Following the Government announcement about spending cuts last Wednesday I was asked at short notice by the BBC Review Show if I would be happy to be part of a short debate about arts funding cuts. The panel was confirmed to include Ed Vaizey MP, the Culture Minister, Ben Bradshaw MP and Sir Nicholas Kenyon Managing Director of the Barbican Arts Centre in London. It was too good an opportunity to turn down. The discussion was to be pre-recorded at the National Portrait Gallery in London on Thursday and as I was already there for a meeting at Tate Modern that morning it all worked out well.It was an interesting experience! Arriving at the National Portrait Gallery I was met by members of the BBC team producing the programme, who we very welcoming and friendly, and taken to a gallery that had been closed off for the purposes of filming. As the other panel members arrived we were introduced to each other and did the arts-small-talk thing. Ed Vaizey was the last to arrive as he had been involved else where. He was followed shortly after by a small team of advisors/civil servants who took him to one side for a natter, I assume briefing. I was a bit uncertain as to how the discussion would go, politicians are very experienced at these encounters. However, Martha Kearney, the presenter is well used to refereeing these type of things and the discussion was all done in one take.The problem with these media things is that there is always so much more to say, and sometimes what you would like to say is unbroadcastable. We are facing some very difficult times and this discussion only scratched the surface, I’m sure there will be a lot more to come.