Tag Archives: national lottery

The cost of a Lotto gamble doubles. Is this a tax hike on the poor?

By Andy Boddington | Thu 3rd October 2013 - 9:30 am

Lottery ApologiesThe price of the National Lottery doubles today. The odds of winning the top prize remain the same: 14 million to one.

The price hike is being launched by floating giant balls under the world renowned historic Ironbridge. That’s as tacky as it comes. But the Lotto was always a tacky business that supported good charitable causes.

The BBC is finding itself in an awkward position this morning. On the one hand, it has been dragged into Camelot’s campaign to keep ticket sales up. But on local radio at least, there is coverage of why people gamble and gambling’s negative effects. Yet what I hearing and seeing across the news channels is mostly an unadulterated promotion for the lottery.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 19 Comments
Don Foster MP

Don Foster MP writes… Our big gig

By Don Foster MP | Wed 15th May 2013 - 3:55 pm

Readers may recall some criticism that came my way at the end of last year following an article in The House magazine that implied I was missing the glamour of my former role working on the Culture, Media and Sport portfolio. Though I tried to dispel this with exciting tales of building regulations and brownfield development, Lib Dem Voice ran with a heading of, “Does Don Foster like his new Government job?” So let me be clear. I do, I really do.

Of course, there are some really difficult matters to deal with such as council funding, homelessness and …

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David Thorpe

Opinion: A radical idea for the post office network

By David Thorpe | Sat 26th January 2013 - 6:25 pm

Isle of Iona Post Office, Scotland - Some rights reserved by Freddie H.A typical Saturday morning in the Thorpe household typically involves me meandering, in my usual untidy fashion, to one of the menagerie of corner shops which cosset Hammersmith high street from the unkempt collection of bookmakers, pawnbrokers and fast food joints which seem to be the fate of most urban centres.

From the shop, I will descend to the most desolate corner of a quiet bar and languidly let the tensions of the week be traduced by …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 15 Comments
Mark Pack

The coalition agreement: culture, Olympics, media and sport

By Mark Pack | Wed 26th May 2010 - 12:20 pm

Welcome to the fifth in a series of posts going through the full coalition agreement section by section. You can read the full coalition document here.

It’s rather a mouthful of a title for this section, but it reflects the diverse remit of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Almost inevitably it is made up of a disparate shopping list of policies without any clear thread running through them.

The list includes the not exactly controversial (Make a success of the Olympics! Make a success of other sports events! Try to get more sports events!) through supporting the status quo …

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The Voice

“A Liberal believes in the raucous, unpredictable capacity of people”

By The Voice | Fri 5th February 2010 - 7:20 am

That’s the striking quote from Nick Clegg which opens The Power of Creativity, a set of new proposals for the arts and creative industries published today by the Liberal Democrats. The paper goes on to make the point that,

The first chairman of the Arts Council was that great Liberal John Maynard Keynes. His vision as set out in 1946 remains ours in 2010: “to create an environment, to breed a spirit, to cultivate an opinion, to offer a stimulus to such purpose that the artist and the public can each sustain and live on the other in that union which

…

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged , and | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

The National Lottery: what do you think of it?

By Mark Pack | Thu 19th November 2009 - 9:20 am

The National Lottery is celebrating its 15th birthday today.

There were many controversies in the run up to its launch. Would it encourage gambling and result in more problems of gambling addiction? Would it be a welcome source of funds for good causes or would it provide an excuse for government to cut its funding? Would the profits for the operators dwarf the money given to good causes? Would it be a welcome new source of revenue for local shops? And so on.

So, fifteen years on: what do you think?

Posted in News | 14 Comments
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