That’s how Guardian columnist and former Livingstone acolyte Jude Woodward has described Boris’s recent attempt to ensure that high culture isn’t entirely swamped by more easily-digested reimaginings in an article that’s extraordinarily critical of the whole thing.

We’ve commented on the recent Arts initiative here at BorisWatch before, — very enthusiastically, I might add — and so it’s rather surprising to hear that Woodward holds such a radically different view. Apparently, she’s of the opinion that it’s the worst kind of snobbery, and that stating you prefer the works of Homer, Shakespeare and the Renaissance artists (as BoJo has done) makes you some kind of heavy-handed and short-sighted fool.

Boris’s administration have never said they want to stop contemporary re-evaluations of ‘high culture’, but seem to be trying to ensure that the original material isn’t lost under a flood of reinterpretation. Like it or not, kids in school are always going to be taught mainly from the text of Romeo and Juliet and not the film, and rightly so. I haven’t been able to find out what Woodward’s opinion of the Capital’s artistic legacy was when she was in charge of it during the Livingstone years, but I can only hope it was less critical and more willing to accept a variety of strategies for ensuring London’s status as a cultural touchstone for everyone.

What do you think? Is Boris right to try and keep ‘high culture’ present in day to day life, or should he give up and focus more on new and ‘improved’ versions? Let us know in the comments.