There is a perception that the Dame is antagonistic to any form of cultural spending, because she is uncouth and only watches Strictly Come Dancing...
In fact, the Dame loves nothing better than a bit of Gilbert and Sullivan and vaudeville. She is also a great admirer of that other great cultural giant..... Lord Lloyd Webber
In fact, the Dame loves nothing better than a bit of Gilbert and Sullivan and vaudeville. She is also a great admirer of that other great cultural giant..... Lord Lloyd Webber
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| OHP STARLET |
A reader writes.....
Opera Scandal Continues
RBKC Councillors are again being asked to approve the on-going scandal of the £1 million a year taxpayer subsidy for Holland Park Opera - the only Civic Opera in Great Britain and a personal vanity of the Council Leadership.
The Leadership is attempting to slip through (in the small print) a "key decision" on 6th December to approve funding for the City Of London Sinfonia to play music for the 2014 opera season. What has happened to the Cockell ambition to privatise the Opera?
Nothing of course.
What has happened to the statement of the Cabinet Member for Finance in 2011(Cllr Lightfoot) that subsidy has to be capped at £500k for three years and end in 2015?
Nothing of course.
What has happened to the statement by the Deputy Leader in 20111 that "an alternative future has to be agreed".
Nothing of course.
All of these empty statements were part of the sick bag chorus from the poodles following the infamous Tot Brill report into the future of Holland Park Opera.
A pathetic "Yes Minister" moment engineered by the hopeless and disgraced ex Leader Cockell.
Hard pressed tax payers are being bamboozled into paying for this frippery for yet another year, with no sign of a plan to put an end to the scandal of Holland Park Opera, now in its £11 million "suck" of taxpayer funds.
Two world class operas with cheaper seats down the road at Covent Garden and the ENO, but puffed up Councillors still determined to have their own show in the local Kensington garden with free seats for the sycophants..
Pass the sick bag and it's a yellow card for Cllr Paget-Brown who seems particularly slow on the uptake for this one.
Again? This is now beyond a joke
ReplyDeleteThe bleat brigade on the Hornet are in full swing again. Stuff them. And long live OHP which is in the safe hands of Cllr Paget-Brown. The K&C budget is nearly £800 million every year. OHP is not even in the rounding. So the kill joys can crawl back into their dark holes
Delete"Stuff them" .....very cultured! Of course, most of our 'small town' councillors love the feeling that they can be patrons of the arts''....the reality is that they are mainly pretentious and culturally ignorant!
DeletePaget_ Brown is turning a deaf ear to the outcry from tax payers about this abuse of their funds. It will be sad (for he is a sad person) if he too gets carried away with the notion that he is really a VIP and entitled to grand things because he resides in a Royal Borough. This guy needs to get wise and pay for his own fripperies
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable that the prat continues to pump money into this rubbish
DeleteThe Council has no right to be siphoning of £1 million every year of tax payers money to subsidise an elitist art form like opera. There is no shortage of opera in London. This is a continuing boil that needs to be lanced. For reasons that need to be exposed by the Dame, Cllr Paget-Brown continues to support this corrupt funding
ReplyDelete'reasons that need to be exposed'?? Judging by the look on his face at the Leighton House event where a half naked man writhed around on the floor ... I can't imagine what you mean.
DeleteThe curse of K&C councillors.....
DeleteIt is worse than this - the Council is just about to sign an agreement for sponsorship from Investec for a further THREE years, so the Opera is clearly safe in the hands of the Council Tax payers (i.e. you and me) until 2017.
ReplyDeleteInvestec are laughing all the way to the Bank. They use HPO to "entertain" clients. Its is cut price opera for them because their "free" tickets to entertain their clients cost a fraction of what Corporate Entertainment would set them back at top venues like Covent Garden. But Investec, being a third tier financial advisor has the kind of client base who feel good about "an opera freebie" but do not know enough about opera to understand that they are getting something on the cheap alongside the peacocks. All of them a bargain basement, Poundland type, operation.
DeleteMy information is that Investec knows that it has the Council by the short and curlies and have driven a hard bargain. They know that their £200k "sponsorship" would cost them £500k elsewhere so they tie the Council into a three year deal which traps taxpayers to cough up another £1 million per year for the next three years.. If the chumps at Horton Street who represent taxpayers had an ounce of business sense they would be able to figure out that they could squeeze Investec for £450k per year instead of the pathetic rip off at the moment. But of course our silly Councillors have not a grain of business sense in their puffed up, boy loving, bodies
DeleteNo chance of any opposition to this waste of Council Tax from the pathetic RBKC Labour Group.
ReplyDeleteCllr Blakeman has made it known that she is a great supporter of Holland Park Opera even though she now claims to pay for her own ticket.
Labour should be actively opposing this frippery and not be seen to condone this kind of moronic spending while front line services in the Rotten Borough are being cut.
Time for Labour to get rid of Cllr Blakeman and give Cllr Emma Dent Coad a try at mounting some serious opposition to these Tory hooligans.
Every year Labour, led by Blakeman and Dent Coad, propose to remove the subsidy from Holland Park Opera in their alternative budget. Unsurprisingly, every year Labour’s proposal is voted down by the Tories and their Lib Dem coalition partners.
DeleteAn FOI is required. How many times has Cllr Paget-Brown been entertained by Investec??
ReplyDeleteCouncillor Paget-Brown has quietly let it be known that OHP is safe in his hands
DeleteHats off to Volpe, the Director of Opera Holland Park. As an insider (ie an Officer who is officially an employee of the Library in Hornton Street, where he has an office and not much to do in the 8 months of the year when the tent is stored) he has learnt how to manipulate the system to his advantage. A scruffy little entrepreneur with holes in his shoes - he has recognised the vanities of K&C Council Leaders and flatters them with baubles, promises of fun, and parades to puff themselves up
ReplyDeleteOh Volpe, 'I'm a rude boy innit, look I got tattoos, a wide boy from the Bush, loving opera, who'd da thought, down wid da kidz, yah - I mean, innit'.
DeleteA silly flirty flatterer who knows exactly how to play Paget-Brown and has access to a bottomless pit of funding. Other officers despise him.
Bleat brigade still bleating. Stuff the lot of you
ReplyDeleteAnd who might you be....you silly little nonentity?
DeleteHe is not "little", he is HUGE
DeleteAt a recent Q & A session in N. Kensington, Cllr Nick PB claimed a lack of council funds as the reason for RBKC failing to provide certain basic services.The audience responded by suggesting that the Council should withdraw funding from the HPO.
ReplyDeleteCllr Paget Brown claimed that 25,000 residents enjoy the Holland Park Opera. One wonders at the source of this very specific figure.