Archive for January 15th, 2008
15th January 2008
Hands Off The Lottery
We vote this afternoon on whether to hand over another massive chunk of Lottery money to plug the Government’s shortfall in its Olympics funding package. The Alliance of local authorities in traditional industrial areas has forecast this means that Carmarthenshire alone will lose £6.5 million as a result of the Olympics lottery raid. Plaid will be definitely voting against (along with the SNP) . Will other Welsh MPs put Wales first? It remains to be seen. It cannot be right that the most disadvantaged communities in Britain - places like the Amman Valley - should be penalised because of the Government’s dodgy accounting.
Since London itself will be the biggest beneficiary of the Games, then it’s surely right that London should pay for any additional expenditure. And some Londoners can certainly afford it. J.P. Morgan - Mr Blair’s new employer - and Citigroup are expected to declare their annual bonuses next week along with most of the other main investment banks in Canary Wharf and the Square Mile. If the richest city in Europe needs regenerating then maybe we should ask its richest citizens to cough up and slap a windfall tax on City bonuses. Surely an Olympic ’fat cat tax’ would be far fairer than this Robin-Hood-in-reverse-like raid on Wales’ poor.