As Jack Gamble, director of the lobbying group Campaign for the Arts, said at the weekend: “[CS] rightly maintains reserves for an emergency but none of us expects that emergency to be created by the Scottish government.”

He pointed out that it was impossible for arts organisations to plan for the future when there was no guarantee of future funding. “How, at a time when the cultural sector has so much to give, can it be treated in such a reckless and haphazard way by ministers whose job is to support it?” he asked.