to reply more seriously.
I think the argument is that the arts is such a vanishingly small percentage of government spending anyway that cutting it is pretty pointless as far as cutting the deficit goes. then again it depends if you view the arts as important stuff of a pointless frippery that should not be supported by government in the first place.
(Comrade Quixote rides again!, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 10:39, 2 replies, latest was 13 years ago)

Sadly, this is true
An awful lot of things make excellent Aunt Sallies for the Daily Mail and the like. "waa waa waa cunts in the armed forces and THIS Lesbian interpretive dance was funded" or "veterans can't heat their homes and this immigrant has a house that costs £12,000 a month" Yes, because Lesbian dance budget is thousands of times less than the defence budget. See also housing benefit costs a lot less than pensions.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 10:49, Reply)

i for one enjoy lesbian "interpretive dance" on a regular basis

( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 10:50, Reply)

the problem is that the country is fucked
because there are too many stupid people. this is true for many reasons, but in this particular case of funding, they don't put in what they take out.

did you see the guy in the paper who handed over £20 to a guy in the pub when he saw him drop it? the recipient thanked him by beating seven shades of crap out of him, and grinding a severed bar stool leg into his eye, which he lost as a consequence. wtf is wrong with britain, man?
( rachelswipe with a fork, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:00, Reply)

broken innit

( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:01, Reply)

Piss

( tangledupinblue hairy badge with moving eyes, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:01, Reply)

how can we fix it?
random culls on saturdays on various high streets?
carpet bombing wales?
lethal injection for anyone who got less than a 2:1?
forced sterilisation for anyone called daz, maz, baz or gaz?
( rachelswipe with a fork, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:04, Reply)

I'm not keen on their music really but they are nice to look at and so I'm probably against their public execution

( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:06, Reply)

typical man
shallow as a paddling pool in december
( rachelswipe with a fork, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:07, Reply)

I don't think listening to more of their music would make me any "deeper"

( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:10, Reply)

Are paddling pools shallower in December?

( tangledupinblue hairy badge with moving eyes, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:12, Reply)

it's all getting a little existential over here

( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:13, Reply)

well yeah
because there's no water in them. duh.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:23, Reply)

By investing in education and infrastructure
And taxing you more to pay for it.
( tangledupinblue hairy badge with moving eyes, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:09, Reply)

She needs to pay more tax.

( Kroney, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:10, Reply)

FUCK OFF
my tax bill for july will be seven thousand pounds. do you know how much that hurts, to pay that much tax in one month? arrrrrgh.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:23, Reply)

I imagine that some of that hurt will be offset by your net pay.

( tangledupinblue hairy badge with moving eyes, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:30, Reply)

No, she works VERY HARD and deserves EVERY PENNY that she gets.
She is not IN ANY WAY a bloated fat cat living of the misery of the poor and being grossly over paid for a job that no one needs doing in the first place.

oh no.
(Comrade Quixote rides again!, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:33, Reply)

Testify Comrade.

( CQ Knows the truth, all of it., Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:36, Reply)

of course
nobody has rights that should be enshrined, and everyone should be allowed to use everyone else's land for free, right?

don't be a handwringing muppet, mm-kay?
( rachelswipe with a fork, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:44, Reply)

I wasn't that one blubbing at the thought of paying more tax.
also, yes they do and yes they should.
( CQ Knows the truth, all of it., Wed 26 Jun 2013, 12:24, Reply)

the pay is fine, i've always said i am fine with tax, but i think they spunk it on some appalling shit
but the bonus tax hurts. it's only a little bonus, and i worked so fucking hard for it, i gave up weekends, evenings, i get a huge amount of stress... i do think bonuses under a small amount, say £5k, should be tax free, as they are a reward for killing yourself. obv it's different for proper fat-cats.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:45, Reply)

I'd love the opportunity to earn so much money per month
that I had to pay that much tax.
( Kroney, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:37, Reply)

so get a different job
you're easily bright enough
( rachelswipe with a fork, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:46, Reply)

I suspect that isn't simply her income tax for 1 month

( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:46, Reply)

nah, got my "extra-hard working employee" bonus royally raped next month
christ, i wish it was that much every month, what would that put me on, £200k?
( rachelswipe with a fork, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:48, Reply)

At what point does it become not worth the expenditure of effort?

