tessa the confessor

The press note talked about how she was to make an 'important speech' about Liverpool and this 'Cultural Olympiad' which will run up to the 2012 London Olympics.
Forgive me then, on the face of it, for thinking there may have been some 'important' announcement coming. Louise Ellman, who tells me she's been pressing for Liverpool to launch the Olympiad, certainly hoped there would be.
Is that why maybe, when none came, I found her and Tessa outside in the corridor, heads together and urgently whispering to each other?
Anyway, experience as usual won over hope, and actually Tessa's speech added up to precisely nothing for Liverpool. She could have made it anywhere in the country, and as our leader column says quite rightly today, stayed at home and donated her (first class) train fare to some needy arts organisation.
Because while the DCMS promises £40m 'legacy' money to this Cultural Olympiad (and hopes for match funding from the private sector), it is madly diverting funding streams like the lottery away from the very cultural organisations who could make a 'Cultural Olympiad' a success, and into the yawning black hole of the London Olympics' budget.
And with another review due in the autumn, small arts organisations in particular are looking very worried.
In fact, the only new things we learned from Tessa yesterday were that much as she professes Liverpool to be "Britain's" Capital of Culture, she's not prepared to put our money where her mouth is (I suppose at least she wasn't as scathing as Baroness Scotland who told us we were 'lucky enough' to get 2008. A walking, talking case for devolving 'Scotland' more fully!)
Oh, and the second thing we learned was that RLPO golden boy Vasily Petrenko is also an Olympic-standard swimmer who chose the baton over the butterfly.
Gives us a new idea for the Cultural Olympiad - I bet he could take Simon Rattle in the 50m freestyle.