Louis Theroux and Gambling

I like to think of myself as fairly "libertarian" in that if people want to do things which harm themselves but don't harm anyone else then why not?

I've been nervous about the gambling law change in the UK and the super-casino debate though. I'm not sure that having a big casino in every town will do anything more than transfer wealth from the poor to the casino owners. But who are the lawmakers to decide when and how people should waste their money? And we already have the Lottery which is basically a tax on the poor.

Why not reconcile the two sides by having casinos in one part of the country, instead of dotted around? In the States, if you want to go to a casino you can go to Atlantic City of Las Vegas. Vegas looks like a great place to go, but once you've lost all your money you go home and don't see a casino again until you want to.

So why can't we do that here? Have a concentration of casinos in, say, Blackpool and have none anywhere else? That way people who want a holiday or weekend at the casinos can go to Blackpool. And if you're prone to gambling you won't be tempted on your way home from the office.

Just when you want to read the news online...

Tough On Crime

While the government proclaims success in its war on crime - and even managing to claim that crime is falling even though the most violent crime is on the up, imagine my shock at reading this story.

Guns seem to be available to anyone who wants them. I have no idea how much they cost but they can't be that expensive if South London kids can afford to get them with their pocket money. I was 16 not long ago and my pocket money had to stretch to buy clothes, CDs and any socialising I wanted to do. Is London such a miserable place now that the best thing kids can come up with on a Saturday night is to shoot each other?

Welcome to New Britain.

Personality Cluster

Not sure how they can work out my "personality" with four loaded questions, but here's the result:

Your Personality Cluster is Introverted Thinking

You are: Objective, honest, and credible Intellectually curious, with many diverse interests More inclined toward ideas than people Fiercely independent and unapologetically unconventional

What's Your Personality Cluster?

Explosive Stuff

I'm not going to recite the story up until now, but today's papers make for interesting reading on the cash for honours story:

The Sunday Times claims that there was a secret meeting to discuss how to deal with the Police investigation. The implication is that the meeting was to decide how best to cover their tracks.

The News of the World claims that the Police now have enough evidence to charge Levy and Turner.

Recent polls suggest that opinion is turning against Blair rapidly, but will Labour MPs have to guts to see him off, or will they wait for further arrests?

For the electorate, the choice is not an easy one. By ousting Blair we might have leapt from the frying pan into the fire because the next PM is likely to be the Clunking Fist of Gordon "Prudence" Brown. He strikes fear into the middle-classes with his socialist tendencies and his economic record is full of over-spending, debt and inefficiency.

An election would be the way to deal with this mess, but the only person who can force one is the PM, whoever it will be.

An English Parliament?

My MP writes:

...there is no question of decisions in England being dominated by members from other parts of the UK. Even if Scottish, Welsh and Irish MPs all voted the same way on an issue, they would still need 200 MPs from England to win the day.

But what about, hypothetically of course, if there was a majority of English MPs against a particular measure and the Scots, Welsh or Irish MPs voted in a way that swung the vote against the majority of English MPs?

She also says that:

...it would be unworkable to have a system where MPs representing Scottish constituencies could not vote on English legislation

There is only one possible solution, then. An extra layer of politicians in an English Parliament. Presumably then Westminster would become a federal Parliament, only deciding on defence and border policy while all the day-to-day running of the countries would be in the respective devolved Parliaments...

I rather prefer John Redwood's idea.