Dance, Brexit and post-truth hate merchants

Another bad news story to end the year with, but this is a really nasty one: an exclusive in The Sun by its ‘Senior Reporter’, Stephen Moyes, which was taken up the next day by The Daily Mail (using almost exactly the same words in a slightly different order). And what is so appalling is the nauseating way it targets a dance project.

DO NOT GOOGLE THIS STORY. THEY WANT YOU TO CLICK ON SENSATIONAL ARTICLES LIKE THESE BECAUSE EACH CLICK EARNS THEM MONEY. POST-TRUTH JOURNALISM EXISTS BECAUSE IT IS PROFITABLE.

(I’m pasting the two stories and the comments they received at the bottom of this blog.)

I don’t read these two tabloids, not even when a copy’s been left on a train and I’m bored. I know they exist but generally manage to ignore them. This time I couldn’t, because the target they have used as click bait is a friend, Rita Marcalo.

I first got to know Rita in 2003 when she was a dancer researcher on a project run by Valerie Briginshaw and Emilyn Claid (which Val writes about in our book Writing Dancing Together). Rita and I have stayed in touch over the years. Flatteringly, she once even asked me if I’d ever thought of performing and would like her to choreograph a solo for me. Her professional dance classes and workshops are popular and highly respected. She is a key member of the independent dance scene in Leeds that is now one of the most vibrant outside London. Rita’s contribution to the fabulous Juncture Festival at Yorkshire Dance (that I blogged about at the end of October) was a participatory piece One Hundred Buckets which reflected on the demolition of ‘The Jungle’ refugee camp in Calais that was happening at that moment (see below). This piece was a spin off from her project Dancing with Strangers: From Calais to England which took as its premise the beautiful idea that Rita could use dance as a way of facilitating an exchange between someone in the UK and a refugee in Calais, by dancing first with one and then, across the Channel, with the other.

[photo by Julia Bauer for Tempting Failure 2016]

She got an Arts Council grant to do this, and this is what Stephen Moyes has been monstering and heaping shit all over.

My daughter suggests that being targeted by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp should be a badge of honour. But tabloid abuse is tabloid abuse. The articles about Dancing with Strangers are hate speech. The Tory Government is still doing everything it can to avoid implementing the recommendations of the Leveson Inquiry. We are in a situation that Judith Butler identifies in her book Excitable Speech where we are subjected to ‘the violence of the Law’s failure to protect its citizens’ (1997 p. 61).

So, who is Stephen Moyes? He was one of the journalists close to Rebekah Brooks at the News of The World who was arrested as part of Operation Elveden. Moyes was charged for ‘allegedly’ making corrupt payments to Robert Norman, a prison officer at the High Security Belmarsh Prison. Norman was jailed for selling stories about high profile prisoners. Moyes’ case was dropped and he was subsequently reinstated by Murdoch’s News Corp. He was News Reporter of the Year in 2015. Among his many scoops have been an exposé of Kate Moss’s use of cocaine, and an exclusive about the Tory peer ‘Lord Coke’ (Lord Sewel) caught in a ‘drug binges with £200 prostitutes’.

Moyes’ article about Dancing with Strangers is very cleverly written. It twists and emphasises details to maximise their potential to generate outrage, using triggers to insinuate, avoiding libel. Why was it necessary to tell Sun readers that Rita is in a civil partnership? or that, a few years ago, she explored performing epilepsy with another Arts Council grant?

And look at the sub-title of Moyes’ article: ‘Artist handed small fortune of taxpayers cash to dance in the Calais Jungle… and she’s not even British!’ The ‘not even British’ bit is intriguing. Rita posted on Facebook just before Christmas ‘When a press agency reporter knocks on your door… “How did you find out where I live?” I ask. “Electoral register”, she answers’. So The Sun (presumably) knew she was on the electoral register and a British taxpayer but chose to call her ‘not even British!’ because it would make the story seem more sensational.

