Editorial: We must continue to support the Festival

We must continue to support the Festival

With his usual colourful turn of phrase, Jonathan Mills, has hit the nail on the head in expressing what the Edinburgh International Festival brings to the capital, to Scotland, and to the world.

Cutting back the Festival would, its director maintains, be like emptying the great works from the National Gallery and filling it with Banksies.

Mr Mills was speaking against the backdrop of the squeeze on public expenditure which is likely to hit the festival hard. More than 5 million of its funding comes from the public sector - mainly the Edinburgh City Council and the Scottish Arts Council, now Creative Scotland.

Now, Mr Mills is indulging in special pleading and there will be some who argue the arts, seen as elitist, should be amongst the first areas of public spending to curtailed at a time when vital public services like education or health are at risk.

It is an argument which does not stand much scrutiny. First, arts funding is a minute proportion of the overall public spending; and second when judging where taxpayers money is spent we should look at the return. Whilst the Festival is not perfect - money can always be better spent, or spent more wisely - it is one of the few genuine world-class activities we have. It must, therefore, continue to receive support from both public and private sectors.