Politicians are in a bind when it comes to talking about the arts. “Say nothing about the arts, and you outrage influential metropolitan liberals and buffet socialists, whose cocktail-party cri de coeur is the under-funding of their cultural playgrounds. Say too much, and you force diehards in the shires to join with chavs and “neets” to protest at taxpayers’ money going to fancypants bollocks that ought to pay for itself.”