2 No company can be too big to fail

It is 30 years since the Arts Council last axed a large funded company, Kent Opera. That rigour must return. If an arts body outlives its usefulness or gets into deep deficit, it must be allowed to die. It is completely unfair for the grass roots to be penalised for the misdemeanours and failures of large companies. 

3 No more equality funding

London orchestras receive roughly the same grant, even though two of them outperform the rest. The Arts Council exists to judge art on merit. It should support the good and deny the unworthy.

4 Spread art fairly around the country

The south-west — a Lib Dem stronghold, and one of the poorest regions — has no theatre or orchestra provision. East of Cambridge — prosperous and high-tech — has very little, either. Under Tory governments, the ACE boosts country towns, under Labour the industrial heartlands, notably the north-east. 

The ACE must send art where it is most needed. Cornwall needs state support; in Cambridge, industry can help out. 

5 International art in the national interest

Keynes created the conditions for London to become a world capital of creativity. Work of the highest quality will always take place where there is the greatest concentration of population and creators. London is in a class of its own, the nation's shop window and the only UK city to produce work of consistent world class. Investing in London's arts yields is repaid many times over in foreign revenue. Every film, every play, every concert series, earns national prestige and export orders.

In the coming years, regional orchestras and theatres will have it tough since they are least well equipped to attract private, corporate and overseas funding. The ACE must do its utmost to sustain the fine orchestras in Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and the south coast. 

But provincial provision must not be made at the expense of the nation's centre of excellence. London cannot come last in the shareout.