Why did no one on at BBC4's Arts Question Time dare to test the liberal consensus that the state has a sacred duty to support the arts, or ask anything that people outside the magic circle of 'arts' initiates might want to know, asks Rupert Christiansen.
I dozed off a couple of times during Sunday night’s BBC Four special Arts Question Time, chaired by Kirsty Wark. OK, I admit to be being dosed up against a stinking cold and imbibing a glass or two of wine, but the root cause of my sinking into the land of Nod was the tedium of a show (which promised to discuss "the challenges, opportunities, failings and future of the arts in the UK") almost primly determined not to disturb any piety or test any orthodoxy.
Instead the liberal consensus that the arts were a great social good and that the state had a sacred duty to support them went unexamined... Keep reading on The Telegraph