[mattomac]

If you were worried about gambling you'd ban football. i would imagine more is bet in a weekend, perhaps even on one fixture, than in a year of greyhounds.

Ironically Wimbledon AFC I believe built there new ground on some of the dog track.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The argument Zarb-Cousins is advancing is that the gambling lobby is an extremely lucrative one able to excert weighty pressure on legislators. To continue an activity opponents regard as cruel to animals.

Does that argument stand up? There will be a relatively small number of people who gamble only or mainly on dogs in England, but It's nowhere in terms of the big gambling sports. As David says, the social harm is going to overwhelmingly from the bigger sports (especially football and racing), and problem gamblers won't gamble any less because they can't bet on the 1.03 at Sittingbourne any more.

I don't really see any reason to doubt the official line- dog racing is a reasonably sized industry in England (and Ireland too, where it's not banned) and it would lose them votes if it was banned.

And gambling just got a hefty tax rise in the Budget. In my view, it should have had that in the first budget, but that's not a particularly powerful lobby. cf the lobby that makes it impossible to build anything like the homes we need for the fast growing population (some of the same lobby being very liberal on immigration numbers).

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Yeah, the article cunningly elides animal welfare and gambling. Football and horse racing are miles ahead of the rest. Greyhound racing is behind golf.

I have absolutely no idea what that means. For which I am eternally thankful.

[The Weeping Angel]

Ah, the old "I'd support those houses if they were council houses" approach. Not those solar panels there. In fairness, all parties tend to be nimby when it's something big near them, but they're not posing as the only people who get climate change.

In other news, Zack's comic does another "Isn't Hannah Spencer lovely and cool?"

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... hounds-ban

Green MP: Labour caricatures working-class people over greyhound racing
Hannah Spencer says minister ‘continuously offends people by saying working-class people don’t care about dogs’

I couldn't care less if greyhound racing is banned. I think it probably will be in the not too distant future. But I'm struggling to find a quote of Labour "saying working class people don't care about dogs". I've certainly seen people speculate that Labour think it would lose them votes to ban it, but that's not the same thing. Quotes in the article from Nandy point out, quite accurately, that it's a popular sport, and big industry. Governments don't tend to rush to ban these things.

Just in case you don't think Labour are the baddies here, the article points out.

Labour has close ties to the gambling industry, taking hundreds of thousands of pound in donations during the general election campaign. Senior figures have been invited to glitzy events held by betting lobbyists.

Alas no space to point out that the Budget raised an extra billion of tax off gambling.

I like that she rehomed greyhounds, but she's already shown herself to be a self-righteous bullshitter, who as far as I know hasn't engaged with people who pointed out that subsidizing high energy users in a rich country will mean people in poor countries can't even cook.

And look who else has shown up? I admire his gambling work, but he's not an academic expert or anything, and he hates Labour because they chucked Jez out.

Matt Zarb-Cousin, a co-founder of Gamban, an app that helps people with gambling addictions, said: “The gambling lobby in Westminster has had successive governments believing they somehow speak for the working class while their sector exploits and extracts from it. To make the assumption ordinary working people somehow don’t care about the welfare of dogs is a form of class prejudice.

Again, why do you have to be "class-prejudiced" because you won't ban a popular sport? This stuff is such guff.

We might reasonably ask, what's Hannah Spencer's policy on gambling? She wouldn't accept gambling hospitality (not that it did all that much good for the providers in terms of Labour raising extra tax), but what would she actually do?

My own MP wasn't very complimentary about her.

[Youngian]

The argument Zarb-Cousins is advancing is that the gambling lobby is an extremely lucrative one able to excert weighty pressure on legislators. To continue an activity opponents regard as cruel to animals.

Does that argument stand up? There will be a relatively small number of people who gamble only or mainly on dogs in England, but It's nowhere in terms of the big gambling sports.

Perhaps Mark likes these lovely dogs

[Oboogie]

Tony Greenstein has been suspended by the Green Party. Reasons for his suspension are his terror charges and the fact that he's a notorious antisemite.

Sources in the Green Party telling us he will be expelled. Greenstein's letter protesting suspension is below

[Tubby Isaacs]

Perhaps Mark likes these lovely dogs

Right, but you don't have to suppose gambling interests stop the Government from banning greyhound racing or anything. It's a fairly popular sport, though clearly much less than it was. Gambling interests could replace that income reasonably easily.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Tony Greenstein has been suspended by the Green Party. Reasons for his suspension are his terror charges and the fact that he's a notorious antisemite.

Sources in the Green Party telling us he will be expelled. Greenstein's letter protesting suspension is below

Unfortunately, the Greens aren't learning fast enough. And it goes all the way to the Deputy Leader.