esn’t love writing. She may like certain writers (she’s very enthusiastic about her friends’ woeful poetry, for example) but she doesn’t even understand what writing is. She sought employment in a field where freedom of speech is first principles stuff and then tried to censor and cancel a writer with whom she personally disagreed.
Naturally, Creative Scotland tried to cover it all up.
The organisation went through a “disciplinary” procedure and allowed Tarbuck to remain in post. Not only that, it was agreed she would not deal with “gender critical” writers to avoid a “conflict of interest”.
That is deranged. Tarbuck is a living, breathing conflict of interest. Not only was she protected, her bosses made life more comfortable for her, removing from her the triggering duty of reading and thinking about things that made her unhappy, and allowing her to stay, a malevolent presence, a schoolyard bully given legitimacy, and then protected, by cowardly and amoral philistines.
The scandals swirling around Creative Scotland are many and bleak. The cumulative effect should be the humiliation of those senior executives who protected their six-figure pay and pension packages, while ignoring their responsibilities to the public purse, and then cut funding for new artists….
Naive artists, writers and musicians have spent much of the past week urging the Government to step in with a financial boost for Creative Scotland. It’s time for them to wise up.
Our national arts quango now exists only to employ those who work for it.
If you’re an artist with hopes for the future, you should be demanding Creative Scotland’s closure, not begging like a fool for it to be given a lifeline.
Update: there's more from Euan McColm on Creative Scotland in the Spectator today.
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