I know quite a bit about the politics that lie behind arts funding decisions – and even I was surprised at how out classed and bewildered Yinnon and the councillor became during the evening.
If I, as a single woman who has founded her own company can attract from the Arts Council 100,000 per year for some of the years I have been making and creating in Hampshire, then I really don’t see how the whole of HCC cannot raise 100,000 per year (amazing value for money) to keep The Tower within the arts sector.

At some point HCC has to be pragmatic, instead of following a strategy just for the sake of it. All HCC’s core target audience for The Discovery Centre (different ‘classes’/young/old/from all walks of life and bits of Winchester) were in that hall last night. They are the people who will continue to turn up for the arts events put on at the Discovery Centre – they will be the ones still there when the novelty wears off – and judging by the anger felt in that hall last night – the discovery centre is going to have a very bad start if those people feel alienated by bad politics and leadership.