The Treasury would never have countenanced tax money being used. No business could have defended such folly to its shareholders. Lottery money, falling outside either discipline, was made available as a plaything for egotistical wasters who invented a national purpose that did not exist. What one misses here is the faintest semblance of regret. No whisper have I heard, from the principals or their auxiliaries, that they may have been responsible for a mistake.
Apology seems out of the question.
When not whimpering a few resentful words that miss the point, they are silent. They're moving on. The dome was yesterday. Just another well-meaning blip in the awkward lives of politicians committed to national renewal. But it wasn't.