Way out of the recession ... ?

[katekoala]

Now I could be so far from the solution but I cannot understand why there is no 'comic relief' etc for UK donated by the UK... I am a very charitable person, but we give to children in need, children in foreign countries, and (liveaid) trying to get another countries debt written off .... instead of putting up taxes, VAT, cutting un-necessarybenifits etc - why cant a countrywide charity event be done? I would be quite happy to donate £10 of my own money if it meant we would be out of this mess quickly !

[MrsT]

the total amount given to charity in the UK would pay for about 4 days of the NHS budget. Essantially the amounts given are tiny compared to what is needed.

[New Judge]

Quite.

If every man, woman and child in the UK donated £10 (which is very unlikley) the amount raised would be £0.6bn. Government spending is currently running at about 1,000 times that amount. Even a 10% reduction would mean that £60bn needs to be raised - and this is 100 times the amount that a tenner each would realise.

[boxtops]

I'd have to give £10 of my own money which I earn working in the NHS - it would be something of a circular motion.

[rov1200]

You're quite right. Why can't we run a weekly lottery that produces £mns every week for Camelot but we could copy? Although we have premium bonds they seem too far remote and a long payback time.

[stokemaveric]

because if mps were privvy to money raised by the public they would have their sticky fingers into it in a flash....

[R1Geezer]

the lottery produces F - all for Camelot, approx 1% of the total since 1993. the rest is dished out to "good" causes and the government and prizes. Don't ever go into economics rov! Even if 100% of lotterey takings went to the gov it's be a drop in the ocean. I don;t think people easily see the sheer magnitude of the amounts.

[rov1200]

Get your facts right Geezer. In this report they made £80m profit for one year. I know that sales have dropped off but it will still be worth having.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/104756.stm

[R1Geezer]

well they are not running it for the benefit of their health, approx 1%.

[katekoala]

that was my thought - between lottery money and charity events I cannot see how this wouldnt at least help ... I mean the councils said their are skint - yet where i live they have just designed and erected a flash new public toilet (do people even use these anymore) I cant understand the logic behind this ...