The Scottish government’s plan to “save” Scottish Opera has looked a lot more like an attempt to destroy it, as many in the music world have noted. But politicians don’t tear down public institutions simply for fun, so the question is begged: what exactly turned the Executive against the opera? Andrew Clarke thinks he has the answer: “In a small, newly devolved country, there is no political capital to be made from supporting the most capital-intensive art form. Rightly or wrongly, opera is perceived by many Scots as a class-ridden activity without local roots.”