It’s just as well life doesn’t imitate art all the time, otherwise VCS staff throughout South West England would probably be sat with a pencil up either nostril and a pair of underpants on their heads. And, given the apparent unwillingness across government to accept the severity of problems in the sector, they’d soon be joined by their peers across the rest of the country. For those not familiar with the adventures of Edmund Blackadder, it was one of his many ploys to escape the Great War. Austin Macauley, editor, New Start Online magazine