El Gordo is running out of ideas and money

Lottery millions diverted to public services

The National Lottery is becoming one of Gordon Brown's stealth taxes as a result of Government plans to take more control over the way the money is spent, it was claimed last night.

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When the National Lottery was set up by the last Conservative government, the intention was that it should fund projects in the arts, sport, national heritage and the community rather than pay for programmes which were the normal responsibility of government, such as the health service or education. Since Tony Blair came to power in 1997, the boundaries have been eroded.

Theresa May, the Tory culture spokesman, said that £231 million of lottery money had been diverted to training teachers in new technology, £93 million to hospital equipment, £50 million to the search for renewable energy and £42 million on a school fruit project. A further £45 million had been "snaffled" to pay for the Jamie Oliver project to improve school dinners.

There is no doubt these are all noble and deserving projects. So why can't El Gordo fund them from the public purse? Cash a bit tight is it Gordon? Or is more the case that you view all money coming through Government channels as your personal little cash pile to dole out as you see fit?

When New Labour went on the offensive regarding proposed Tory tax cuts, the standard line was "Can they tell us which hospitals and schools are going to close...?"

If everyone stopped buying Lottery tickets for a year (like that will ever happen) can New Labour please tell us:

• Which teachers are not going to receive IT training?
• Which hospitals are going to lose out on new equipment?
• Which schools are not going to receive the benefits of Jamie Oliver's better school meals campaign?

What motivates us to buy a lottery ticket? Winning a squidillion pounds so that we can afford to go and live in a country with decent weather and no Tony Bliar is probably top of most people's list. Secondary to that is the charitable aspect of our wager. We have one of the most successful Lotteries in the world donating a hell of a lot of money to good causes (and probably some not so good ones, I'll leave you to argue amongst yourselves on that point).

We do not expect our leaders to "snaffle" money from charitable funds just because they are too chickenshit to admit that they need to raise direct taxation.

Filed under: Politics, New Labour Spin