I'm trying to forego my emotional attachments to funding and its withdrawl. Close friend and colleague Steve Morris hung himself in June, which triggered my own breakdown (but now, that's by-the-by). I've spoken to all Steve's close relatives and friends since, and the final straw for him was that Leicester City Council, East Midlands Arts and ACE together withdrew funding from his twenty-one-year disability arts centre/project, Access Arts Space. Based in the centre of Leicester, Steve pioneered disabiltity community TV and the idea - revolutionary in Britain in 1983 - that ability/disabilty must work together for the betterment of both - of all.

Steve was a campaigner for gay rights and active against all forms of racism in the city. He was a fervent 'Stop The War' campaigner and organised Leicester Gay Pride 2003. Back in 1987 Steve and I had a 'bundle' against white racists in a pub - and won. That sounds tough: Steve was the funniest and most gentle, sincere bloke ever met.

In being revolutionary (as poetry should be) one also has to be an arch conservative. What poets want to preserve is their independence, and time and space to work/produce - as all others do in society. I don't think ACE is merely going through a 'tick box' review of concerns and commitments.

What's happening in the UK, in my view, is that Blair & Consensus - having increased arts funding since 1997 by over 50% (via the Lottery) - is attempting to reign back that budget. And, at the same time, with their funding - 'Arts For All' (deleted) and the rest - emphasis is on increasingly top-down projects. In Lowestoft, we've seen that with the utterly awful Home Zone imposition and a terrible project to come: Commissions East/ACE/Suffolk CC are to impose a sculpture on us entirely without consultation - and with utterly no democracy involved.

Nobody wants the Lowestoft 'sculpture.' It'll be about raising the past over the future - as all Lowestoft art projects have been about before. What could we do with £50,000 - together?