Then there’s the ‘small fortune’ – a £9,931 Arts Council grant. Here’s some speculation about this. Some of it must have been used for equipment used during the project. Apparently all the travel to Calais and accommodation there was funded from other sources. The Arts Council funded travel and, in some cases, accommodation for presentations of the project in towns and cities around Britain. Deduct that from the grant and see what’s left. Then let’s make a rough estimate of how many hours were spent planning, executing, and promoting the project (and maybe one should also include the process of consulting with stakeholders and writing the grant proposal?). Divide the amount left from the grant after costs by the number of hours worked and you’ll probably find that Rita was not actually earning very much an hour. Certainly less than the press agency reporter who knocked on her door, let alone The Sun’s News Reporter of the Year 2015. A small fortune? An outrageous misuse of taxpayers’ money? Let’s not forget all the taxpayers’ money that had to be spent on the failed prosecution of Steven Moyes for his ‘alleged’ corruption of a prison officer. And of course Rita, as someone who has been a British taxpayer for over twenty years, contributed towards this.

[photo by Tamsin Drury for Hazard]

I don’t suppose Moyes could understand Dancing with Strangers (if, that is, he wanted to). Nor do I think he’d be able to understand research in, for example, particle physics or the use of ‘big data’ in medical or pharmaceutical research, areas that actually do receive small fortunes in government funding. I’m sure a clever journalist could create stories about shocking waste and ‘misuse of taxpayers’ money’ in scientific research and find academics involved in it in the UK who are ‘not even British’. But then their research has nothing to do with Brexit, whereas Rita’s real sin in Moyes’ eyes is that she is one of that inconveniently intelligent half of the population who didn’t vote ‘leave’ in the EU Referendum.

[photo by Matt Cawrey for Journeys Festival International]

The premise of Dancing with Strangers is that refugees are real people with feelings and abilities that are similar to those of British people, and that we have a basic, ethical responsibility to care for strangers in need. This is, however, a dangerous poison from which ‘hardworking families’ in Britain have to be protected. And, thank god, The Sun and The Daily Mail are there to save Britain from this peril. So refugees who are human beings must be dehumanised and become a flood threatening to swamp ‘us’. A particularly unpleasant part of the article selectively misrepresents the words of the refugee dancers who took part in Rita’s project. The truth is that, if they had been brought to the UK under the Dubs Amendment, they could have made a more useful contribution to society than xenophobic, crypto-homophobe hate merchants like Moyes. How can they live with themselves? how can they sleep at night after spending days doing things like this?

I am also part of that half of the population who voted ‘remain’ and am continually appalled by the evidence that there is still such polarisation between ‘remain’ and ‘leave’ all these months after the referendum. We need some healing of the divisions in society and that is precisely what projects like Dancing with Strangers have been trying to do. No one I know voted ‘leave’ but I have subsequently met a few people who did. Although they don’t say so, I get the impression that they don’t appear to see any need to heal the divisions. Instead it seems they want those who voted ‘remain’ to shut up and put up. Why? In part because news corporations like the Murdochs’ and the Barclays’ keep stoking the fires, keep feeding the fears and prejudices that the Brexit politicians let loose. I’m angry and hurt that my friend Rita, whose work I so admire, has become their latest target. I’ve never written this before on this blog, but, if you feel the same way as me, click the ‘like’ button to show your solidarity with Rita.

……….

 

One Hundred Buckets

http://www.juncturedance.com/event/politics/

http://www.instantdissidence.co.uk/post/152850178626/one-hundred-buckets-an-art-intervention-towards

One Hundred Buckets is an art intervention towards creating a 100 strong legion of peace enablers.

• There are some buckets by audience members.
• When Wendy Houston presses play, my recorded voice comes on:

These buckets. These buckets are. These buckets are here. These buckets are here and now. These buckets are here and now as props for an aesthetic experience that I am inviting you to perform.

But when these buckets came into being in my world, they were not originally intended to become aesthetic props. These buckets are part of a wider group of 100 other buckets which were a donation to Instant Dissidence for our humanitarian work in ‘The Jungle’ refugee camp of Calais.

In October 2016, the French authorities decided to demolish the camp. Today the camp is finished, with its residents either being homed somewhere else in France, or fleeing to other camps. No more long term cooking, weeing, shitting, clothes washing in the camp. No more need for buckets. As unwanted functional objects, these buckets instead become aesthetic props.

• I continue speaking and inviting audiences to perform some actions with the buckets.

