National Lottery

As always, my hon. Friend makes a very powerful point. There are many creative solutions. London is the richest city in the world, so why should the poor, the disadvantaged and the underprivileged in my constituency pay for this infrastructure and regeneration in London? Let us go back to 2004, when we were told about this £410 million from the lottery. That had as much credibility as a Labour party fundraiser. Nobody believed it then. The initial budget could not even be said to have been drawn up on the back of a fag packet. Indeed, that would be to do a gross disservice to fag packets the world over! It was a total fantasy: it started as a fairy story and it has ended as the darkest of tragedies, with an estimate of £2.3 billion going up to £9.2 billion. That is what we are dealing with. We are asked to believe that this is now the end, but where will it all stop and when will the Conservatives and the Liberals say, ““Enough is enough””? So far as we are concerned this evening, enough most certainly is enough. We have examined the position very carefully, and have found that Scotland's contribution—the London levy that Scotland is to pay at the expense of our good causes and grass-roots sports—will be £184 million. As I said earlier in an intervention, SportScotland alone will lose £13 million, at a time when we have the Commonwealth games to pay for. The Secretary of State can relax: I am not going to chap on his door asking for £9 billion for the Commonwealth games. I am not even going to ask for £1 billion. What I think fair and reasonable, however, and what I think the Minister should consider, is for some of the money that we are losing through the London grab for the Olympics to be returned to us so that we can pay for our games in Scotland. Why, when we are to have games in Scotland, are we losing £187 million of our money for grass-roots sports and good causes to pay for games in London? It is unfair, and I should like to hear what the Secretary of State has to say about it. What is the cost to everyone? The Alliance, formerly the Coalfield Communities Campaign, estimates that the eventual cost will be more than £2 billion. We have analysed all the local authority areas in Scotland, and we have discovered that the cost to my local authority, Perth and Kinross council, will be some £5 million. Every single person in the United Kingdom will have to pay £33: that is the true cost of the London levy that will be imposed on us. When London Members get up and talk about this mythical subsidy for Scotland and all the disadvantages for London and the rest of England in comparison with Scotland, we will point out that this is a real and tangible London subsidy. I hope that the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats will vote this measure down. For us, it is a watery grave too far. We will stand up for the underprivileged and the dispossessed. We will ensure that their money is not lost. We will vote against the measure, and I urge the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, even at this late stage, to join us in the Lobby.