In response to the idiot McMaster.

1) That the board of every cultural organisation should contain at least two artists and or practitioners.

Most cultural organisations staff are filled with artists themselves so having a self serving artist on the board helps no-one. It is proven that artists have little or no understanding of administration and organisation in the arts so i believe it is best that instead of enforcing this rule it would be beter to stipulate that boards liase with artists whose work lies within a particular field of interest that the organisation wishes to take. This should be a requirement to ensure sound decision making.

2) That all publicly funded cultural organisations remove admission charges for everyone for one week each year to address the endemic ‘it’s not for me’ syndrome.

Seeing as the arts council has recently had its budget slashed i find the idea of making those who have actually retained their funded status bow to a free admission charge for a week inherently stupid and shows no recognition of the extra costs incurred by these organisations by doing this. Who says that just because cultural organisations receive public funding they must cut another vital source of income? I think this government really has no idea of how badly the arts need money. If arts organisations do this then the goverment must meet the costs.

3) That the ten most innovative cultural companies receive ten-year funding packages to support their ambition.

Equally insane. So you've made your decision and you have your ten most innovative cultural organisations. They've got their funding. Then what? Do you do the same next year or is this some ten year contest? If its every year how do you budget for it? If its every few years how do you stop conflict arising from those who have missed out on this golden goose? Is it not possible that this leaves many organisations out in the cold who are then left to turn to corperate funding to survive? Does this not than create some sort of league for arts organisations? It sounds like another method of control similar to the stranglehold that the Times has over education.