 |
| Sir George Mathewson, Ex Rbs Chief Executive.
CAMPAIGNERS
for the Union have been accused of “scaremongering” about the impact of
independence on Scotland’s financial sector, with a former Royal Bank of
Scotland (RBS) boss insisting this would be “an opportunity not a threat”.
Sir
George Mathewson, a former RBS chief executive and chairman, argued that
financial services in Scotland had been “neglected by the Westminster
government and its London-centric policy”.
He
also claimed that banks such as RBS and Lloyds could “scarcely be described as
Scottish banks”, adding that if there was a Yes vote in next month’s referendum
it should be the rest of the UK government that should be primarily responsible
for dealing with the situation.
Sir
George also gave his backing to Scottish Government plans for a currency union
with the rest of the UK to be established if there is a Yes vote on September
18, allowing an independent Scotland to continue to use the pound.
These
proposals have already been dismissed by the three main Westminster parties and
last week First Minister Alex Salmond was accused of a ‘’huge deception’’ over his plan.
|
Showing posts with label Financial Problems. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Financial Problems. Show all posts
Monday 4 August 2014
Independence: No camp ‘scaremongering’ over banks, The Scotsman
Saturday 2 August 2014
Scottish independence would be economic disaster, finance experts warn just as the SNP say the economy is key battleground, Daily Mail
Businesses and academics warn country would
be plunged into turmoil
Scotland would join the list of impoverished
European countries
Another says there would be 'utter panic' if
voters back independence
Finance experts, academics and business leaders have raised fears that independence would destroy the economy, hit investment and force companies to migrate to England.
Finance experts, academics and business leaders have raised fears that independence would destroy the economy, hit investment and force companies to migrate to England.
In an unprecedented survey that will
prove devastating for the SNP, analysts believe a Yes vote in the referendum could
lead to the loss of thousands of jobs and plunge the country into turmoil.
One finance insider suggested Scotland would be added to the list of impoverished European countries left on
their knees. Another said there would be 'utter panic' among finance firms
and several warned of a 'disaster' for Scotland.
Alex Salmond's separatist vision was dismissed as 'economically incoherent'; there were warnings that 'skilled labour' would leave; and creating a new border would cut gross domestic product (GDP) by as much as 3 per cent.
The findings are particularly humiliating
for Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who yesterday predicted the economy
would be the key battleground in the referendum campaign.
The Financial Times asked a number of
high-profile economists and eminent university professors to examine the impact
of a Nationalist victory in September.
Thursday 31 July 2014
OUTRAGE: Labour propose 15 per cent death tax, Daily Express
 |
| Ed Miliband, Labour Leader. |
Ed
Miliband’s team were accused of plotting a compulsory levy that could snatch
£46,000 from the average estate.
Critics
warned that families still grieving for lost relatives could face a “secret tax
bombshell” under the proposals.
The
row was last night threatening to derail the Labour leader’s campaign to
highlight party election promises.
And
it was also being seen as a slap in the face to the hundreds of thousands of
Daily Express readers who backed this newspaper’s crusade for the abolition
of inheritance tax.
Tory
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: “People who save all their lives deserve
better than a secret tax bombshell if Labour were ever to get in.”
The death tax proposals
were exposed when comments made by shadow health secretary Andy Burnham – at a
conference organised by the Left-wing Fabian Society last month – were
revealed yesterday.
Labour chiefs previously
abandoned plans for a levy to cover the costs of social care before the last
general election in 2010 – but Mr Burnham confirmed the measure was being
revived in “internal party discussions”.
Tuesday 29 July 2014
Parking cowboys hit cancer victims: Now scandal of 'disgraceful' fines spreads to NHS hospitals Daily Mail
 |
| A legitimate Penalty Charge Notice: Rogue parking firms hand out cynically similar 'Parking Charge Notices' which do not have the same standing as official fines, but are followed up with letters threatening court action |
Rogue wardens have allegedly been told to
focus efforts on cancer wards
Whistleblower claims he was told to 'give
tickets regardless of any illness'
Politicians
and campaigners call for crackdown on rogue parking firms
Cancer patients undergoing life-saving chemotherapy are being targeted by ‘cowboy’ parking squads at NHS hospitals, it was claimed last night.
Cancer patients undergoing life-saving chemotherapy are being targeted by ‘cowboy’ parking squads at NHS hospitals, it was claimed last night.
Rogue wardens working on hospital
grounds have allegedly been ordered to focus on cancer wards because patients
are likely to be distracted – and therefore late returning to their cars.
