A friend of mine sits on various arts panels, and has given me information which suggests that it's not the regional arts councils' fault and heaps the blame entirely on the Labour government:

"Yes, the lack of arts funding is a huge problem. I sit on a number of the Arts Council Wales funding panels and I see the inside story. Funding is short because since the initial bonanza that was the lottery, the government has reduced its money to the Arts Councils. But now that fewer people are doing the lottery there is less lottery funding to go round and the government has not seen fit to plug the shortfall. Added to this they were happy to bid for the Olympics - having won the bid, they said that the regions would not suffer as a result of the Lottery having to find the lion's share of the cost - and then they get their business plans and financial projections absolutely wrong (how unusual) and now even more money is being sucked out of the lottery and therefore less money is available for the Arts Councils. Here in Wales the (Cardiff) Millennium Centre's business plans were clearly in error and the Welsh Assembly had to pitch in with extra funding. Fine for the Capital, but not for the rest of Wales and its arts venues. Also, in the last few years, the Local Regional Authorities (in the main) have also been reducing the amount of money they put to their own arts programmes - so I don't think you can entirely blame the Arts Councils. They are on a hiding to nothing."

In Wales, the Welsh Assembly is governed by a coalition of Labour, who form the largest party, and Plaid Cymru. Rhodri Glyn Thomas, the Plaid Cymru culture minister, told me that he is gravely concerned by arts cuts, but emphasises that there is no more money.

C'mon, Gordon - at least DO something...