On the weekend, I was tagged into a tweet of a photograph from 1965 asking me if I could identify the location from the background surroundings. The photograph was entitled 'Brass band, Wales', and it was taken by Evelyn Hofer. It turned out to be a picture of the Mid-Rhondda Band, which is still going strong despite the challenges that all entertainers face because of COVID. When I shared the photograph on my local Facebook page, it quickly became apparent that generations of the same families have played in that band, and the descendants and family members of the men in the photograph were popping up on my page, and we even saw family members united for the first time as a result of that photo share.

So, a picture taken on the site of a former colliery in 1965 in my home patch of Penygraig says so much about our culture, our history and the importance of music in it. And, of course, now, all of these bands are struggling. They've been playing together and making music for decades. They've been through thick and thin and now their futures may be threatened by COVID. Our choirs are the same; they can't practice and they can't entertain us. Of course, we all understand the reasoning and that the priority has to be to stop the spread of COVID, but we must also not lose sight of how much people get from music making and what happens to us when we can't access it. We have to find ways, where we can, to enable music making to happen. It's so important to so many people.

Returning to that photograph, it reminded me of the words of one of my favourites, Welsh Marxist cultural critic Raymond Williams, when he said, 'Culture is ordinary'. To me, that short and simple statement is so important. So many aspects of our everyday culture have been changed or taken away. I talked about the impact of music, but the same is the case with the performing arts, comedy and all other forms of live entertainment. People work hard, earn money, and on weekends we may like to escape with the help of the arts or by going down the pub or the club or even the local bingo hall. Culture is ordinary, and so the culture of workingmen's clubs is as significant and it is as worthy of protecting as the more traditionally thought of aspects of our culture. And that goes for venues that are important to people of colour, like the Paddle Steamer Cafe, or the black history museum in Butetown that would serve many more people than military museums looking at music or medicine. How is this happening on Labour's watch?

So many communities have lost their local library, and pubs and shops may have closed, as well as community centres. The pub or the workingmen's club may be the only venue left. If that goes, that's it, cultural connections will be lost. It also goes for those venues that are important to our young people or gay people, like nightclubs and late-night music venues often located in prime spots in town centres or city centres. These venues need protecting so that club culture can carry on after COVID, because in nightclubs, people can party in a safe environment instead of being potentially attracted to alternative events like illegal raves.

I'm making these points to ensure that this debate includes all forms of culture. There cannot and should not be a hierarchy; different groups have different cultural expressions and all are valid and all need protecting.