Hospitals were last night accused of
encouraging the ‘disgraceful’ tactic, with some trusts even taking a cut of up
to 10 per cent of the parking firms’ huge profits.
Sunday 27 July 2014
Scotland could run out of cash just like Greece, Scottish Sunday Express
|
S
|
cotland would need
to severely downsize its financial sector in order to avoid a major economic crisis if the
country votes to break away from the rest of Britain.
According to former Scottish Government economist Florian Baier and former Bank of England economist Erik Britton, an independent Scotland would be left over-reliant on its financial sector and North Sea oil.
The economists’ upcoming paper for Fathom Consulting estimates the country’s banking assets as potential liabilities would be 1,100 per cent of GDP, similar to the liabiities that caused an economic crisis in Iceland in which its government took over three of its largest banks in 2008.
According to former Scottish Government economist Florian Baier and former Bank of England economist Erik Britton, an independent Scotland would be left over-reliant on its financial sector and North Sea oil.
The economists’ upcoming paper for Fathom Consulting estimates the country’s banking assets as potential liabilities would be 1,100 per cent of GDP, similar to the liabiities that caused an economic crisis in Iceland in which its government took over three of its largest banks in 2008.
Tuesday 22 July 2014
Curb EU benefit tourism, Whitehall told
: Report finds growing concern among Britons about access
to the welfare state by migrants.
Daily Mail Story
A major overhaul is needed to
curb migrants’ access to British benefits, a Government review has
concluded.
The report finds growing concern among
Britons about access to the welfare state by the hundreds of thousands of
arrivals from Europe taking advantage of EU free movement rules.
If the system is not urgently reformed
it could ‘significantly undermine’ public support for freedom of movement, it
concludes.
Please read the full story here
Friday 25 April 2014
Martin Lewis : Why you can’t trust your bank - Money Dashboard
Martin Lewis : Why you can’t trust your bank - Money Dashboard
Martin Lewis - the Money Saving Expert himself - is one of the most respected names in personal finance. Over the next five weeks we’ll share his opinions on everything from juggling multiple accounts to wasting money.
Here, Martin takes on the subject of banks, and whether they’re really there to help…
This is exactly why Money Dashboard was created. Martin Lewis knows that the banks aren’t your best mate, and don’t exist to offer you independent advice. While a bank is there to sell you a product, Money Dashboard is completely independent, totally secure and free of charge, so instead of trying to push you to buy a product, we simply give you a clear view of your financial life. No strings attached.
You can track as many current, credit and savings accounts as you like, and sit back while our secure, read-only system does the hard work for you. Some say that we’re trying to disrupt and revolutionise the banking industry with our easy to use software, but Money Dashboard CEO Gavin Littlejohn sees things differently…
Saturday 25 January 2014
Two faces of Benefits Street: No drugs, no drunks, no crime - and no foul language! Now our hard-working community's turned into a moral cesspit, say families raised there in a prouder age
- Photographs taken of residents of James Turner Street in post-war Britain
- Location is now featured in Channel 4's Benefits Street
- Residents, almost all of whom are on benefits, shown living in squalor
- Locals say area was starkly different after the war - with a strong community spirit and work ethic
By PAUL BENTLEY
|
A little girl in a white silk dress poses shyly with a basket of flowers, in a garden bordered by a neat privet hedge. The roofs of terraced houses can be seen beyond. She is about to attend a church parade.
A small boy, of perhaps the same age, stands to attention in a double-breasted coat and school cap outside the bay window of his redbrick home. His shoes and shirt are immaculate and only an errant right sock, which has begun to wrinkle and slide down his leg, suggests anything less than a dedication to military smartness - by his parents, at least.
Both photographs were taken in the same street, in the same period of immediate post-war Britain. No litter. No television aerials. Both evoke an urban working-class pride in family, home and hard work, as well as a sense of community and making the best of a tough situation.
+6
Looking smart: Martin Hanchett (left) stands in his school uniform on the street and Nina Clayton, aged 6, all dressed up for the church procession
The girl’s dress is made from parachute silk; a luxury commodity only made available by a parent’s involvement in the recently ended world war.
In that respect the photographs are wholly unremarkable. Thousands like them must exist. And yet they are not mundane. In their modest good order they are both shocking and sad, because the street in which they were taken is today the most notorious in Britain; made so by a television programme which has shown the current residents’ lifestyles, squalor, habitual criminality and an overall social disintegration.
