On a mission

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt makes his first formal speech in the role, today, at The Roundhouse in London. His ministerial team at the DCMS have already donned hair shirts, taken a 5% cut on their predecessors' salaries, and sent back the ministerial cars to the pool.

Mr Hunt has no tricky relationships with Libdems to worry about; his shadow team of Ed Vaizey (Culture) and Hugh Robertson (Sport) were joined by Shadow Business Minister John Penrose to look after tourism. Don Foster, Tom Brake, Lord Lee of Trafford (once Tory MP John Lee) and former corporate lawyer Lord Clement Jones found no room in Cockspur Street.

Mr Hunt will seek to reassure the arts lobby that the £66 million of additional cuts he's looking for this year will come across his whole department, and will focus on admin. Down the road, he's looking to direct more lottery funding to the arts - and may adopt a Libdem policy of taxing the lottery operator on their gross profits, rather than by each ticket sold.