We can all do without art for short periods, and some people have no use for it at all. This is the ghost that haunts the Arts Council, whose annual report was published last week.
Ours is a society which, quite properly, tries to balance the claims of all its members. Yet it has been accepted in every age that it is the function of the State to encourage the arts. But even when the principle that the State should support the arts is accepted, all the really difficult questions are left unanswered: how much should be spent, and who should spend it.
These are questions which the Arts Council cannot be expected to answer.
A Royal Commission on the Arts would give an opportunity for a thorough public discussion of a subject on which there are a great many opinions, but very little detailed information.
A Royal Commission would be not only the best way of seeing whether our present State patronage makes sense, but the only way of gaining the public support needed to increase and extend that patronage.
Key quote
“By winning Operation Hat-Trick we shall have taken the robbers’ castle of socialism, torn down its battlements, stormed its keep, and liberated its dungeons.”
Lord Hailsham urges the Tories to a third term at the Conservative party’s Blackpool conference.
Talking point
Since Britain began putting its “partnership” plan for Cyprus into operation 10 days ago, bloodshed and violence have reached unprecedented peaks. The murder of a British Army wife in Famagusta, followed by a British round-up of suspects in which 250 Greeks were reported injured and three died, profoundly shocked world opinion.
Observer news report
