PlatForm – You?ve been quango?d – by Liz Hill and Brian Whitehead, Co-editors

That the Arts Council of Wales has its neck firmly on the block (p1) comes as no real surprise. ArtsProfessional reported as long ago as 2002 (issue 22, March 25) that the Welsh Assembly Government was ?riding roughshod over the arm?s length principle and putting noses out of joint big time by allocating to direct funding of the arts and bypassing all the usual mechanisms for distributing cash to arts bodies?, and this has been a recurring theme ever since.
The lack of consultation though, (reminiscent, of course, of the Arts Council of England?s swallowing up of the Regional Arts Boards) has clearly come as a shock ? not least because Rhodri Morgan has a raft of legal issues to address before he can realise his apparent nirvana of control over the cultural landscape in Wales. Many of the organisations he will be seeking to subsume are registered charities, some with Royal Charters, and it may be that the Assembly lacks the necessary powers to execute its wishes. The First Minister himself has admitted that his plans could involve primary legislation ? possibly from Westminster ? and that this could delay the timetable. But any intervention by Westminster might have interesting implications, paving the way, perhaps, for the Blair government to implement its recently-announced cuts in public spending costs through a similar ?bonfire of the quangos?. Arts Council England would be right to be nervous; and even more so the Scottish Arts Council, whose former Chair jumped ship to undertake precisely the sort of review that seems to have been the missing link in Wales. But what?s the betting that the outcome will be just the same ? review or no review ? and that we?ll be saying goodbye to the Scottish Arts Council before too long as well?