Moany moan moan

Anyone who knows me knows I'm not a fan of sport. So I'm not following the Olympics, although I will admit to being pleased that for once, the Brits aren't coming last at everything! And I'm pleased for the athletes who have worked and trained hard to achieve what they've achieved - their success is clearly deserved.

But reading this article in the Times today has given me pause for thought. In Arts and Heritage pay the price for Gold, the columnist points out that, although we can certainly attribute some of this newfound success to sports funding from the National Lottery, in order to achieve the same - and possibly greater - success in 2012, lots of other organisations that normally benefit from Lottery funding will be losing out. Word is that arts funding will be cut by at least 20%, with a figure of 35% being spoken of just as frequently. The Heritage Lottery Fund, which has been responsible for restoration work at York Minster, projects to introduce kids to archaeology, recovery of community woodland; is losing over £160 million. The "good causes" fund is losing over £200 million because money is being diverted to the Olympics.

( Olympics, schmolympics )