Interesting thread, which I haven't kept up with having been away. Some very silly things have been said which can't help a situation where the appropriate position should surely be to express support and good wishes. Richard Bridge is right to be cautious about funding if that is his postion, but he doesn't need to be so angry about it. And Ruth Archer's intemperance is surely not helpful. It should, I would hope, be possible to be able to express a degree of caution about what fund-chasing can do to you, I would have thought, without being attacked by Ms Archer for being opposed to innovation (now where did that come from? People carry some very strange baggage).
    Ruth Archer makes an assumption that funded projects are, of themselves, more innovative than un-funded ones. That seems to me a ridiculous assertion, and shows the dangers that some of us are aware of; if you really believe that funding will automatically bring the great gift of creativity, you are wearing blinkers that can confuse you utterly.I doubt if she really believes any such thing actaully, she just got a bit over-argumentative.
   Now, I wrote on this thread a while ago of the caution to be needed when fund-raising, and that was before the current Labour party fiasco. Richard Bridge makes an obvious comparison with that, and we must surely have all noticed the connection. However necessary we all know fund-raising to be, it does no harm to be reminded by that cautionary tale. In the Labour Party case, the fund-raisers became so obsessed by the need to raise money that they totally forgot why they were supposed to be raising it, and also totally forgot the laws they were meant to follow while doing so. And, naturally, ended up damaging the cause they were supposedly trying to help. A very salutary lesson. I have worked in the subsidised and the unsubsidised sectors of the arts worlds for 45 years, so I am well aware of the problems of being on either side of the fence. Plus, of course, a lot of work straddles the fence uncomfortably.
    SO, please, a bit of goodwill for the new appointment, and a bit of goodwill to those who wish to discuss it but may have different views to our own. It's our EFDSS you know(well, it is to those of us interested in folk music, whether English or not).
    A final thought: to those who think funding, and its pursuit, is the panacea for all ills. Someone a while back managed to make a successful application to the Arts Council for a toally ludicrous project, and submitted it under the name of "Juan Kerr". The fact that that application for a grant was successful shows just what condition funding bodies can get themselves into. The Great Game of fund allocating can totally screw up the minds of those dishing out the dosh just as surely as it affects those chasing it. We all need, for sanity, to stand backa little now and again and examine what is going on.