Is the UK’s populace suffering because of an abandonment of cultural education and enrichment? “Most people, especially when younger, have precious little access to or encouragement in the creative and civilising processes. In schools, music is a Cinderella subject. Teachers who might want to encourage an interest outside the curriculum in books, or poetry, or the past often meet with blind resistance from the parents whose role it would be to assist the enterprise in the long hours and days outside the classroom… It is no wonder there is a lack of cultural ambition among our people, because any squeak of interest is in effect suffocated at birth.”