Monday, March 20, 2006
Glorious inaction
So what has happened to the Welsh Culture Minister? Has he gone off to sulk after losing a vote in the Assembly on how the top six Welsh Arts organisations should be funded? Has he decided that the best response to this vote is glorious inactivity?
Today's news that the Assembly Government has failed to advertise for a new Chair of the Arts Council of Wales - even though Geraint Talfan Davies leaves the post at the end of next week - is very disturbing.
I believe that the Government actually wanted to abolish the Arts Council as part of their bonfire of the Quangos but found that they were unable to do so because of the royal charter and the problems of distributing lottery money without an independent body. Having met this obstacle they then tried to emasculate the organisation by effectively removing its Chair and introducing direct funding for bodies hitherto dependent on the Arts Council for their survival.
Now that they have been foiled in this endeavour Labour seem intent on allowing the Arts Council to drift rudderless in the hope that it will run aground. Thus, the failure to advertise for a successor to Geraint Talfan Davies.
Of course it could just be incompetence on the part of the Government, but conspiracy theories are so much more fun, aren't they?
Today's news that the Assembly Government has failed to advertise for a new Chair of the Arts Council of Wales - even though Geraint Talfan Davies leaves the post at the end of next week - is very disturbing.
I believe that the Government actually wanted to abolish the Arts Council as part of their bonfire of the Quangos but found that they were unable to do so because of the royal charter and the problems of distributing lottery money without an independent body. Having met this obstacle they then tried to emasculate the organisation by effectively removing its Chair and introducing direct funding for bodies hitherto dependent on the Arts Council for their survival.
Now that they have been foiled in this endeavour Labour seem intent on allowing the Arts Council to drift rudderless in the hope that it will run aground. Thus, the failure to advertise for a successor to Geraint Talfan Davies.
Of course it could just be incompetence on the part of the Government, but conspiracy theories are so much more fun, aren't they?