James Turner Street in Winson Green, Birmingham, is infamous after being featured in Channel 4’s highly controversial series Benefits Street.
Today the majority of residents in the Victorian terrace houses claim benefits. The road is filthy, with rubbish strewn across the street and dirty mattresses abandoned on the pavements.
Many of those featured are criminals, drunks or class-A drug addicts. Neighbours rob each other and children fend for themselves while their parents smoke and drink outside.
+6
Nina Clayton, aged 6, pictured middle, with her family all dressed up for the church procession
But it was not always this way. This week, we spoke to members of families who lived in the ‘golden age’ of ‘Benefits Street’ in the Forties through to the Seventies. They have long since moved away and now say they are saddened by how far their former home has fallen and the ‘scrounging vermin’ who live there now.
Martin Hanchett was the small chap in the cap and wrinkled sock. His family lived two doors away from the house now inhabited by the mother known as White Dee.
His great-grandparents, grandparents and his mother Helen all lived on the road, the family having settled there at the start of the 20th century.
Mr Hanchett, 65, said the family all worked in manual jobs, some from as young as ten years old, and moved to the area from Nottingham because Birmingham was renowned as the ‘city of 1,000 trades’.
The women would work in cafes or wash neighbours’ clothes for change, he recalled.
‘Everybody was working,’ he said. ‘People had to because there was no welfare. Attitudes are different now. There’s a lot of people on benefits today. My parents and grandparents wouldn’t believe it. When they were alive, if you didn’t work you didn’t get anything.’
The retired engraver, who now lives in Halesowen, West Midlands, with his wife said he was dismayed at the state of the street and how moral standards have disappeared.
‘Nobody ever swore like that when we were there. If you were caught swearing in the street and a passer-by heard you, he’d give you a clip round the ear. That’s how it was.
‘The way they now swear at the young kids is dreadful.
‘I can’t remember as a kid any robberies or thefts. I never knew anyone who was a drunk. There wasn’t anyone taking drugs. There was never rubbish on the road like there is now.
‘You kept your doors open. It used to be a nice road, with privet bushes outside every house. People had pride in their appearance.
‘It was a community — a village within a city, really.
+6
Changes: The street is now featured in Channel 4 documentary Benefits Street
‘A lot of people I know can’t bring themselves to watch the programme. We’re shocked at what has happened to the street.’
Nina Clayton was six when her photograph was taken as she wore the parachute silk dress, made by her mother.
In the Forties she lived with her parents and two brothers a few houses away from where White Dee now lives.
‘Our house was a small grocer’s shop,’ she said. ‘I was only five or six at the time but I remember it so well, cigarettes kept under the counter for regulars, sacks of liquorice root, the fish and chip shop around the corner where you could get free scratchings.’
John Cahill, 56, lived on the street in the Sixties and Seventies before leaving to join the forces. He is now a bricklayer and lives in Wolverhampton with his wife, with whom he has three adult children.
He said: ‘It infuriates me that these people are wallowing in their mire. They enjoy the lifestyle they are leading. It just dismays me to see what sort of vermin have colonised the area. They have turned it into a cesspit.
‘It is such a shame because of all the happy memories I had growing up there. I am ashamed to tell anyone I spent my childhood there because people will think I am as bad as the people in the programme. But my parents and their neighbours were a world apart.
+6
Two residents sit drinking beer on their doorstep while talking to a child on a bicycle
+6
Piles of rubbish are often seen scattered all over the street - which was very different in the post-war era
‘My parents would be disgusted if they saw what it was like now.’
Mr Cahill was brought up with his three siblings on James Turner Street by his father Joseph, a lathe turner, and mother Edna, who worked in a factory.
He said all the residents worked, even most mothers, and they took pride in their children’s discipline and appearance.
‘My dad worked all the time. My mum was also at work. They couldn’t afford not to.
‘You never swore in front of your parents because you knew what you were going to get if you answered back. Now the children are effing and blinding, and that’s even the toddlers.
‘I can’t believe how bad it has got. It is filthy now. There is this greed — people want something for nothing.’
The road is believed to be named after James Turner, a 19th-century master at the local King Edward’s School, who never missed a day of work.