…………

TAPPED FOR £10K

Artist handed small fortune of taxpayers cash to dance in the Calais Jungle… and she’s not even British!

Rita Marcalo received the grant from the Arts Council of England

Exclusive

By Stephen Moyes

The Sun. 30th December 2016, 9:44 pm

A WOMAN was handed £9,931 by the government so she could dance with migrants in the Calais Jungle as part of a bizarre art project.

Rita Marcalo received the grant from the taxpayer-funded Arts Council England last year.

The controversial Portuguese artist was given almost £14,000 in 2008 by the same department to have an epileptic fit on stage.

Miss Marcalo, 44, who calls herself Instant Dissidence, used the latest pay-out to travel to Calais and film herself dancing with migrants.

The second part of her bizarre project, titled ‘Dancing with Strangers: From Calais to England’, saw her don a t-shirt that read ‘Dance with Me’ before trying to jig with people across Britain.

Defending the wacky project Miss Marcalo, who is in a civil partnership and lives in Ilkely, West Yorks, said: “Because the project was Arts Council England funded, it had to focus on how it could benefit people in England.

“It raised awareness for the people in England about the stories behind what would make people flee their own country – the country they love and were born in.”

Eight years ago the department handed Miss Marcalo £13,889 to put on stage show ‘Involuntary Dances’ in which she attempted to induce an epileptic seizure.

She has suffered from epilepsy since the age of 17 and suffers about two seizures per year when taking medication.

John O’Connell, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said last night: “What an utterly bizarre way to waste taxpayers’ money.

“How can spending nearly £10,000 on these projects be possibly justified?

“Who are the projects meant to help and in what way?

“To families who are struggling with forever rising tax bills this will come as a cruel joke.”

The Arts Council defended the decision to give Miss Marcalo funding.

A spokeswoman said: ‘Dance with Strangers saw Rita Marcalo dance with refugees in Calais, with elderly residents of a Leeds care home and people on the streets of Hull, Leicester and Croydon – to pick out a few locations.

“The project was about seeing the world from another person’s point of view, all via a free chance to dance.”

Calais’ ‘Jungle Camp’, where migrants gathered in hoping to penetrate the border from France to Britain, became a politically toxic subject before it was dismantled earlier this year.

The base, containing 10,000 migrants, was used as a springboard for those hoping to make their way to Britain.

In Miss Marcalo’s interviews with migrants one teenager from Afghanistan admitted to trying to infiltrate the UK’s borders ‘every night’ by climbing into lorries.

He said: “I’ve been here for six months and I don’t like The Jungle. The Jungle is a big problem.

“After six months I am getting really tired here, because every night I try, try, try to get onto a lorry.

“And the police tell me: ‘don’t, don’t’. So every night, you know, every night I try, try by lorry.”

Another migrant called Addisu claimed to be from Ethiopia and said he wanted to come to the UK for residency.

He told the artist said: “OK me I’m going to England because in Africa we learn English in school.

“In England they will give me the documents within four months or six months, whereas in France or Germany it would take two years.”

………………….

Portuguese artist is handed £10,000 by the government for a ‘bizarre project’ which saw her dance with migrants in the Calais Jungle

Rita Marcalo was given £9,931 for a project which involved dancing with migrants in Calais

The Portugese migrant set up a dancing workshop in the Calais Jungle camp

One of the people she interviewed admitted trying to climb onto lorries to infiltrate the UK’s borders ‘every night’

By Tammy Hughes For The Daily Mail

Published: 02:04, 31 December 2016 | Updated: 08:10, 31 December 2016

An artist was given £9,931 by the Government for a ‘bizarre’ project which involved dancing with migrants in the Calais Jungle camp.

The generous grant was given to Rita Marcalo, a Portuguese migrant who has lived in England for 20 years, by the taxpayer-funded Arts Council England.

Miss Marcalo, who calls herself Instant Dissidence, used the cash to travel to Calais in May, where she set up a dancing workshop and filmed herself dancing with migrants.

The second part of her project, entitled Dancing With Strangers: From Calais to England, involves Miss Marcalo, 44, wearing a T-shirt that reads ‘Dance with Me’ and trying to dance with British people in cities. If they agreed, they were made to listen to an interview with a Jungle migrant and dance with Miss Marcalo for up to ten minutes.

