Leader: No trouble spending £161m

GOOD news travels fast, so it was perhaps little surprise that the identity of the lucky winner of Europe's biggest-ever lottery prize, the £161 million Euromillions jackpot, became quickly known.

The winning ticket, which matched all five main numbers and both the Lucky Stars to scoop the jackpot, was held by a Mr John Swinney of St Andrew's House, Edinburgh.

His one little slip-up was not to tick the box marked "no publicity". A queue - not always orderly - quickly formed at the door of St Andrew's House yesterday morning. First in line was a Ms Jenny Dawe of High Street, Edinburgh, who wondered if Mr Swinney would like to roll over his 161m winnings for an Edinburgh tram lottery ticket.

Not far behind Ms Dawe were representatives from 32 Scottish local authorities, several thousand teachers, the Scottish Police Federation, council workers, university principals, 55 quango chiefs and sundry binmen. Requests for particularly large sums of money came from two bank chief executives who said the current economic situation has caught them a bit short. Other pleas for financial assistance came from arts organisations, film-makers and the owner of two large Titians. Poor Mr Swinney. By the time he rested his weary head on the pillow last night, all his money was gone.