‘He went out, worked hard and earned that honour,’ says Mr Cahill. ‘Now his name is associated with everything he was not.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2545563/Two-faces-Benefits-Street-No-drugs-no-drunks-no-crime-no-foul-language-Now-hard-working-communitys-turned-moral-cesspit-say-families-raised-prouder-age.html#ixzz2rNigEOup
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Saturday 11 January 2014
Think Benefits Street makes shocking TV? Try living there! A worrying dispatch from the once respectable street that's been making headlines all week, Daily Mail
- Resident George Drummond used to be proud of the street where he lives
- Not any more - the street features thieves, benefit cheats and child brides
By PAUL BRACCHI and BETH HALE
|
George Drummond’s mid-terrace has what estate agents call ‘kerb appeal’. Neighbouring properties could do with a good lick of paint (and a lot more besides), but Mr Drummond’s home in James Turner Street, a brisk stroll from Birmingham city centre, is as neat as a pin, inside and out.
The windows are spotless, the black and gold railings glisten in the winter sun, and his front garden, resplendent with potted plants and hanging baskets, could grace the Britain in Bloom contest.
‘I’m 83 and I have spent 53 years on this street,’ he said. ‘Always in this house.’ George Drummond is proud of his home, where he and his wife, a nurse, raised their three children. He is proud of his adopted country, having arrived here from Jamaica in the Fifties and spending the next 30-odd years as a bus driver, barely missing a day at the wheel. Once upon a time, he also used to be proud of the street where he has lived all his adult life.
Stole £13,000: 'White Dee' (Deirdre Kelly) presents herself as a leader of the local community
Anyone who tuned in to Channel 4 at 9pm on Monday will understand why that last sentence is in the past tense. For the row of Victorian terraces is now the subject of a controversial five-part series, called Benefits Street, which began this week.
By the time the first instalment had finished (it was repeated on Wednesday), James Turner Street in the heart of Winson Green had become possibly the most infamous residential street in the country.
The ‘majority’ of residents in the 99 addresses are living off the state, the programme-makers told us, before introducing a motley cast of characters who could have walked straight off the set of The Jeremy Kyle Show.
Recidivist ‘Danny’ (Danny Smith) admitted being too lazy to work and was filmed demonstrating the tricks of his trade as a shoplifter. Mark and Becky (Mark Thomas and Becky Howe) brazenly told how they had all their benefits stopped because of fraudulent claims.
‘White Dee’ (Deidre Kelly) and ‘Black Dee’ (Dee Roberts), nicknamed by their neighbours on account of their colour, presented themselves as leaders of the local community.
But we now know the former is a convicted criminal who, when employed by the city council, stole cash set aside for vulnerable tenants; and the latter is on bail in connection with a racially aggravated incident in James Turner Street last August and a drugs bust last June.
Some 4.2 million viewers saw the opening episode of Benefits Street, making it the most popular show on Channel 4 for more than a year.
But there was instant controversy. Channel 4 itself could now face a police probe following complaints from members of the public and local politicians that the broadcaster ‘aided and abetted shoplifting in Birmingham’ by letting Danny brag about his methods.
And there were howls of protest from those who took part in the programme. Residents claimed TV bosses bribed them with cigarettes, beer and McDonalds meals.
Recidivist 'Danny' (Danny Smith) admits he is too lazy to work and was filmed demonstrating shoplifting
They said they were made to look like ‘complete scum’ because the way they were portrayed was ‘unfair and unrepresentative’.
The MP Dame Anne Begg complained that the show was a ‘misrepresentation’ of life for people on social security, as it focuses almost exclusively on people receiving unemployment benefits, which make up only a small proportion of the overall social security bill.
More than 3,000 people signed an online petition calling on Channel 4 not to screen the rest of the series. But would those same people feel the same way if they saw James Turner Street through the eyes of George Drummond and the many other decent residents we spoke to this week, many of whom were too frightened to be identified?
On Thursday morning, for example, a typical sight greeted Mr Drummond when he opened his curtains. Just a few yards from his front door, an old mattress and other rubbish had appeared in the middle of the road, surrounded by broken glass, empty cans of super-strength lager and discarded vodka bottles. Nearby gardens resembled Steptoe’s yard, with chairs, beds and junk piled high.
Lead has been stolen from the chapel roof four times in recent months. The stained glass windows, one couldn’t help but notice, were covered by metal security grilles.
Home Office figures reveal police were contacted about some form of crime in James Turner Street every month last year, including drug abuse, criminal damage, arson and anti-social behaviour.
One elderly couple told how, not so long ago, someone poured acid over the plants in their front garden.
Why would anyone do such a thing? Simply because they had politely refused to allow some young children from the street to play in their back garden unsupervised.
