Cuts to Arts Grants

Chancellor using Arts and Heritage Lottery money to plug the funding gap in the 2012 Olympics…

Hi Everyone,

I have just received an email from my good buddy and writer/editor John Freeman, fresh from www.downthetubes.net

It runs like this:

Dear Creators -

Please forgive me. I'm having a rant.

On the Number 10 Downing Street website there's a petition up and running at the moment which aims to stop the Chancellor using Arts and Heritage Lottery money to plug the funding gap in the 2012 Olympics.

The Chancellor proposes to plug the funding gap with a 35% reduction in Grants in Arts funding and reallocating the money - some £675 million - to the Olympics. Please submit your name to the petition and oppose the cuts to Arts Grants (Here's a link about recent developments as reported by The Guardian: http://sport.guardian.co.uk/london2012/story/0,,2063378,00.html).

Any way, the petition is at: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/lotteryolympics

It has already gathered over 18,000 signatures! If it gets to 40,000, it would make it into the top five most popular petitions on the site.

I've no objection to the Olympics and Paralympics themselves. It's great that it's coming to Britain. But I take exception to arts and heritage groups losing out because of it. And I'm not alone: the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/policy/index.asp?id=3852) has spoken out and remains unsatisfied by the Government's response to the concerns they've raised. The Stage reported just this week that leaders of Britain�s largest performing arts unions, trade associations and lobby groups have taken the unprecedented step of drawing up a joint letter to chancellor Gordon Brown warning of the dire consequences of the Olympics Lottery raid for the cultural sector (http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/16953/arts-organisations-urge-brown-to-address).

If you're as annoyed about this as I was, and I hope you are, maybe you'll consider adding this banner I knocked up to your web site or blog:

Cheers!

John Freeman

Unfortunately the banner hasn’t opened and copied but I felt strongly enough about this to put this little Blog together quickly.

If you too feel annoyed at this please add your names to the petition, like John says.

Until next time have fun!

Tim Perkins…
May 25th 2007