They distrust the economic and popular success of artists like Damien Hirst, Rachel Whiteread and Sarah Lucas. They prefer the arts to be unsuccessful, so that they can patronise them. It itself there is nothing wrong with that. A society ought to cultivate the best in art and culture. But the prejudice that everything popular is bad only indicates the underdog sentiment that lies at the heart of the Arts Council.
Snobbery can be a good thing, if it means a celebration of all that is excellent.
But believing in the superiority of high art ought to mean that it is worth sharing with the majority of people. If it really is excellent, then everybody ought to be able to see that it is so. But that is not the Arts Council's view. They think that the arts have to be defended against the degrading influence of ordinary people. An elitism you could respect would be one that had the confidence in what it had to put before the public.