Just now, a Mudcat thread with appalling news of the Wyeside Arts Centre in Builth Wells, Powys, being forced to close sank without trace. Powys County Council had cut the centre's funding, and Arts Council Wales refused to help. Wyeside was efficiently managed and provided a scintillating events diary. In a rural area, it was crucially vital for the folk and world music and for the arts.

Brown's despicable philistine government is syphoning off arts funds to pay for the notoriously expensive 2012 London Olympics NOW. The Wyeside closure was only only the tip of the iceberg: this week I had a desperate plea from Peter Dobbins, organiser of Music In The Church In Aust (the village near the original Severn Bridge in Gloucestershire) saying that the Arts Council was planning a bloody cull affecting 200 organisations across England, and had slashed funding to the Early Music Network, which provides a lifeline to Music In The Church In Aust. Folk South West and Roger Watson's Tradarts received the same treatment.

You can bet that Kim Howells, MP for Pontypridd and former Minister of Culture (!!) who drafted the mindless and hateful Licensing Act, will be laughing like a drain. Up against the barricades, brothers and sisters - this means war.