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National Lottery Bill

I return to my analogy of the Minister batting out the last day of a test match. It is just possible that we have got through his guard in the course of this exchange, as he has explained to us why it is totally appropriate not only that the additional money which the Big Lottery Fund is spending on computers for libraries should be so spent, but that all the money that used to be spent on books should be spent on new technology. It leads one to the novel proposition that perhaps the Big Lottery Fund ought now to start buying books for libraries on the ground that that will quite clearly be additional to any current government expenditure.