Encore Theatre Magazine

15 May 2007

Squeezing the Lottery: A Petition

The government have, as you remember from the road-pricing furore last year, set up a system on its website where you can gather signatures for petitions. A petition has been established calling on the Chancellor of the Exchequer to stop using Lottery money to plug the funding gap in the 2012 Olympics.

We reported earlier on the decimation of the Grants for the Arts scheme. More cuts are in prospect, but if we can all make sure we sign the petition we can make it clear that there is real strength of feeling against these cuts. At a time when Gordon Brown will want to seem like more than a penny-pinching brueaucrat, and his electoral base is uncertain, our voice may be heard.

You can sign the petition here.

At 13,180 signatures, it has already passed the minimum requirement of 200 signatures to get an official response from Number 10 when the petition closes on 16 September 2007. It would be great to get these numbers up to 30 or 40,000 and really present a united front.