EVERY week, while I watch people buying lottery tickets, I wonder how many of them know where their cash is going.

Quite apart from the 13 per cent or so which is creamed off by the Government in tax, Tony Blair and company are now beginning to siphon off extra funds from the cash which was earmarked for good causes.

The reason? To pay for a few of the things they promised during the election while knowing full well that they could not deliver.

So now, things like charities, sports, the arts and other good causes, will suffer in order to pay for the government's homework clubs and other nonsenses. This smash-and-grab government will stop at nothing, it seems. Who knows what they'll grab next?

B GAVIN, Jessel Street, Blackburn.

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