An organisation so bloated with lucre does not make a convincing Oliver Twist, but the Government is a weak denier. It may pay up, but there won't be much applause. Even the football faithful are not clamouring to get stuck on the North Circular as a prelude to being ripped off for greasy hotdogs and watching England lose 6-1 to Croatia. Something has shifted in the national cultural psyche. Football, suddenly, is out.
Art is in.
This week, a second cultural colossus celebrates its first anniversary. A nation once obsessed by soccer is suddenly mad for conceptual art. It would, of course, be absurd to suggest that audiences are interchangeable. They are unlikely to mistake Rauschenberg for an inhabitant of the Bayern Munich subs' bench or think that French expressionism is what leads to another red card for Arsenal's Patrick Vieira. While a football fan is not necessarily a visual arts buff, both are part of a new classlessness.