Some great stuff in the Guardian by Michael Billington and Charlotte Higgins on the Tory manifesto (such as it is) on arts funding out today. Jeremy Hunt, shadow secretary for culture, describes the Conservative approach as 'radical'; what would really be radical is a government - of any stripe; this philistine Labour government is no better - recognising that the arts, which make up a poxy 0.07% of public spending, are one of the only sectors of the economy actually to have GROWN in the recession and that maybe public expenditure on culture is not a frivolous luxury but a human necessity. We got into this mess in the first place because we forgot what really mattered in the world - the arts are there to show us (cheaply, sometimes cheerfully, sometimes chasteningly) who we are. Always have done, always will.