My first speech as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport...

I know that the vacancy has already been filled, but what the hell...

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining me here today.

Firstly, it is the convention to thank my predecessor for their hard work and to note their achievements in office but, given the circumstances of her passing, you will forgive me if I forego this opportunity.

Second, can I say how pleased I am to have this job. Naturally, you wouldn't expect me to say anything else but I am genuinely pleased to be at DCMS, as it gives me the opportunity to support and promote so many activities that bring joy to our busy lives.

So, what can you expect? Well, as the journalists amongst you will be preparing to ask me about my cultural influences for dissection by your readers, here's a sample of what I like.

On my iPhone, you'll find a couple of Franz Ferdinand albums, a lot of madrigals and quite a lot of keyboard and chamber music. I like football and cricket - I follow Luton Town, Needham Market, my local team, and was a Sussex member for a few years until getting to Hove became too difficult. I 'collect' UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and have travelled as widely as time and money have permitted. So, it will be compulsory madrigal singing in historic sporting arenas from here on in.

A quarter of a century ago, I served on a committee whose aim was to come up with a liberal culture policy for Europe. It wasn't a great success, as we got rather bogged down with the definition of the word 'culture', and it reminds me that, in separating out media and sport from culture, we risk downgrading them. So, each part of my portfolio is important to me, and I rely on you to tell me if I am devoting insufficient time to any aspect.

Some of my predecessors have taken a more free market approach towards the portfolio, assuming that quality will attract funding. And, to some extent, that must be true. Successful sports teams attract bigger crowds, more sponsorship etc, whilst popular films, television and music are not short of champions.

However, that does leave an awful lot of culture, in its widest sense, which struggles for recognition and support. I see our role at DCMS as to encourage emerging performers, athletes and other creators, providing opportunities for the public to participate in and experience the wealth of our cultural life and ensuring that we have as diverse a media as we can.

Naturally, this does require money, and there apparently isn't any, a point that Danny Alexander has made to me whilst welcoming me into the Cabinet. So, I'm evidently not going to be Lord Bountiful.

Accordingly, I'm going to have to ensure that we get as much as we can out of a budget which is likely to come under further pressure over the years ahead. That means working across government, with Vince Cable at BIS to make sure that the creative industries aren't overlooked by our trade envoys and when trade missions are sent off. It means providing as much funding as we can for tourism promotion, reaching out to new markets, such as India and China, with their emerging middle classes eager to travel. It also means considering whether tax breaks might help us to retain and grow sectors such as video games. I intend to encourage my civil servants to find imaginative ways of supporting our arts.

That's a flavour of my approach to the job, but now I'd like to throw the floor open to questions...