Is Success In Rio Down To John Major?
This article on the BBC is entitled Rio 2016: Does John Major deserve credit for Team GB’s success?
This is the opening paragraph.
The sight of Team GB above China in the Olympic medal table has led some to heap praise on John Major, whose government took the decision to launch the National Lottery. The lottery has poured money into sport in the UK, but can it claim credit for medal success?
Even, if to give total credit to John Major is perhaps a bit over the top, but without the Lottery funding, British Olympic performance, would be lucky to be as good as England’s footballers.
But money isn’t everything, as if it was Manchester City would win the Premier League every year and given the coffers of the Lawn Tennis Association, we’d dominate world tennis.
Was It The Scams Or The Begging Letters?
The sad news from the Mirror, that lottery winners Adrian and Gillian Bayford are splitting, probably proves that money can’t buy you happiness.
But I’ve never had so many scam e-mails about these winners, and they have been reported as having masses of begging letters, so were these crooks to blame for the breakup of their marriage?
C would have been laughing ironically this morning, as because the divorce is taking place in her old patch, she might have got a slice of the action.
But they will probably do what many do when they get divorced and go to a high-profile, very expensive solicitor in London, when they would get a better deal and service from a trusted local lawyer.
Camelot Increases The Tax On The Poor
Camelot is being reported as doubling the cost of playing the National lottery to £2, but with bigger prizes. It’s all here in the Guardian.
I suppose it will tend to absorb all of those dreaded £2 coins that I don’t like!
I wonder how long the National Lottery will last.
Is This Proof That The Lottery Is A Tax On The Stupid?
This story from the BBC says it all. Someone bought a lottery ticket and then failed to claim a multi-million prize.
That makes them doubly stupid in my book.
All the lottery does is encourages more people to waste money they don’t have.
If you want to give a little to charity through the lottery, you are probably better to give it directly to a suitable charity.
I do gamble occasionally, but only where some degree of knowledge or mental skill is involved.
Another Tax on the Poor
I’ve just been interrupted by an advert on ITV4, where I’m watching the cycling for something called the People’s Postcode Lottery.
Reading about it, it would appear it only promotes itself in Scotland, Wales and the North of England.
I don’t like lotteries, as they are only a tax on the poor and stupid.
Certainly, if you don’t watch ITV or buy tabloid newspapers, it would appear you don’t hear about it.
The American Lottery
The news this morning carries a story that the Mega Millions lottery in the United States
It used to be the case, that American lottery winners paid tax on the winnings.
So that might be the worst prize as well!
Lottery Fever in Nottinghamshire
Over the last few months, there have been a couple of large ottery wins in Nottinghamshire. The last one is reported here.
There has been the usual mutterings about regional bias, but it’s just a statistical freak.
Of course now, a lot of stupid people in the county will play, as they think the area is favoured by the draw.
I never play the lottery or scratch cards, as they are just a tax on the poor and the stupid.
News on the Health Lottery
I don’t play any lottery, but I am not in favour of Richard Desmond’s Health Lottery.
So I just wanted to see what others thought and typed Health Lottery into Google News.
So what did I find?
There are a lot of articles about hospices worried that they will lose money. There was this piece from the Yorkshire Post for example. And quite a few more too, in the same vein!
This article in the trade magazine, The Grocer, wasn’t very optimistic about sales for their readers. Good!
The only positive articles I can find are in rags, like the Daily Star and the Daily Express, papers which are owned by Richard Desmond.
But this is balanced by articles in more serious papers.
Let’s hope that the good people of the UK soon realise the real purpose of this lottery, which is a money-making scheme for its owner.
I shall be following this story with interest.
I’m also boycotting shops that sell the tickets for the Health Lottery. As that includes W H Smith, Sainsburys, Morrisons, Tesco and Asda, I now can only do my grocery shopping at Waitrose or Marks and Spencer. I could include the Co-Op, but they don’t have a decent shop near me.
W H Smith on BBC Breakfast
I was pleased that many of the viewers to BBC Breakfast had similar views to me this morning about W H Smith. Especially, about their dishing out all sorts of bits if unwanted paper. I don’t like their involvement with The Health Lottery either.
The Man Who Brought You OK!, Brings You The Health Lottery
The Health Lottery is launched today by Richard Desmond, who owns Channel 5, the Daily Express, OK and other media interests.
Surely, with the state the country is in, we don’t need a venture like this. This is an extract from the BBC article.
Some charity leaders have been critical that less will go to good causes than from each National Lottery ticket.
The Health Lottery will donate over 20p per £1 ticket, compared with 28p for every National Lottery ticket.
That has been branded a “pretty disgraceful development” by Sir Stephen Bubb, of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations.
I shall not be buying a ticket. In addition, I shall not be buying anything from any shop that sells the tickets either, as now is not the time, to inflict another tax on the poor and the stupid.
One point about the Daily Express and the Daily Star is that if you click on their web sites or arrive there through Google, you immediately get a new browser window with an advert. How long before these windows are advertising the Health Lottery?
I also like this bit from the Independent diary of March 2nd, this year.
More sterling work from brand synergy specialist Elisa Roche, showbusiness editor of the Daily Express, who yesterday managed to squeeze an entire two-page spread from the news that her boss – philanthropist and former publisher of Asian Babes, Richard Desmond – had launched “The Health Lottery”, a new lottery game designed to raise money for health charities. Admittedly, almost half of the aforementioned spread was taken up by a large picture of Desmond (who owns Television X, Express Newspapers, OK! magazine and Channel 5) and his girlfriend, flanked by fellow guests at the “star-studded” launch. “Celebrities who were keen to show their support for the fantastic new lottery,” the optimistic Ms Roche dutifully reports, “included Kirsty Duffy, from Channel 5’s The Wright Stuff, [Channel 5] weathergirl Sian Welby, OK! TV’s Matt Johnson and Kate Walsh, Zoe Salmon of Fiver’s The Love Bus and Channel 5 news presenters Emma Crosby and Matt Barbet.”
I’ve never heard of any of those celebrities at the launch of the Health Lottery, but then I’ve never read OK magazine.
The Anonymous Widower 