Money Matters

News in this week's Guardian on-line includes a piece about Newcastle City Council deciding to cut its Arts budget by 100 per cent.
This has been publicly backed by the shadow culture minister, Dan Jarvis, but criticised by many including the writer Lee Hall who said 'if as the shadow culture minister you cannot robustly and publicly defend the right of working-class and disadvantaged people to have access to libraries and culture, I do not understand what you are doing holding that brief'.

This little mess has prompted his boss, shadow culture secretary Harriet Harman, to deliver some damage limitation, but not in a way that stands up any sort of scrutiny. ‘There is not going to be a 100 per cent cut to the arts in Newcastle,’ she told The Guardian. ‘Across the board, they will be supporting the arts. I can’t give you the nitty-gritty . . .’
 
The facts, she means.
Actual, hard figures.
Finite numbers or information on where the funding will come from?
Anything at all that we can judge or evaluate?
Nope. Just some glib well-spun messages and the odd soundbite.

Maybe the plan is to leave one of those funny little notes for the next council leader telling him the money has run out so he can put it in a frame and ask the Arts Council if he can have a grant for it?