The 2003 winner Grayson Perry stated that " Such media storms can be traumatising for someone who has laboured away for years in a studio, making art not news . " Some artists, including Sarah Lucas and Julian Opie, have decided not to participate in the event, regarding a nomination as " a poisoned chalice ".
32.
When the portfolio was abolished in 2015, the region's main newspaper, the " Illawarra Mercury ", noted that all but one of the men to hold the title later departed politics under a cloud : " The now-defunct ministry has been something of a poisoned chalice over the past 12 years, with five of the six ministers who have held the position being disgraced, sacked or forced to resign over their behaviour ."
33.
He declined, due to concerns that " such an appointment would be a poisoned chalice ", as the Laureateship had fallen into disrepute, due to the decline in quality of work suffered by previous title holders, ", as a succession of poetasters had churned out conventional and obsequious odes on royal occasions . " He sought advice from the Duke of Buccleuch, who counseled him to retain his literary independence, and the position went to Scott's friend, Robert Southey.