Orders of the Day — National Lottery Bill [Lords]

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 5:51 pm on 7 April 1998.

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Photo of Mr Robert Maclennan Mr Robert Maclennan Party Chair, Liberal Democrats 5:51, 7 April 1998

It would not have been fair of me not to acknowledge that point, but it does not rectify the decline in real terms of the Department's expenditure on the arts.

I listened with particular interest to the former Prime Minister talking about how he has witnessed lively developments in the arts due directly to the intervention of the lottery. Like him, I have visited the Cambridge arts theatre. Like him, I have also visited Greenwich theatre with great pleasure, but it is now condemned to death. The Secretary of State would not deny that development of the live and performing arts is patchy. Greenwich theatre was not saved by the interventions of the right hon. Member for South-West Surrey (Mrs. Bottomley) when she was a Minister. Other theatres—to confine it to theatres— in the south-east have been affected.