The hilarious pessimist responds to the whining of the publicly-funded arts brigade:

On 16 May, the sculptor Anish Kapoor was reported to have complained vociferously of the stinginess of British government support for art compared with German. He delivered himself of a somewhat sweeping statement:

In Britain, traditionally – at least since the Enlightenment – we’ve been afraid of anything intellectual, aesthetic, visual.

Let us pass over in charitable silence this thumbnail sketch of our national mental existence since the beginning of the 18th Century. Let us instead remark on the artist’s locus standi to pronounce on such questions: for he is one of those many modern artists who would add considerably to the beauty of the world by desisting from their activities.

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If we must have publicly-funded art, as seems to be inevitable, let us at least have as little and cheap as possible.