A week ago Polly Toynbee lauded the British Labour Party’s record on the arts. MP Hugo Swire begs to differ: “She cites Labour’s brief increase in central arts funding, but fails to mention the massive cut in lottery funding for the arts – a fifth of funding destined for the arts has been used to fund the government’s pet projects. The result was an unprecedented cut in arts funding, far outweighing any rise in the Arts Council’s grant-in-aid budget.