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The Good, The Bad and The Fast27 November 2000LONDON -- Nov. 27, 2000 -- As reported by the Economist:``...This has been a bad week for Britain's National Lottery. The Millennium Dome—the most notorious lottery-funded project in Britain—has been excoriated in parliamentary hearings and an auditor's report. Every visitor who walks into the giant tent in Greenwich has, it seems, been subsidised to the tune of about £140 ($200). The Dome may yet be torn down at the end of the year. ``…All this is ammunition for those who argued all along that the lottery is a licence to waste money. ``Yet there is another side to the story. Michael Heseltine, the politician who arguably did most to get the Dome built, argued this week that the £628m of lottery money spent on the Dome should be seen in the context of the nearly £9 billion raised for `good causes' since 1994 (a figure that will rise to £11.5 billion by next year). ``…It is true that for the first time since the great days of Victorian self-confidence, Britain has been pouring money into what you might call cultural assets. Museums, galleries, stadiums, botanical gardens, new and refurbished public buildings have been popping up all over the country. ``The idea behind the National Lottery was that it would finance all those good things that often get squeezed out of government budgets. ``While British gamblers queue to buy tickets in the hope of winning a multi-million jackpot, some 28% of their stake goes not to pay for prizes or to cover the lottery's costs and profits, but to finance `good works'. ``Five major categories of good work have been identified: the arts, charities, `heritage', `Millennium projects' and sport. They have benefited in roughly equal proportions..." |