New Clause 1 - Hypothecation of tax receipts from Lottery to Olympic Lottery Distribution Fund
Horserace Betting and Olympic Lottery Bill
10:45 am
Mr Don Foster (Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport, Culture, Media & Sport; Bath, Liberal Democrat)
I, too, join the Minister in thanking you, Mr. Illsley, your colleague, Mr. Sayeed, and everyone else who made our deliberations possible.
I agree with the Minister, who said that the Committee has not been particularly lively because it covers a range of issues on which there has been a fair degree of agreement on both sides. As has been said, it has been a mixed Bill, covering three different issues: the Tote, the horserace betting levy and the Olympic lottery game. It was clever of the Olympic bid committee to find a way of drawing all that together by agreeing to have the Olympic beach volleyball event in Horse Guards road. There are clear links, and we all noted the Prime Minister's enthusiasm at the launch the other day when he praised the Olympic lottery bid team for arranging to have that beach volleyball
outside his bedroom window, although a different Prime Minister may benefit from that come 2012. Time will tell.
We have learned a lot in the Committee, despite little disagreement. We learned that where there is a fair amount of agreement, the number of letters that I can write to the current Mrs Foster is somewhat limited. She has received the odd postcard, but she has expressed some concern about my effectiveness in Committee. Be that as it may, we also learned that the Minister, who when he came into his new job at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said in an interview that he knew nothing about horse racing, has been a fast learner and has got himself up to speed on the matter.
We found interesting ways of getting various words into Hansard that do not seem to be relevant. I congratulate the hon. Member for Surrey Heath on getting the word ''parsnips'' on to the record. I was trying to find a way of getting ''cheese'' on to it. I am sure that, bearing in mind the speed with which we carried out our deliberations, we shall remember that wonderful phrase about the early bird that catches the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. That is worth thinking about.
We also learned not to trust certain phrases from some hon. Members. We all know not to trust the phrase about the cheque being in the post, and I was not entirely convinced when the hon. Member for Surrey Heath began a contribution by saying that he would be brief. The record will show that he said that on a number of occasions.
As the time and the day of the week demonstrate—it being Tuesday and not 5 o'clock on Thursday—the Committee has made great progress and has been very successful. I hope that the Olympic bid will be as successful as we have been in Committee.