to the post.
9 January 2012 10:18PM
I dunno, maybe Melvyn Bragg would be a good idea as shadow defence sec,
better still send him out to Helmand with some pamphlets on Pinter or sumink.
Jesus Wept.
9 January 2012 10:21PM
"A pretty decent, humble man who no sense of pretension! Qualities one rarely finds in today's British politicians."
Correction: *with*
9 January 2012 10:23PM
What darkness lies in his ambition to become a politician, from a previously honourable commission?
Bliad
9 January 2012 10:25PM
This may seem silly, but wouldn't it make more sense to have a man with a military background in charge of defense?
This may be a crazy and revolutionary idea, but wouldn't it be cool if the minister for Arts had a background in art? Then they'd know what they were talking about.
The minister for sports could have a sporting background!
I imagine they just pick out the jobs from a hat.
Ed: So Dan, what was your previous job? Dan: I was in the army and have extensive knowledge of military issues. Ed: Ooh, so you'd make a great Defence Minister? Dan: I think I would Ed: Well lets hope you get the position...now pick a number from this hat. Dan: It's number 7 Ed: Oooh bad luck, you're now the Minister for Arts. Better luck next time.
9 January 2012 10:26PM
Bah, that totally ruined my dialogue example.
9 January 2012 10:26PM
Company Commander in PARA - not exactly Montgomery is he; the article does not state his rank, nor age, but he can't be more than a Major.
Still, good luck to him.
Bliad
9 January 2012 10:27PM
I wonder if he's ever killed anyone.
9 January 2012 10:32PM
Great another person who isn't really THAT interested in the arts being given the brief.
9 January 2012 10:32PM
In my previous job, I was the arts person who had to work with the military folk. It worked surprisingly well, and sometimes better than when I had to work with other arts sectors. The arts have a way of doing things and the military have a very different way of doing things (the hierarchy! the 20 page action plans!) yet somehow, because they're so different, they work in a really complementary manner. Some of my most rewarding working relationships were with military, which was certainly something I never would have anticipated before taking the job.
9 January 2012 10:32PM
Better a Major than an out of touch MOD Queen. Btw, the article states his rank, also mentioning his 1 para credentials.
The tories have Col Bob Stewart. A lovely man, but he spent too long sitting behind a desk to have his finger on the pulse, unlike Maj Jarvis.
9 January 2012 10:32PM
Phwoarr.
Sorry.
9 January 2012 10:34PM
Actually, no (well not always). As the first comment suggests, sometimes its better to have someone who comes without all the baggage and thinking they know the industry inside out because they did a bit of panto at Oxbridge in the 60s. Similarly, an ex-soldier in charge of the defense portfolio can create all sorts of loyalty tensions between civilian and enlisted factions.
9 January 2012 10:34PM
More than likely, but not a question a professional would answer.
9 January 2012 10:37PM
Politics has a hard time with culture. It recognises that it's something we all do, but doesn't follow through and accord it consequential importance in terms of appointments, but instead assumes that it's something that therefore we can all do more or less as well as each other. Imagine taking the same approach to similarly universal briefs like health or finance (not that the current incumbents in either of those seats are radiant arguments for expertise, but even so). Then the ministers in question are treated as reshuffle fodder - just imagine what Mark Fisher could have achieved if Blair hadn't sacked him for daring to say boo.
9 January 2012 10:38PM
Imagine him as leader.
He'd put the fear of god into Cameron and can you imagine the right-wing press attacking an ex-para Labour leader the way the normally attack Labour leaders.
9 January 2012 10:47PM
So , this is what you have to do to become a Labour MP these days ? Dash orf abroad and bomb Johnny Foreigner ....
9 January 2012 10:47PM
Only to have Cameron re-appoint David Davies - full time Para vs TA SAS would make for excellent debates and pretty strong policy
9 January 2012 10:48PM
Try reading the article. The first sentence gives his rank as Major.
9 January 2012 10:48PM
An elite infantry officer has brains as well as muscle, he would be an excellent cat amongst the pigeons. Perhaps we should sit him next to Mr Balls, lets see Cameron call him names!
9 January 2012 10:49PM
Epic fail.
9 January 2012 10:51PM
So, he's gone into politics! Can he do any worse than this century's lot? He's the right man for the Thatcher/Blair/Cameron mentaliy. Bomb the bastards and ask questions afterwards (well, not too many questions please). Arts? What the Carter is that?
