The last few weeks have been so busy that the Arts Council’s D-day rather crept up on us. Now we know and our news is good. We have what looks like a decent increase in funding. In reality it’s stand still funding as our application was for our previous revenue funding figure plus an average of our addition Grants For The Arts Awards over the last few years. Obviously in these times to stand still is to move forward.

It’s been a sad day in other directions. Commiserations go to those who’ve lost out, particularly our friends Theatre Absolute, Third Angel, FourSight, Forkbeard Fantasy, Reckless Sleepers, Merlin Theatre and here I risk unwittingly insulting people by stopping the list of those we know who have been cut. I don’t know about them, we had no contingency plan – these companies have a year to work out what to do – I hope they can find a way through if they decide that’s what they wish to do.

Commiserations also for the mostly forgotten losers, those who threw their hats into the ring but didn’t have them picked up (is that the correct extension of that metaphor?). Some were quite speculative and others carried reasonable hopes of success but all required a considerable amount of work. Hopefully their time will come.

As for Stan’s Cafe… we’ll keep on pushing hard. With venues across the country receiving cuts things are going to remain tough even for those touring companies fortunate enough to be National Portfolio Clients.