Letters - A defining moment

From Josie Aston, Arts and health consultant

Geraint Talfan Daviess article (AP issue 114, 30 January) addressed an important topic, one that is, worryingly, getting little coverage in the English press. I wonder whether he ought to have given a definition of the arms-length principle in the article.

The BBCs website summarises it neatly as separating the politicians who hold the purse strings from the artists who receive the money. As someone who works frequently with NHS organisations, I feel that we are fortunate in the arts to have some protection from short-term party politics through the arms-length principle and will miss it if we lose it.