Mailwatch(ed) Forum

A lonely man with time on his hands to study spread betting on horse races will win more times than lose. If they do that too many times with accumalted winnings, the mental health nurses down at the bookies will be instructed to tell them to bugger off.
They will however give you a hug and say 'never mind, luv' for blowing your family's weekly budget.

There's a reason why every high street has 3 or 4 different bookies practically next door to each other. If gambling tax is increased those dens won't close. They make far too much money.

And in some cases, next to a boozer too.

And a pawnbroker.

High Street bookies are taking a hammering from online gambling and limits on the fruities. Branches are already closing but that won't stop the usual suspects blaming Reeves for any further closures.

https://www.smry.ai/proxy?url=https%3A% ... -online%2F

Anything less than putting every bookie out of business will incur a bucketful of shit from The Guardian etc who will claim that they've got off likely because she had some tickets paid for by gambling companies, and "lobbying", because business uniquely shouldn't get to put its case.

Sure, the free tickets don't give a great impression, but there ought to be far more interest in the actual policies. You'd ideally seek some sort of balance in terms of reducing harms, tax raising, and people being able to do what they want lawfully (the alternative isn't necessarily that they gamble less). But the political incentive seems to be pick a side.

Am I qualified to judge if an appropriate balance has been struck? Nowhere near. So I suppose I'm picking a side, Rachel's side, just like anyone else.

They were discussing gambling taxes on Politics Midlands, including taxes on horse racing, and featured an interview with Peter Shilton and his wife, who said any tax increases should go to helping addicts rather than a black hole.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m ... s-02112025

The Sun has spent the last couple of weeks attacking any new taxes on betting. I'm sure that this has got nothing to do with the fact the paper is full of adverts for various betting companies.

soulboy wrote: ↑Sun Nov 02, 2025 8:24 pm High Street bookies are taking a hammering from online gambling and limits on the fruities. Branches are already closing but that won't stop the usual suspects blaming Reeves for any further closures.

https://www.smry.ai/proxy?url=https%3A% ... -online%2F

See also: Pubs. None ever closed before last July.

Egghead, Matthew Syed, with a classic irregular verb. "The BBC has group think, we are independent thinkers".

Syed's view that BBC News is liberal isn't group think, it's just that his newspaper mates all happen to agree with it.

Remember your schooldays, when a bunch of self-appointed arbiters of cool would lead a pile-on because you had the wrong trainers and were therefore a div, and would later lead another pile-on when you got new trainers, because you were now a div trying too hard to be cool?

Being a news pundit is very much the same thing. Point at thing and say it's shit. Reasons for shittiness optional.

I have a rule that says that whenever anyone invokes 'common sense' it is best to assume that they are going to talk unmitigated bollocks.

“Common sense is in spite of, not the result of, education.”
― Victor Hugo

Killer Whale wrote: ↑Sun Nov 09, 2025 12:44 pm I have a rule that says that whenever anyone invokes 'common sense' it is best to assume that they are going to talk unmitigated bollocks.

It's particularly a red flag from the likes of Mr Egghead, whose whole thing has been that he's a "thinker". Turns out that he could have just hung about in The Fat Ox all along.

Another article by one of The Times clever people, this time Seb Payne, in case you didn't recognize him. He's aged somewhat since the Will out of The Inbetweeners pic, and is now about halfway to Mike Graham.

WYSIWYG

Scandal!

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/ar ... -ggqtt02dh

Keir Starmer spent £60,000 on trip to see Lionesses win Euros
A private jet and overnight stay were funded by taxpayers for the prime minister, his wife and an entourage to watch England beat Spain

"PM couldn't care less about Lionesses victory..."

In other news, Jesus can't swim, the loser.