I've stopped going on the Lottery. The final straws were the allocation of millions of pounds to £135million-rated Eton for some tennis courts and more millions to the toffee-nosed gentry of the Leander rowing club.

Yes, final straws after millions for the opera and the ballet and, at the other end of the scale, for the lesbian and gay outreach counselling committees and their ilk.

You have to be either affluent and snobby or into drugs and strange sexual practices to pick up loads of Lottery dosh. Filthy rich or just plain filthy.

Well, they ain't getting any more lolly from me. And one final point, now that the General Election is behind us. Did you notice that the one word that never seemed to rear its ugly head in all the endless debates and waffle was . . . drugs.

It should have been number one on the agendas. Because unless the politicians get a grip on it quickly the whole fabric of our society will be washed away.

They can throw millions into education, but if the kids are allowed to grow two heads it will all be money down the drain.

J. Holden

Blackburn Road

Darwen

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.