‘We could never prove it but we knew it was to do with that,’ said the husband. ‘That what we’re up against here.’
Insurance companies demand prohibitive premiums for vehicle cover in B18 — the Winson Green postcode.
‘When I lived in Edgbaston, my insurance on one car was £500 a year and £400 on the other,’ said a young father, who ran a takeaway business in another part of Birmingham before being re-housed here by the council.
‘When I called to renew my policy last month, they told me it would now be £3,000 a year for one car and £4,000 for the other. All because we live in B18.’
Benefit cheats: Parents Mark Thomas and Becky Howe were picking up £1,500 a month in benefits
His 12-year-old son, he said, is being singled out at school because of his address.
‘After the show went out, he got a text from a friend. It said: “Why didn’t you tell us you live on a bad street. You live on a thieves street, you are a thief. We won’t be your friend anymore. [sic]’’’
Indeed, James Turner Street has become a bizarre local attraction. Drivers have been spotted lowering their car windows to photograph the street sign on their mobile phones, just as they might with a famous landmark.
Yet perhaps the more depressing thing about the street is that in the Britain of today it is not especially unusual.
Figures for benefit claimants are not broken down street by street, so it is impossible to get an exact figure for the number of people receiving handouts in the road.
It is worth stressing that it was ‘White Dee’, not the documentary-makers, who said: ‘Probably, five per cent of people on this road are working.’ And it was ‘Black Dee’ who was seen walking along, pointing at house after house, declaring almost triumphantly: ‘Unemployed, unemployed, unemployed.’ The narrator was more circumspect, saying only that the ‘majority’ of residents were on benefits of between £500 and £900 a month.
James Turner Street was chosen because it falls within Soho ward, part of the Ladywood parliamentary constituency. In Soho, 9.8 per cent of all residents of working age claim Jobseeker’s Allowance alone, which is more than three times the national average according to the most recent data.
But in other wards the jobless figure is even higher: Aston (12.1 per cent), Sparkbrook (11), Handsworth (10.5), Washwood Heath (10.2). Comparable areas can be found across the country.
In other words, James Turner Street is just one of many where the ‘something for nothing culture’ — to use Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith’s words — has transformed the fundamental character of a once-respectable neighbourhood. Take the house where Mark Thomas and Becky Howe live. The couple, both 23, have two children and were picking up £1,500 a month in benefits from this address at one point. By their own admission, all their payments stopped after they were caught fiddling claims — but they still see themselves as victims.
‘They [the producers] just tried to make us look like slums — everyone on the street is fuming about it,’ Miss Howe told the Birmingham Mail. ‘Half of my family and friends have already disowned me because of it. Some want me to change my name by deed poll.’
Romanian immigrants - including a child bride and one English speaker - who clash with other residents
Controversial: The series has been attacked for its portrayal of claimants
Yet isn’t there a telling contrast when you see who once lived here?
The 1911 census tells us that Mark and Becky’s house was once home to Edwin Toole, 69, and his wife Elizabeth, 59. Edwin was a blacksmith and Elizabeth a shop manager. Their daughter Sophie, 21, was a sewing machinist and her sister, 19, worked in a warehouse.
Hard work, not fraudulent benefit claims, paid the family’s bills.
Or take the case of 32-year-old Dee Roberts, aka ‘Black Dee’, who has not worked for six years.
Back when the street was first built, her house was occupied by Frederick Hodges, 48, his wife Laura, 47, Mabel, 18, and Howard, 16.
Every member of the family was in employment — Frederick as a house painter, Laura as a nurse, Mabel as a typesetter and Howard as a sewing machine mechanic.
Today, a few doors along the road, we find Deirdre Kelly, 42. Viewers were told that ‘White Dee’ was struggling to bring up two children on benefits, and there was no sign of a partner. Yet her Facebook page, until a few days ago at least, was full of photos of family holidays and pop concerts.
‘I will always look out for my friends because that is the sort of person I am,’ declared the woman who boasts of being the ‘mother of the street’ but who once stole £13,000 from the vulnerable to fund her lover’s crack habit.
In 1911, Deirdre Kelly’s residence was home to Ellen Ashforth, 41, who was a full-time mum to five children, four aged under ten. Her husband Jesse, 38, and one son, 20, were both silversmith polishers.
The traditional values espoused by working-class families like the Ashforths, Hodges and Tooles, and passed down from father to son, mother to daughter, continued down the generations until George Drummond arrived on James Turner Street in the Sixties.