One of the migrants she interviewed admitted to trying to infiltrate the UK’s borders ‘every night’ by climbing into lorries.

The teenager from Afghanistan said: ‘I’ve been here for six months and I don’t like the Jungle. The Jungle is a big problem.

‘After six months I am getting really tired here, because every night I try, try, try to get on to a lorry. And the police tell me: “Don’t, don’t.” So every night, you know, every night I try, try by lorry.’

Another migrant, who Miss Marcalo called Addisu and claims to be from Ethiopia, said he wanted to come to the UK because Britain would give him residency quickly.

He said: ‘I’m going to England because in Africa we learn English in school. In England they will give me the documents within four months or six months, whereas in France or Germany, it would take two years.’

John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘What an utterly bizarre way to waste taxpayers’ money. How can spending nearly £10,000 on these projects be possibly justified? Who are the projects meant to help and in what way? To families who are struggling with forever rising tax bills, this will come as a cruel joke.’
Defending the project, Miss Marcalo, who is in a civil partnership and lives in Ilkely, West Yorkshire, said the project was aimed at ‘raising awareness’ of the plight of migrants. She said: ‘Because the project was Arts Council England funded, it had to focus on how it could benefit people in England.

‘It raised awareness for the people in England about the stories behind what would make people flee their own country – the country they love and were born in.’

It is not the first time Miss Marcalo has received controversial funding from Arts Council England.

In 2008, the department handed her £13,889 to put on a stage show entitled Involuntary Dances in which she attempted to induce an epileptic seizure.

An Arts Council spokesman defended the decision to give Miss Marcalo the funding, saying: ‘The project was about seeing the world from another person’s point of view, all via a free chance to dance.’

The comments below have not been moderated.

next PM, Chepstow, United Kingdom, 8 hours ago

Shocking people starving in the UK and we p!$$ money against the wall

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Cooper, Cambridge, 8 hours ago

Frantically looking around for ANYONE who can be handed “aid money” otherwise they will be forced to admit that Batmanjelly-type wastage is actually happening time and time again!!!

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M Maestro, Alingsaas, Sweden, 8 hours ago

Europes finest is boosting UK IQ. She looks like she wanted some. Wonder if she got it.

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RobbRaw, Hammersmith London, United Kingdom, 8 hours ago

Can understand daily why people don’t and won’t pay their dues in taxes, when you read stories like this.

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Andrewman, Nottingham, United Kingdom, 8 hours ago

Can I have £10,000 to learn to dance with migrants please.

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Mike P, manchester, United Kingdom, 8 hours ago

This country has gone completely mad.

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TerenceJay, Krembletonn, United Kingdom, 9 hours ago

All you need to read is ‘Arts Council’.

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Viva la France, Coventry, France, 9 hours ago

Ah. But that’s the problem. It isn’t their money their giving.

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ericrw, leicester, United Kingdom, 9 hours ago

Make the Art` Council pay back the £10.000 plus interest.

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Viva la France, Coventry, France, 9 hours ago

Well it wasn’t my money You Brits want your bumps felt for putting up with this rubbish That money could have been much better spent Whoever gave it out,and it wasn’t there’s to give,and,that’s a lot of The problem.wants the sack You must be daft

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flamvent, london, United Kingdom, 9 hours ago

Little wonder were heading to Brexit, what benefit is she to us

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Moe Syszlak, Cardiff, United Kingdom, 9 hours ago

Once these guys cross the channel all our dancers will be unemployed.

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Devondad, Tavistock, United Kingdom, 9 hours ago

People write to your MP highlighting this blatant waist of tax payers money! Let’s put our MPs to work for US!

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Roy IoW, Ryde, 9 hours ago

“The (24 year old) teenager from Afghanistan said: ¿I¿ve been here for six months and I don¿t like the Jungle. The Jungle is a big problem.”……………..I fixed the typo in the quote…

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PersonOfInterest, Brisbane, Australia, 9 hours ago

Sorry Britain but you’re a joke country now, leave while you can

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Thegolfer, Fillongley, United Kingdom, 9 hours ago

OH WONDERFUL CAN I HAVE £10000 TO DANCE WITH SOMEONE PLEASE

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Scot Free, England, Canada, 10 hours ago

An Oxford University study revealed that 3 in 4 EU ‘Citizens’ would NOT qualify for a UK work visa, they would not be allowed in if it wasn’t for the EU Dictatorships ‘Open Borders’ and ‘freedom of movement’ for all without security checks LUNACY.

