Category Archives: Society

Britain, Economic, Government, Politics, Society

Rapacious fixed-odds betting terminals should be curbed

BRITAIN

Fixed Odds Betting Terminals

The Institute for Public Policy Research estimates gambling costs the UK more than £100 million.

IN 2005, a law to liberalise gambling was passed by the Labour government. Following a vociferous public campaign, it was only then that the government was forced to abandon its plans for giant super-casinos across the country.

Nevertheless, with neither fanfare nor further public debate, the new law effectively allowed every high street betting shop to turn itself into a casino – by installing fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs). These touch screen machines, which are so addictive they’re compared to using crack cocaine, offer casino-style games such as roulette, blackjack and poker. In just 20 seconds, a player can gamble – and lose – £100.

Today, it is clear that the social consequences have been catastrophic. Driven by the greed of bookmakers’ in their quest for riches, the number of machines has doubled in just a decade to 35,000. It is no coincidence that the number of problem gamblers has also more than doubled, to almost 600,000.

Meanwhile, we have seen rising violence in betting shops, more family breakdown and ballooning levels of personal debt. Inevitably, it is the poorest communities – where the highest concentration of betting shops are found – which have suffered most.

For those hopeless and desperate gambling addicts who stand like zombies, pumping in money until they have none left, these corrosive machines are life-destroying. But more depressingly, they destroy the lives of those closest to them, mostly the wives and children of those who have become addicted. The bookmakers, meanwhile, profit to the tune of £1.8billion a year.

To his eternal shame, David Cameron also failed to confront this problem with the necessary political rigour that was needed. Instead, what we got was a token effort, in the form of a registration scheme for those wanting to bet more than £50, which was cynically exploited by bookmakers who could target addicts with mouth-watering offers. He ducked entirely the one change that would have made a difference: by reducing the maximum stake. That stank of surrender to the army of betting industry lobbyists.

Now there is good reason to fear we may face another betrayal. Last year ministers launched a new crackdown on fixed-odds machines which promised to consider cutting the maximum stake.

The review has, however, stalled because those at the Treasury fear losing vast sums of tax revenues if stakes are cut from £100 to the suggested £2.

For many, this will seem an utterly immoral position. It is also deeply misguided, for it ignores the benefit to the taxpayer which would come from limiting these rapacious machines. Isn’t it obvious that the State will save a fortune by not having to rescue the countless families broken by addictive gambling?

Chancellor Philip Hammond’s position sits very uncomfortable with a government led by Theresa May, who came into office determined to fight for the vulnerable against unfettered and exploitative capitalism.

As the daughter of a clergyman, Mrs May won’t need the Church of England to say – as it commendably did last week – that these machines are deeply iniquitous.

After a disastrous election, reigning them in is exactly the kind of policy which would prove that Mrs May’s government retains both its authority and moral purpose.

Very few issues in politics are black and white. But with fixed-odds betting terminals, the case for controlling them is unanswerable. The Treasury should consider its position on FOBTs and realise the huge damage that addiction to them is causing.

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Europe, European Union, Germany, Government, History, Poland, Society

The billions that Poland is demanding from Germany in wartime reparations 

ESSAY

Poland

The devastation and destruction of Warsaw in 1945 following the Nazi occupation of Poland.

FOR many in Britain, World War II is a story of unparalleled heroism, and there are many stirring films such as the new blockbuster Dunkirk. For the people of Poland, however, the war was a nightmare so black and so bloodstained, that no film could even remotely capture the depths of its horror.

Consider the incident in a German town called Gleiwitz close to the Polish border. On the night of August 31, 1939, a small group of Nazi intelligence agents, dressed in Polish uniforms, burst into a radio station. They then broadcast anti-German messages in Polish before dumping the bodies of prisoners they had just hauled out of the Dachau concentration camp, who had been made to resemble Polish saboteurs then shot and mutilated to make identification impossible.

A few hours later, Adolf Hitler rose in the Reichstag and proclaimed that the Gleiwitz incident was the final straw. He deceitfully blamed the incident on anti-German saboteurs.

By the summer of 1945, some six million Polish citizens, one in five of the pre-war population, had been killed. The great cities of Warsaw, Krakow and Lublin were in smoking ruins. Millions of books had been ruined; hundreds of libraries, schools, museums and laboratories had been destroyed.

In effect, the Germans had done their best to eradicate an entire nation, erasing its culture, murdering its middle-classes and reducing the rest to slavery. And though the Nazis were defeated, the Polish people’s ordeal was far from over. Following Hitler’s tyranny, Poland was then occupied by Stalin’s Red Army, who turned it into a brutalised Soviet satellite.