9 January 2012 10:52PM
No PPE degree that's true, but he does have a degree in politics from Aberystwyth - so he probably would've liked to have done PPE!
Shockwave: some soldiers have degrees. Shockwave two: just because he's not been in the Westminster bubble and has instead been pointing guns at things, doesn't mean he'll be some revolutionary new kind of politician.
9 January 2012 10:59PM
However, unlike this particular Arts Minister, he may be familiar with the reality behind 'Black Watch'.
http://theministerspen.blogspot.com/2010/10/barrage-of-bad-language.html
9 January 2012 11:08PM
I don't think the "auld forty twa" would care much for the opinions of a "droplet".
9 January 2012 11:25PM
A shadow culture minister who doesn't know anything about culture? Seems fine by most of the commentators here though. What happened to meritocracy? What happened to logic? Pathetic. Labour - and, its seems, their followers - have truly lost the plot.
9 January 2012 11:27PM
Hey... RESULT!!! NuLab (sorry - IrrelevantLab) have found a shadow arts (yes, really) minister who is going to be even more of an embarrassment than Kim 'Conceptual art is all bullshit' Howells.
Good one, Ed - a few more own goals like this and Dave Cameron will be Our Pres FOR EVER...
9 January 2012 11:31PM
Humbug!
9 January 2012 11:33PM
the current culture minister Ed Vaizey's curriculum is not impressive or related to arts (unless the Blue book can be called a 'book') and we know what he is doing to the arts.
good luck to this guy. sometimes you don't have to fully understand everything that you are running, if you have a vision and the balls, you will provably do a good job.
9 January 2012 11:36PM
you mean like putting a GP to run MoD? that kind of losing the plot?
9 January 2012 11:37PM
My next piece will be called laying mines on the lawn. It's kinetic sculpture.
10 January 2012 12:17AM
Can't believe the friends of Ed couldn't find him a more suitable post. Well, actually, I can but presumably he's there mainly to familiarise himself with the day to day grind of official responsibility beyond that brought to bear by his constituents (rather than to draw up a radical blueprint for the future of the arts and of the so-called creative industries in Britain).
10 January 2012 12:21AM
So reading Dickens (although he couldn't name a single book) qualifies him for the role of shadow arts minister? How very contemporary.
Tom Watson MP could've combined this with his role as - Labour Party Deputy Chair and Campaign Coordinator -and in all likelihood, would've still done a better job too , albeit part time.
10 January 2012 12:25AM
I agree, and I would probably classify myself as a labour follower (for what it's worth).
This bloke will probably be fine attempting to recreate Cool Britannia ... without the slightest situationist insight.
In contemporary politics presumably culture is just a euthemism for big bucks leisure and tourism.
Forget the idea that it might be worth appointing someone who has at least a basic grasp of first and second order aesthetics, or who might at least intuit the vertical from the horizontal ... then again, with Hunt in charge we may as well accept that culture minister is just another term for mollusc.
10 January 2012 12:40AM
In the runup to the last election Ben Bradshaw is reported as saying:
"We need a few more luvvies to be jumping up and down about it because that is not happening at the moment. I am trying to provoke them into doing it."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/nov/03/ben-bradshaw-bbc-tories-luvvies
I like the arts and creativity but I hate the arts lobby acting as - and being used as - a claque and I think Dan Jarvis is a good appointment because he's dealt with this problem by offering other ways forward.
All in all I think Ed Miliband did well with the last reshuffle. Harriet Harman being in so many jobs might be a problem in government but in opposition gives the opportunity to spread the culture message across briefs in a way Ed Vaizey has candidly admitted is a problem in government.
Labour is also well placed with pro-arts members in the wild like the promising Alison McGovern and (whatever the Arts Council thinks) Tom Watson.
10 January 2012 12:46AM
Forget giving him the Arts make him Labour leader .
i know he has zero experience but he is a honest man unlike Cameron .
I know i am thinking out of the box but Ed is going nowhere .
10 January 2012 3:40AM
He'll be Labour Prime Minister inside 15 years. You read it here first.
10 January 2012 5:37AM
The two words you used are on the the list of banned words for 2012. Either jointly or singly. I might cut you some slack if you live in the UK. Make that 2013.