One of the country’s leading composers has accused the SNP of “turning cultural endeavour into state propaganda” in a hard-hitting critique of the Scottish government’s arts strategy.
Sir James MacMillan says the Nationalist government is attempting to control culture for political purposes. Writing in The Times today, he says it has made “ambiguous” noises about safeguarding central funding and that a rise in money for Creative Scotland, the national arts-promoting agency, is a “sop” to the artistic community.
The SNP is anxious to keep its “artsy stormtroopers onside” because of the threat posed by a resurgent Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn to its support in any future independence referendum campaign, he writes.
“Many have regarded artists as instinctively inhabiting the left. In Scotland, many of