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Scot Free, England, Canada, 10 hours ago

With homeless Brits on the streets. Obscene.

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Foxes, Leicester, United Kingdom, 10 hours ago

Money well spent then, on the other hand cuts all over the country, carry on the great work

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Viktor_ Meldrew, The Sunny South, United Kingdom, 10 hours ago

Whoever sanctions such payouts to help illegal immigrants should be sacked! Bloody ridiculous!

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Mr Printaker, london, United Kingdom, 10 hours ago

And they are wanting to increase our Council Tax

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Insane housewife, Somewhere far far away, United Kingdom, 9 hours ago

Going to not want to.

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Ggkent, Gillingham, United Kingdom, 10 hours ago

Get a propper job and stop leeching to fund your vanity projects

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i love ewe, soon to be ex eu happy days, United Kingdom, 10 hours ago

Yes we know why they want to leave the safety of many countries to get to UK as once here they are safe to scree uk tax payers and never go bk. What about our homeless that are pushed down the queue. What about that elderly person choosing hear or food

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Helen, Castletown, United Kingdom, 10 hours ago

FFS.

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Mr Printaker, london, United Kingdom, 10 hours ago

I worked a menial temp job in The Arts Council over a decade ago.I have also been a struggling artist the past 20 years.The Arts council throw money at non profit making art Wheezes that will go nowhere …As long as there is some kind of Audience.A relative of mine got 5 grand to put on a puppet show,that made £0.00.The idiot decision makers have to spend the money or they don’t get it the following year and then they can’t justify their jobs( oh and they all think they are ‘arty’). Don’t give artists money!,if there is money that has to go to the Arts,give them exhibition space , particularly during the crucial 6 months of leaving college.Most exhibition space prices in London are so expensive and gallery commission’s are generally 50%….Give them a chance and if they don’t sell,they give up or get better.

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Dieven, Wales, 10 hours ago

I actually agree with you! why not give a small grant to help an artist set up with paints, brushes, other materials and maybe like 2 weeks of exhibition space at a gallery within xxx miles of where they live? Not only are you helping them set up… but they will likely go on to open their own businesses and pay back into the system!

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Gillian Byrne, London, United Kingdom, 10 hours ago

Fruit & Nut Case Council funded by TAX PAYERS! If Afghanistan and/or Ethiopia are at war – same wars that have been going on for many years.

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Give UKIP a chance, Weston-super-Mare, United Kingdom, 10 hours ago

Easy to be generous with our money!

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Voice of MK, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom, 11 hours ago

This is beyond a joke – that arts body wants disbanding

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badoosh, Manchester, United Kingdom, 11 hours ago

Kerching,kerching all aboard for the gravy train…….

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Fourstep, Glasgow, United Kingdom, 11 hours ago

What a state. If it was a dog you’d put it down.

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Beth1111, Wales, United Kingdom, 11 hours ago

Insane!!!!! However, nothing surprises me any more. We are a complete joke!

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KNG, Hope Valley, United Kingdom, 11 hours ago

You get what you vote for. Radical change is needed.

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qprdude, Inverurie, 10 hours ago

You think Liberal or Labour policies would stop this nonsense? THEY started it!

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torg200, carlisle, United Kingdom, 11 hours ago

The dancing leech.

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Sylvia dgb, Havant t, United Kingdom, 11 hours ago

Will we never learn. The money would have been better spent if she had entertained people in a care home. What a stupid country we are.

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Davidg1109, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom, 11 hours ago

You couldn’t make it up.

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ivorfeeling, wearegoosed, 11 hours ago

I assume the Portuguese wouldn’t be daft enough to give her the money but the good old UK can always be relied upon to support meaningless, trivial and dubious projects. Pathetic doesn’t even come close.

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Grabthar, Poole, United Kingdom, 11 hours ago

tw=@ts for giving him money, and he’s a rw-@t too. with bells on.

