Some of the United Kingdom's most-visited sights may have to put off or cancel improvements after it has been revealed that they face a £100 million ($164 million) funding shortfall.

The Guardian newspaper reports the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport has promised far more than it can spend in fiscal years 2009-10 and 2010-11. Department officials failed to explain why they are so bad at math but claim they are looking into the problem. Well, I guess everything will be OK then.

This can't be good news for the directors and staff at places like the British Museum or Tate Modern, which both planned large expansions, or Stonehenge, which was promised a visitor center, or the British Film Institute, which was supposed to get a whole new building complex. Some of the funding for these projects is coming from other sources, but the department's portion is a vital part of the planning and now all of these projects will have to be reviewed.

Now that the Empire's sun has permanently set, the UK needs to realize its two major sources of income are the financial services sector and tourism. Since the financial services people have shown their utter incompetence, the government should be managing its profitable tourist attractions a little more carefully.

Filed under: Arts and Culture, History, Learning, Europe, United Kingdom, News