Ecat's whiskers

Your excellent review (28 April) of the Edinburgh Contemporary Arts Trust (Ecat) end-of-season concert compels me to observe that the Scottish Arts Council (SAC) should now reverse its intention of removing funding from this, the most radical and adventurous of Scotland's music organisations.

As the SAC transmutes into Creative Scotland, it seems to be lashing out wildly. As well as being one of the few platforms for the serious composer, Ecat has, for 30 years now, employed numerous fine Scottish classical musicians on its stages as well as a raft of visiting performers.

Such a cut in funding serves to illustrate the dangers to our arts in the current period highlighted in the resolution, unanimously adopted at the recent Scottish Trades' Union Congress in Dundee.

Proposed by Equity and me (for the Musicians' Union), it warned of such cuts and supported continuing public provision for the arts. It condemned the growing uncertainties affecting the governance of the arts in Scotland and the forcing of cultural organisations into further indebtedness.

EDDIE McGUIRE

Chair, Scotland and Northern Ireland Region

Musicians' Union

Lawrence Street

Glasgow