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Miketheknight, grantham, United Kingdom, 11 hours ago

It doesn’t supprise me,What this government and past governments are good at is throwing our money at useless projects.

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Peter99, London, 11 hours ago

The Arts Council about as left wing as Corbyn! A load of ‘do-gooders’ who follow an interest paid for by the tax payer!

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Lou Sbottom, Sitting Down, Vietnam, 11 hours ago

May’s Tories

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qprdude, Inverurie, 10 hours ago

How sad that you think this is a new idea thought up by the current government. I suppose it’s easier for you to blame the Tories for everything rather than accept the truth.

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patricia 60, somewhere, United Kingdom, 5 hours ago

Suggest you read the history of the Arts council around long before May

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itsnotmyfault, suffolk, United Kingdom, 11 hours ago

Another ten grand that we won’t see again…..plus the other fourteen grand that this woman wasted in 2008. Isn’t it strange – and really, really annoying – that money can always be found for complete and utter nonsense such as this, but we can never find so much as a spare penny piece to ensure that our elderly can live with dignity and in comfort? Isn’t it a relief all round to know that we have our priorities right?!! When will somebody in government be brave enough to stand up and say “Enough. Let’s stop wasting money right, left and centre on absolute nonsense, and start to spend it on things that really matter”? We can but live in hope that one day one of them will find a backbone….but let’s not hold our collective breath waiting!!

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Bemused, West Sussex, United Kingdom, 11 hours ago

hen will somebody in government be brave enough to stand up and say “Enough. Let’s stop wasting money right, left and centre on absolute nonsense, and start to spend it on things that really matter”? >>> When? When you, and everyone else, vote for change. Vote for change, or get more of the same.

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Gillian Byrne, London, United Kingdom, 10 hours ago

Not one of them cos it is not their money. It is ours.

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Gagged, Smallville, United Kingdom, 11 hours ago

I can see it now every British value being transmitted to the locusts. 1; civil partnerships, 2; a remoaner, 3; non heterosexual, 4; scrounging from the tax payer, 5; anti British, 6; political activist, 7; me me me.

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Gilda Smith, East Yorkshire, United Kingdom, 11 hours ago

Easy come easy go!!

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Steve UK taxpayer, hope not EU much longer, United Kingdom, 11 hours ago

Is it not time that The Arts Council was either shut down, or put under the control of adults. They throw OUR money away on stuff that most people wouldn’t cross the road to look at.

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LAUGHING GRAVY, ON THE BEACH, Fiji, 12 hours ago

the u.k tax payer is a laughing stock,these mugs really have no dignity..

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Bemused, West Sussex, United Kingdom, 11 hours ago

‘No dignity’? They are positively humiliating.

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guiniveres daughter, lyonesse, United Kingdom, 12 hours ago

The Art’s Council is just another elite run lefties excuse to use the tax player’s money to fund so called art that all of us plebs are “too stupid” to understand. Most of the C**p that passes as art today is just for extremely rich people to pay lots of money for so that they can boast about a dirty unmade bed or an animal in formaldehyde.

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Steve UK taxpayer, hope not EU much longer, United Kingdom, 11 hours ago

No chance of any ordinary people getting on their management board – only the posh elite.

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qprdude, Inverurie, 12 hours ago

Good God, I’d give her 10 grand NOT to dance with me!

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Steve UK taxpayer, hope not EU much longer, United Kingdom, 11 hours ago

I don’t suppose her native Portugal gave her anything towards this fiasco – just the good old British taxpayer.

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Sigovia Carpet, Over the rainbow, United Kingdom, 12 hours ago

No time frame for when this complete waste took place. After this idiot was prating about in a tent in Calais with illegal immigrants. What exactly did that make us, the British public, aware of ? The only awareness that I have gleaned from this stupidity, is that there should be greater controls on where the tax payers money is spent, and that some people should not be let out on their own.

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StraightTalker, Tunbridge Wells, 12 hours ago

Abolish the Arts Council England!

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qprdude, Inverurie, 10 hours ago

Keep the Arts council, abolish public funding of them.

