Arts Council England finally achieved the public recognition it deserves yesterday. According to the Public Accounts Committee, it is utterly useless. This will surprise no one who has observed its activities over the past 25 years.
In the visual arts it has long used its freedom to institutionalise what is now called “the cutting edge”. Everyone who did not share its blinkered understanding of what was “challenging” and “avant garde” was excluded, and continues to be. Its tyrannical censorship and prejudices in this area continue to beggar belief.
But it was when the council took control of the lottery money