Pat and Stan Cable from Eye in Norfolk won nearly £4M on the lottery the other day. Like many lottery winning couples in their latter years they don't see the money changing their life routine much. They will remain in their two-bedroom council flat - they only have plans to go on holiday and buy a caravan. They readily admit they will struggle to spend the £10,000 a month interest their fortune will earn them, let alone the lump sum.
Most of us have had a go on the lottery although few remark on the extra-ordinary system of prize-winning. If you pick four out of six numbers correctly you may win up to £100, pick five and it may be as much as £2,000. But six can win you several million. Then watch as feckless relatives and shameless con-men move in for the kill.
It must be about time for a restructuring of these 'Premiership' style payouts. If the object was to spread a bit of joy and good fortune then the system of prizes would have a lot more equanimity about it. For the £4m won by the possibly-soon-to-be-unhappy Cables could mean 200 couples getting a payout of £20,000. That would be enough to pay off a bit of debt, treat the close family, buy that caravan and still have plenty left over for a fortnight in the sun. The Irish lottery is run on these lines and everyone knows someone who has won a few quid. At present the British lottery is closer to a Dickensian structure of misery for all and millions for a handful of people. The additional perversity is that most of the winners haven't the first idea how to spend the money.
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