Art attack

Kim Howells, a minister in the so-called Department of Culture, has delivered his long-awaited critique of this year's Turner Prize shortlist. Having been invited to a preview of the exhibition, he scribbled his weighty verdict ("bullshit") on a card that he pinned to a Tate bulletin board, and then complained that the work of the finalists lacked the "artistic ability and humanity" of the Francis Bacons and Henry Moores he passed on his way out.

Thank goodness for the searing aesthetic judgement of our political leaders. It would be a cheap reaction, of course, to point out that the finest works by Moore and Bacon were denounced as monstrous by populists when first shown. But then, the job of art is to challenge our complacency, and clearly the Turner Prize entries have failed when it comes to Mr Howells. Perhaps he should keep his philistinism to himself for another half-century or so.