The Underscore Archives

Dear [_]

Does everyone know about this… There is an active petition on the
Number 10 Downing Street website there is already a petition up and
running which aims to:

'Stop the chancellor using Lottery money to plug the funding gap in
the 2012 Olympics. If this goes ahead at least £900m will go from Big
lottery, Sport England, Arts Council and Heritage Lottery much of this
money would fund projects within the local voluntary and community
sector. Services to disadvantaged people will be directly affected by
the loss of this funding, people who will have no opportunity to
benefit from the Olympics directly but rely on local services provided
by the voluntary sector.'

This is opposing the reallocation of resources to the Olympics of
which the 35% reduction of grants for the arts is a part.  To submit
your name to this petition click on this link:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/lotteryolympics/

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.  If it gets to 40,000 signatures it would make it into
the top 5 most popular petitions on the site!  Currently, the petition
in the number 4 spot is 'Continue funding for the Royal Air Force
Aerobatics Team'. Surely in the arts world we are able to gather a
similar if, not larger number, of supporters.

Very popular petitions seem to generate responses from the Prime
Minister prior to the petition closing, so this really is a great way
to draw the attention to our widespread concern and opposition to the
proposed 35% reduction in Grants for the Arts funding.

Do please forward this email on to colleagues, friends, and
collaborators encouraging them to add their name to the petition.

Chris