26 January 2010

We’ve become a nation of gamblers and by implication, losers. When the US government banned online gambling advertising, our UK government welcomed them with open arms along with allowing TV-based gambling shows. We could have had mini Las Vegases dotted around the country if it wasn’t for strong protests from many quarters pointing out that gambling addiction ruins lives - pretty obvious, but not to this government. You can now gamble your life away in a supermarket and corner shop by ‘investing’ in the numerous scratch cards now available through Camelot, the appointed National Lottery company.  And it’s not only the ordinary man/woman in the street caught in the ‘get rich quickly’ trap. Oh No!

The only difference is that the big boys try to load the dice. Take the government for example. Within days of the (New) Labour (inevitably) winning the 1997 election, and without any notice, Gord Brown made the Bank Of England independent and able to control inflation by setting base bank interest rates. Gord also changed the system of regulating financial institutions with the result that credit was allowed to flow unhindered. Now he knew that the Bank Of England would lower interest rates based on the previous government’s success in reducing inflation (Gord adopted the previous government’s budget controls).