( Kroney, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:54, Reply)

It's interesting that the answer to all problems is to invest more
The amount of investment is to some degree irrelevant, it's the results that matter and investment for investments sake will not always drive these.

If I reported back to my boss and said,"Yes there are still problems with X, but the good news is I spent more money on it anyway" then I would be fired and rightly so.
( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:13, Reply)

Investing in improving these things, you oaf.

( tangledupinblue hairy badge with moving eyes, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:15, Reply)

throwing money at the problem isn't always the answer, it's making sure the department (or whatever) is effcient

( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:21, Reply)

It's like you've just repeated the same point and ignored mine.

( tangledupinblue hairy badge with moving eyes, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:24, Reply)

he is secretly Gideon.

(Comrade Quixote rides again!, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:27, Reply)

+ fucking

( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:35, Reply)

No, I appreciate things need investment
but the amount spent is not a measure of success, which is how politicians like to use it.

"Why are NHS waiting lists getting longer, people dying etc etc"

"Well we invested an extra £8bn blah blah"; which is irrelevant if the measures of success aren't reached.
( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:31, Reply)

Again I can't help feeling that you are ignoring my point.

( tangledupinblue hairy badge with moving eyes, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:39, Reply)

Was your point "spending more of stuff is always better"?

( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:53, Reply)

Pretty much, yeah

( tangledupinblue hairy badge with moving eyes, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 12:01, Reply)

Don't forget that the number of BBC links has increased by 12% as a result

(Reverend Fister "a disciplined fuckwit", Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:42, Reply)

it's because they are spending it on the wrong things

( rachelswipe with a fork, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:47, Reply)

yeah but most of the people benefiting from it are ugly and stupid
sterilisation and culling ftw
( rachelswipe with a fork, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:24, Reply)

I'm not sure that narrowing our gene pool is going to reduce the number of ugly, stupid people.
cf. the royal family
( tangledupinblue hairy badge with moving eyes, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:28, Reply)

but when they widened it, they got middleton
dreadful simpering vanilla piece of shite that she is
( rachelswipe with a fork, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:51, Reply)

^^Not immensely jealous here

(Reverend Fister "a disciplined fuckwit", Wed 26 Jun 2013, 12:01, Reply)

It's broken

( tangledupinblue hairy badge with moving eyes, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:01, Reply)

To be honest, artistic stuff happens anyway right?
People draw, bands make music, people dance, actors put on free plays all over the shop. Maybe cutting g the money might get rid of some of the dross forced out in to art schools and dance studios.
( Windy Pig I'm naturally quite suspicious about the moon., Wed 26 Jun 2013, 10:53, Reply)

There's probably plenty of valid arguments for and against your point.
it's just that it's such a tiny, tiny fraction of the UK budget that it's meaningless to cut it.

In any case, the real problem is managed expenditure, not public sector spending. As per usual from the retard Gideon, he's trying to cut the wrong thing.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 10:56, Reply)

Fair enough.
The only other question I have is, if we all know Gideon is wrong, and everyone else seems to know he's wrong, why is he still doing it?
( Windy Pig I'm naturally quite suspicious about the moon., Wed 26 Jun 2013, 10:59, Reply)

Sop to the voters in the shires, prop up his power base, cut money to the proles.
Trebles all round and a nice directorship or seven in the City when he finally gives up politics.
(localboy purveyor of pisspoor puns, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:02, Reply)

So what you're saying, is that Gideon is a cunt.

( Windy Pig I'm naturally quite suspicious about the moon., Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:07, Reply)

+ he is simply a fucking idiot
and has no idea of the financial world.
(Bonzodog29 is an unemployed sponge of the worst kind, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:08, Reply)

steady on
he's alright is lokesy
( rachelswipe with a fork, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:09, Reply)

He doesn't even listen to the experts around him
just keeps on with his mantra, he's practically a religious nutter, same applies to Jeremy Hunt and Michael Gove.
(localboy purveyor of pisspoor puns, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:10, Reply)

I hate Gove's stupid face

( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Wed 26 Jun 2013, 11:15, Reply)