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The Myth Of The News, Devon, United Kingdom, 12 hours ago

Depressing that taxpayer money should be wasted

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2 of 3 repliesSee all replies

Lou Sbottom, Sitting Down, Vietnam, 11 hours ago

Tories

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qprdude, Inverurie, 11 hours ago

The great giva away is a Blair\ liberal institution. You would be one of the “blame everything on the Tories” mob. Well I suppose it’s easier than taking responsibility or facing the truth.

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Micky MOJO, London, United Kingdom, 12 hours ago

Who signs this off?

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Steve UK taxpayer, hope not EU much longer, United Kingdom, 11 hours ago

Somebody who should be locked up?

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LeeW, Amused To Death, United Kingdom, 12 hours ago

Similar initiatives have over the past few years have turned my local art gallery from a place that displayed amateur, local or semi professional exhibitions into a thinly disguised leftist propaganda centre where the focus of exhibitions are often looping videos claiming to be art. The non-fiction books in the local library show a similar bias, for example 90% of the books on the religion shelf focus on one single religion which certainly does not represent the local population (any guesses which one). Ten years ago the gallery used to attract a trickle of people and school parties, now it is mostly empty.

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Steve UK taxpayer, hope not EU much longer, United Kingdom, 11 hours ago

That’s because it has long been the goal of fabianers to sneak their odious eliefs into our lives by stealth and dishonesty.

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Imperial Trooper, Plymouth, 12 hours ago

Picture number one sums up nearly everything about why I voted OUT. The odour of sanctimonious liberal entitlement just oozes out of the picture.

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joe public, exeter, United Kingdom, 12 hours ago

Her t-shirt should have read I’M INSANE.

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LAUGHING GRAVY, ON THE BEACH, Fiji, 12 hours ago

or ‘im a pathetic immigrant r a p i s t loving do gooder leftie’.

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Imperial Trooper, Plymouth, 12 hours ago

Do you come from a war zone? Do you need food and medicine? Then let me explain how to sneak aboard a Lordy and claim benefits through the medium of dance! All credit for finding the only women and children in the camp for this man to dance with.

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UK 1979, Plymouth, United Kingdom, 11 hours ago

That’s not a dude. Is it?

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pike y mick, Trowbridge, United Kingdom, 12 hours ago

Oh dear oh dear. What an attractive looking person. I would have thought that the people living in the jungle would have been rather offended by this strange effort turning up and “dancing” I know for sure that she wouldn’t be stepping onto my garden path let alone getting into my home. She looks like she needs to be in a psychiatric unit.

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The English man, manchester, United Kingdom, 12 hours ago

Said this a thousand times before, name names! Let’s put a name to these idiots that so freely give OUR money away to other idiots. Let’s see who these faceless nameless unacountable bureaucrats are!

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Dontknowenough, Essex, United Kingdom, 12 hours ago

Money that could be spent on British people, eg: old ones in hospital who need home care to get back on their feet again.

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waguitarman, Nottingham, 12 hours ago

When the article says the Arts Council is responsible for this colossal waste of tax payer money, it tells us very little. People want to know who the individuals are that are responsible for allocating funds to projects like this.

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mr zen, cheshunt england, 12 hours ago

WE ARE LED BY FOOLS.

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Popeyed, Edinburgh, 12 hours ago

WE VOTED FOR THEM!

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SadButMadLad, Burnley, United Kingdom, 12 hours ago

@Popeyed, no we didn’t vote for them, they are civil servants who are spending OUR money. The politicians are weak for not stopping them wasting our money. Agree that we should vote for politicians who have a back bone.

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Lemog, London, United Kingdom, 12 hours ago

Quite honestly, we may as well just burn the money, at least we wouldn’t have to read about idiots like this to find out how our taxes are being wasted.

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john l lumb, halifax, United Kingdom, 12 hours ago

Britain’s great.its just the minority in charge that’s the problem. Vote UKIP

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Barrington, Hull, 13 hours ago

Some days I switch on my computer and can’t believe what I’m reading. This is one of those days, but why the hell are we taxpayers funding the ‘Arts Council’, whatever that is?

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Bertie Rawlorts, Sheffield, United Kingdom, 13 hours ago

How bizarre we would give money to someone associated with people breaking the law.

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Hadenoughofhim56, Poole Dorset, United Kingdom, 13 hours ago

‘Forced to watch a 10 minute video’ – I would have walked off, never mind dancing with that idiot.

