PC madness

I missed this piece about the National Lottery Fund last week, but picked it up at No Pasaran

Last month the Severn Area Rescue Association’s request for £5,000 to replace the 14-year-old Land Rover used to launch its lifeboats was turned down because it could not provide details of the social backgrounds of the people that it has rescued.

The Preston-based Bowland and Pennine Mountain Rescue Team’s £200,000 application was rejected on the same ground.

If true, then the people responsible should be fired. Simple as that. These are matters of life and death. To normal people, there are no ifs and buts, you just say yes. Who is responsible?
Update: The answer appears to be Estelle Morris.

The DCMS [Department of Culture Media and Sport] has responsibility within Government for National Lottery policy, and sets the policy and financial framework within which the distributing bodies operate, but does not award lottery grants. The Minister for the Arts, Estelle Morris, has day to day responsibility for the National Lottery.

Update:
Via Blognor Regis I also found this piece from the Times.

HUNDREDS of children in a rural English town have been deemed too white, too ablebodied and too middle-class for a grant for a new Scout and Guide headquarters by the organisers of the National Lottery’s Community Fund

The Big Lottery Fund (the successor body to the Community Fund which has been behind some of these decisions) has a discussion board here. There is already a post up about their appalling decision making. (Be polite!)