SPECTATOR
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THE LOTTERY MISUSED
This Sunday's collection at the Church of St Peter the Apostle in Shaldon, Devon, Is unlikely to be generous. Its vicar, the Reverend Ashley Manhire, has denounced a £385,000 grant from the National Lottery for a new Millennium centre in the village as undeserved. Shaldon, he says, is affluent, and the money would be better spent in the inner cities.
The vicar's concerns are understandable. There is no doubt that the seaside resort will benefit from a new centre for commu- nity activity. But, as Mr Manhire points out, given the shortage of funds for other deserving projects, should Shaldon's new hall be given priority?
The argument exposes the flaw in the logic behind the Lottery. The Conserva- tives, determined that this policy, at least, would be popular, pledged that after the Treasury had taken a relatively modest 12 per cent of the Lottery cash, and the com- pany that ran it an even smaller 1 per cent as profits, 28 per cent of the takings would go to five good causes; the arts, charities, heritage, the Millennium and sports. Labour is adding a sixth, the new opportu- nities fund, which will spend its share on health, education and the environment.
The money is controlled, at least indi- rectly, by the government. The first tranche of spending by the new opportunities fund, on child care clubs, was announced by Gor- don Brown in his November Budget speech. Labour has since explained that the fund will also provide cash for health care centres, and information technology train- ing for teachers.
These would otherwise have had to be funded by the taxpayer, so Mr Brown is using Lottery money as a replacement for public spending; something which the Tories originally promised would never happen. The government also exercises considerable influence over the powerful quangos that distribute the rest of the cash. In some cases, the money has gone to a good home, but it has also funded a new breed of white elephants across Britain. For example, the Millennium Commission is giving millions of pounds to pay for a Completely pointless 'Millennium tower' in Portsmouth dockyard. Meanwhile, traditional donations to charities have declined. The 30 million Britons who play the Lottery every week know that nearly one third of their stake is going to good causes, and have reduced what they give to charities accordingly. Charitable giving, like so many other areas of British life, has been institutionalised.
Instead of using Lottery funds as a sur- reptitious replacement for public spending, the government should simply increase the Treasury's take from the Lottery, initially diverting the money that is currently allo- cated for the Millennium Commission and the new opportunities funds straight to Gordon Brown's piggy-bank. The money for the arts, sport and heritage could con- tinue to come directly from the Lottery. Then Labour could spend its increased tax take on whatever it liked, but it would be clear that this was taxation, not donation. People playing the Lottery would be aware that their weekly flutter was no substitute for giving directly to charity.
The projects on which the money was spent would be subject to the same strin- gent public sector constraints as other tax- payer funded expenditure. The government would have to explain why a tower in Portsmouth harbour, or a Millennium cen- tre in Shaldon, was more important to Britain than teacher training, or hospital equipment. Then, if Shaldon still received its new building, its vicar would have no cause for complaint.
Much surprise has been expressed at the adultery of the Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook. Part of this is astonishment that anyone would wish to commit adultery with him. Mr Cook is undoubtedly blessed, but not aesthetically. He would seem an unlikely socialist sex symbol.
One answer is that his girlfriends are not sex symbols either. But Mrs Gaynor Regan, despite her churlish expression in front of the cameras, has something of the Pre- Raphaelite beauty about her. We can almost picture her lying in a flower-strewn barge, floating down some quiet country stream.
Mr Cook's sexual detractors, as opposed to his moral ones, lack imagination. A handsome man has a certain glamour, but it is no more than the superficial splendour of a prancing animal. Only delayed adoles- cents or a desperate old maid or two would be foolish enough to believe that this is what true romance is all about.
If men fall in love through their eyes, more intelligent women have always suc- cumbed through their ears. One of the most successful lovers in modern history was the 18th-century MP, John Wilkes. Wilkes was hideous to look at, with a squint and a crooked jaw. But he managed to steal a girlfriend from Casanova. 'Give me half an hour to talk away my face,' he boasted, `and I can seduce any woman ahead of the handsomest man in Europe.' It cannot take Mr Cook much longer, surely, to talk away his beard.
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