Yesterday on tv i saw a temple of some sort being opened,the cost was three million pounds,half of which came from the so called good causes fund of the lottery,from this day on i am switching to the Irish lottery.Lets get some of this money spent on our churches and old buidings,not only is our culture being eroded but so is the sky line of our towns and cities,the can of worms is now opened!.

Why take part in any lottery?

Was this the new Mandir in Tividale? I think it's a great addition to the West Midlands, I don't see how you can say that the Tividale skyline has been "ruined", the architecture of much of the urban, industrial West Midlands is rather dour and functional, something like this livens it up no end, it's not as if a church has been knocked down and the new temple built from the rubble.

Christian churches and other old buildings get plenty of money from the lottery too, why should other religions be excluded, it's not as if only christians play the lottery is it?

Far from other religions and traditions eroding our culture I think they enhance it, after all our links with India from Robert Clive to the end of the Raj (and to the rest of the ex-empire) are an integral part of our nation's history, is it really reasonable or desirable to expect the cultural influences from these links to be one-way only?

It's worth remembering that this nation has always adopted and adapted elements of other cultures, Christianity was an import, our language was adapted from those spoken by Angles, Saxons and Jutes from Nothern Germany and Scandinavia then enriched by the addition of vocabulary from Norman French.

Our food, architecture, fashions etc are also a melange of influences from across Europe and beyond. Yes, they are given an English/British 'twist' to make them different but they are all linked to traditions in other cultures, we don't exist in isolation and we should be confident enough as a culture to be able to co-exist with other traditions.

I'd never play the lottery on principle. How about a worthy cause such as St Dunstans -a charity for blind ex-servicemen getting a lottery grant for a change?

At least it wasn't used to fund a new 'super' mosque - now that would really be extracting the urine.
I see that another 16 devout followers of that ' peaceful and tolerant' religion were picked up for questioning yesterday -and police are investigating an links with an Islamic school which had connections with Abu Hamza.
................................................................................
THE STRANGER
(Rudyard Kipling)

THE STRANGER within my gate,
He may be true or kind,
But he does not talk my talk—
I cannot feel his mind.
I see the face and the eyes and the mouth,
But not the soul behind.

The men of my own stock
They may do ill or well,
But they tell the lies I am wonted to,
They are used to the lies I tell.
And we do not need interpreters
When we go to buy and sell.

The Stranger within my gates,
He may be evil or good,
But I cannot tell what powers control—
What reasons sway his mood;
Nor when the Gods of his far-off land
Shall repossess his blood.

The men of my own stock,
Bitter bad they may be,
But, at least, they hear the things I hear,
And see the things I see;
And whatever I think of them and their likes
They think of the likes of me.

This was my father's belief
And this is also mine:
Let the corn be all one sheaf—
And the grapes be all one vine,
Ere our children's teeth are set on edge
By bitter bread and wine.

Due to several complaints this thread is now closed!