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Aid, Britain, Government, Politics, Society

The UK gave £2bn a year in foreign aid to nations with the worst human rights

UK FOREIGN AID

BRITAIN ploughs almost £2billion of aid each year into countries with dire human rights records.

The Foreign Office has put 30 countries on its human rights watch-list for overseeing rape, torture and extrajudicial killings.

But despite this, it can be revealed the UK’s aid department last year funnelled development cash into more than half of these countries.

It means hundreds of millions of pounds are being poured into 17 of the worst human rights offenders, such as Zimbabwe, Burma and the Palestinian Occupied Territories.

Shockingly, the total amount spent in these countries increased by 7 per cent in one year to £1.87billion in 2016/17.

The findings will raise further questions about how effective the £13billion a year that goes on international aid really is – as well as the wisdom of keeping David Cameron’s target of spending 0.7 per cent of GDP on foreign aid.

It comes after a recent report by the National Audit Office said aid cash was being dispatched overseas in a last-minute frenzy each year to meet spending targets.

The Department for International Development pointed out that British taxpayers’ money does not necessarily go to foreign governments themselves, but often goes to charities and other organisations.

Critics, however, have hit out at the farce of the Foreign Office warning about countries’ human rights records while DFID was pouring cash into them.

Conservative MP Peter Bone, said: ‘It seems extraordinary that we would be giving money to countries whose regimes we regard as failing on human rights. I would have thought we would be concentrating our aid on countries where the government is trying to … improve matters.’

A 2015 report by the Independent Commission on Aid Impact warned ministers risked bring the aid budget ‘into disrepute’ by spending millions on training the police forces of regimes with poor human rights records. In 2015/16, DFID sent £1.74billion to 17 nations on the Foreign Office’s ‘human rights priority’ list – rising to £1.87billion a year later.

This included £417million to Pakistan, up from £328million the year before. This is despite the Foreign Office warning it was concerned about serious violations of women’s rights.

The Foreign Office also warned that the lack of recognition of women’s rights in Afghanistan had left girls ‘susceptible to violence, poverty and exploitation’.

Nevertheless, DFID sent £168million to the war-torn country in 2016/17 – up from £120million.

A Government spokesperson responded by saying: ‘The UK speaks candidly and frankly to all countries in which we work, and firmly holds governments to account on issues of human rights. We will not hesitate to use UN resolutions and sanctions to focus international attention and action on any country where we have concerns.’

DFID says it works closely with the Foreign Office to raise concerns with governments. An official said: ‘UK aid is spent where it is most needed and is subject to rigorous internal and external checks and scrutiny at all stages to ensure it helps those who need it and delivers value for money.’

The Foreign Office said the 30 countries named were not necessarily the worst human rights abusers, but were ones where the UK felt it could have some influence on regimes’ conduct.

Some of the shocking abuses by regimes the UK helps to fund:

. Afghanistan – The country has been accused of a lack of democracy, with many child casualties and women and girls susceptible to violence, poverty and exploitation.

Aid: £168million

. Bangladesh – Concerns over the treatment of women and allegations of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, torture and enforced disappearances.

Aid: £158million

. Burma – Claims civilians have been shelled, as well as allegations of torture, extrajudicial killing, arson and mass rape by security forces.

Aid: £90million

. Democratic Republic of The Congo – A shocking 80,000 are said to be trapped in modern slavery, state attacks on freedom of speech and extrajudicial killings.

Aid: £138million

. Pakistan – Allegations of serious violations of women’s and children’s rights and of freedom of religion, as well as modern slavery. Movement of aid charities is restricted.

Aid: £417million

. Somalia – Serious violations and abuses are perpetrated by state and non-state actors and sexual violence is endemic. Somalia has also seen a rise in child soldiers.

Aid: £166million

. South Sudan – Serious human rights violations carried out by the state, with government forces perpetrating unlawful killings and arbitrary arrests on basis of ethnicity.

Aid: £171million

. Syria – Human rights systematically denied – including torture – largely by Assad regime.

Aid: £217million

. Yemen – Vast number of human rights abuses, with women and children particularly affected. Minorities also face discrimination.

Aid: £110million

. Zimbabwe – Reports of intimidation, rape and vote buying by the ruling party have marred two elections.

Aid: £96million

Foreign Aid Expenditure: How Britain Compares

14A_AID BUDGET TABLE.1

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