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Wowwhatsnext, Cheltenham, United Kingdom, 13 hours ago

They say “It’s about seeing the world from another persons point of view” Well if that’s the case, give me £13K and I’ll show them how I live on the taxpayers money they give me.

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Bemused, West Sussex, United Kingdom, 12 hours ago

I wish she’d go and ‘see the world from another person’s point of view’ by getting lost … elsewhere.

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mike151, OutsidetheEU, United Kingdom, 13 hours ago

FFS

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andy j, Nottingham, United Kingdom, 13 hours ago

What is going on this is tax payers money!!!,it’s like they’ve got to get rid of it or they face the sack,pathetic.

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Blue-Nation, London, United Kingdom, 13 hours ago

She’s got screws loose mate, and the government have honestly lost the plot now. It gets more ridiculous by the day!

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DWW, Abergele, United Kingdom, 13 hours ago

Just think of the ‘tosh’ she put in the funding application form…. lol

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England., Has escaped the EU, United Kingdom, 13 hours ago

Civil Partnership, Says it all really.

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nanuk of the north, Morpeth England, United Kingdom, 13 hours ago

If you vote Lib Dum, Gimmi Grant Party or Pretend Con you are voting for more of the same and are part of the problem.

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oompah, valencia, Spain, 13 hours ago

For that much funding the grimy hyenia could at least get her jugs out.

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LeeW, Amused To Death, United Kingdom, 11 hours ago

I just sicked up in the back of my throat.

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Andy1, Norfolk, United Kingdom, 13 hours ago

And still we deny cancer drugs to sick people because they cost a few thousand pounds. It’s fantastic being in the Eu!

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Supernatural13, West Midlands, United Kingdom, 13 hours ago

Words fail me. Our pensioners have to sell their homes to get care and we are wasting money on c r a p like this? She and that council should be utterly ashamed.

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fave, Sussex, United Kingdom, 13 hours ago

It’s time to stop giving tax payers money to Arts Council England if they are going to waste it like this!

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JamesBucks, Buckingam, United Kingdom, 13 hours ago

Seriously! Just checking it’s not 1st April. You could not make it up.

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billyotool, douglas, Isle Of Man, 13 hours ago

Jesus wept.

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oldambler, Halifax, United Kingdom, 13 hours ago

And the BBC can’t find any funny scripts you couldn’t write this.

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Mik Karcrashian, Los Angeles, United States, 13 hours ago

dear oh dear

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AK, Dorset, 13 hours ago

Cut the Arts Council funding, preferably by 100%. A useless quango.

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andrea-suffolk, leicester, United Kingdom, 13 hours ago

Thats the cost of a nurse for six months wasted

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Sick of the waste, Leeds, United Kingdom, 11 hours ago

Ahh but it is easy for them to throw away the money as it is not theirs and they probably have not even contributed to it in the first place by having a job and paying taxes.

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marceli, slough, United Kingdom, 14 hours ago

I thought the camp did not exist anymore

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John blott, Newcastle, United Kingdom, 14 hours ago

Obviously the arts council has too much money.

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three curls, huddersfield, United Kingdom, 9 hours ago

the Arts council should be privately funded, not from our taxes, then they can waste it however they wish.

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patricia 60, somewhere, United Kingdom, 5 hours ago

Time to make it private funding then if the likes of Gina Millar and the Guardian want to give then so be it

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alice, London, 14 hours ago

I’m a very opinionated person … on this words fail me!

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micky, tamworth, United Kingdom, 14 hours ago

Are politicians will fund the likes of this but turn a blind eye at it own people.

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MentorMan, Warwickshire, United Kingdom, 14 hours ago

Lucky to find somewhere safe to dance – if she tried it down our road she would end up in hospital with a broken ankle from the myriad of potholes which make it so difficult to walk home from town. Never mind, I am sure there is more money where that came from …….

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MarkIsAngry, Warwickshire, United Kingdom, 14 hours ago

If that doesn’t scare away the migrants, nothing will.

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willowbrae, edinburgh, 14 hours ago

Is it April Fool’s Day.

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Tara, Christchurch, New Zealand, 14 hours ago

That just a pi$$ take surely?

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