“Two weeks ago, standing in front of a Tate Modern art icon, Tony Blair is grandstanding for an audience of cultural grandees, boosting the government’s funding record on the arts. Ere the champagne had time to warm or the canapes to curl, some government barbarian manages to dribble out the dire news that there will be a cut, effective April 1st. No press release, no consultation, no time for Professor Frayling, chair of the Arts Council England, or Peter Hewitt, its secretary general, to prepare even an emollient word.”