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The RegionsOne long overdue change which this government has brought about is the devolution of a considerable amount of Lottery funding from the Arts Council to the Regional Arts Boards. This is a very welcome development for many reasons, but mainly because the RABs are in a far better position to know the needs of their areas than any centrally placed body. The process is by no means complete but it has made a good start. Or, at least, it has made a good start in the English regions. It has had its problems in Scotland, where the Scottish Arts Council shot itself in the foot over its handling of Scottish Ballet, but the major problem has been in Wales where the Arts Council of Wales is held in such low esteem that one would be hard-pressed to find anyone with an interest in theatre in the principality who would have even one good word to say about it. Its colossal blunders over the Theatre in Education strategy are now being followed by equally incredible confusion about the New Writing strategy, and the financial position of Theatr Clwyd Cymru is a mystery on a par with spontaneous combustion! Of course, the government led the way here with its imposition of totally the wrong man to lead the new Assembly. It has now been forced to accept Rhodri Morgan, the very man whom it by-passed in the first instance. (One would have thought Blair and the rest would have learned the lesson of the Welsh Assembly, but they didn't and tried to impose Frank Dobson on the people of London. Yet again they failed, and now Ken Livingston, the man they rejected, is Mayor of London.) There has been a steady decline in the number of theatres in the provinces. The reasons for this decline are numerous and complicated, but amongst them are:
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