The phrase “the axe has fallen” is forbidden at AP Towers in an attempt to curb its hideous ubiquity. However, in the light of this week’s news, an axe is the most appropriate metaphorical tool in the shed. These are not judicious cuts – or “efficiency savings” as the DCMS delicately calls them. This is cultural slash and burn. Criticise the bureaucracy of quangos if you will (and we will), but we must recognise that the arm’s length principle is what is supposed to keep the sector relatively free from the diktats of government. If these arm’s length bodies are further eroded – as is about to happen to the UK Film Council – then the arts might be pressured into seeking the kind of philanthropic support that the Tories favour, or becoming directly beholden to politicians’ whims for their funds. This means that existing problems become more pronounced – namely whether artistic integrity and independence can survive direct interference from funders, be they government or private donors. There are promises from the DCMS that reallocation of Lottery funds will help to plug the gaps, but as Jeremy Hunt blithely models to halve the number of DCMS staff, it becomes impossible to believe that Lottery money will be enough to paper over the cracks. Hunt categorically promised, when in opposition, that the arts would not be singled out when cuts were made. Now that he’s in power, he has abandoned his scalpel in favour of the axe – and is swinging it dangerously close to the bone.