It was a rough year for the arts in Scotland, and Duncan MacMillan says it didn’t have to be that way. “Since devolution public funding of the arts has increased, but by considerably less than it has in the same period in England. So words and deeds don’t match and there is ground to be made up before any new dispensation can even begin.” More disturbing is the seeming indifference of the Scottish executive to the problem, and the unwillingness of politicians to confront the atrophy of treasured Scottish institutions.