Britain’s new culture minister says the battle for access to the arts has been won. “When I was cultural adviser at No 10 a decade ago people talked about access and excellence. Some people thought that access was dumbing down, that the government wanted all orchestras to be playing symphonic versions of REM, and there was a genuine debate. Coming back 10 years on, people are saying to me we can take all that for granted now, it’s in the bloodstream of British arts. I think that’s true.”