ASK yourself which "good cause" is more deserving of a grant from the lottery - hospitals wanting life-saving equipment to fight cancer or a multi-millionairess fashion designer doing up the historic house she has bought in London?

And while there is an immense difference between the £93 million National Lottery cash announced today for the biggest-ever single investment in NHS cancer equipment and the £10,000-plus of it that is going to punk fashion queen Vivienne Westwood - along with more from Lambeth Council - to renovate the £695,00 house she has acquired at Clapham, there is absolutely no contest as to which is more worthy.

Indeed, we are sure that most people would say that an immensely rich businesswoman should not be getting a penny of this money, heritage or no.

But it remains amazing that some people are complaining that the government is "raiding" the lottery fund to help the NHS - among them opposition parties and doctors.

The Tories say the government has broken its pledge not to use lottery money for items normally paid for through central taxation.

The British Medical Association says that it should give the NHS enough from taxes rather than adding to it with fund-raising. The government says this lottery boost is "top up" money, not a trick to keep taxes down.

But the public and NHS-users will hardly give a fig for this debate.

They know there are far better things that could be given lottery grants than posh heritage houses, opera houses, concert halls, art galleries, dance groups or squash courts - and top of their list would be our ever-squeezed health service, followed by the schools, roads and the environment.

In fact, they would not mind if the government ditched the device of its New Opportunities Fund raking off lottery cash for "extras" for health, education and the environment and declared outright that, in future, the lottery would be solely for these causes.

Overnight, the argument about it being a ruse to stem central taxation would be dispelled - as lottery tickets would, in effect, become taxed, just like goods liable for VAT and alcohol or petrol are.

We see today just how well the lottery-revenue millions can be used - promising extra numbers of cancer patients new equipment that will enable them to be treated sooner and closer to their homes.

The government should go the whole hog and make at last the NHS a guaranteed National Lottery jackpot winner all the time.

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