Proof decent people still live there: Long-suffering resident George Drummond
By then he was married and employed on the buses. His three children attended the school at the top of the road. Many of their neighbours worked at firms such as General Electrics and IMI.
‘We all left in the morning and came back in the evening,’ he recalled in the lounge of his three-bedroom terrace, which is covered in family photos.
‘You knew everybody. Many owned their own homes and people took pride in them. In summer, everyone would be out the back. Maybe you might have a beer, but there was never any trouble.’
Over the years, like most industrial cities, Birmingham slid into economic decline and ‘working class’ was replaced by ‘underclass.’
The most dramatic change in James Turner Street occurred around seven years ago, coinciding with the closure of General Electrics, which provided thousands of local jobs. Owner-occupiers began to move out, and people in temporary housing began to move in.
It was around this time that Deidre Kelly surfaced in the road.
Mr Drummond stresses that he has nothing against any of the residents on his street but adds: ‘You don’t know now who your neighbours are. You’re not able to get to know them. They might be there one day and then they’re gone. The nextdoor house has been empty for a month, and so has the one with all the rubbish out the front.’
The school at the end of the street where Mr Drummond’s children went, and where pupils now speak 20 different languages, was placed in ‘special measures’ by Ofsted in July. Inspectors found attendance and standards of reading, writing and maths to be ‘below average’.
Back on the street, we finally caught up with ‘Black Dee’, in a manner of speaking. She ‘spoke’ to us through the letter box of ‘White Dee’s’ house: ‘You lot have been harassing me and I don’t want to talk to you. If you print anything that is wrong, I will sue for libel.’
No doubt, we will be seeing more of the two Dees in future episodes of Benefits Street. Apparently, we will also be introduced to a family of Romanian immigrants — including a child bride and one solitary English speaker — who clash with other residents.
‘I cried when I saw the documentary,’ admitted one elderly women, who has lived on the street for 40 years. ‘It broke my heart. It used to be a beautiful street. It was full of families and hard-working people. It was a lovely community.’
But isn’t the story of James Turner Road also the story of the way so much of Britain is now going?
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2537414/Think-Benefits-Street-makes-shocking-TV-Try-living-A-worrying-dispatch-respectable-street-thats-making-headlines-week.html#ixzz2q4bk8uLy
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Wednesday 8 January 2014
We dropped the ball on gambling, says Labour MP: Tom Watson believes party 'should never have licenced' fixed-odds machines, Daily Mail Story
- Former Minister said body of evidence shows terminals fuel addiction
- Lib Dems challenged to back Labour in motion to let councils undo Act
- Punters lose up to £300 a minute on computer roulette on high streets
By TIM SHIPMAN
|
Attack: Former Minister Tom Watson has blasted Tony Blair's Labour administration for giving rise to the betting crisis across the UK today
New Labour ‘dropped the ball’ by giving the green light to fixed odds betting terminals dubbed the ‘crack cocaine’ of the High Street, a leading Labour MP said last night.
Former Minister Tom Watson said Labour ‘should never have licensed these machines’ as his party prepares today to force a Commons vote on the issue.
Liberal Democrats - who want a crackdown on the betting machines - will be challenged to back a Labour motion calling for councils to get the right to ban the terminals if they cause problem gambling and anti-social behaviour.
But Mr Watson said fixed odds terminals, which allow punters to lose up to £300 a minute on computer roulette, should never have been licensed in the Gambling of Act of 2005.
He told the BBC’s Daily Politics show: ‘There’s a body of evidence that these particular kind of machines create in gambling addicts, and that’s something that Parliament should act on.
'Frankly we [Labour] should never really have licensed these machines in the way we did in 2005 and we should put the matter right as quickly as possible.
‘At the time all MPs let this category of machines go through almost on the nod. Our concern was supercasinos and the machines that go into supercasinos.
‘We basically dropped the ball on this one. We didn’t understand the impact this technology would have on the High Street. Now’s the time to put it right.’
Campaigners say there is academic evidence that the fixed odds machines are more addictive than other forms of gambling and say they are used by criminals to launder their money.
But ministers have refused to act until a review into betting machines is completed this autumn - a review that critics complain has been funded by the gambling industry.
Mr Watson said waiting for the review is ‘like waiting for the polar ice caps to melt -- we’ve been waiting years for this’.
Punters lose up to £300 a minute on computer roulette games in high street betting shops like Coral
There are more than 33,000 FOBTs in Britain, with up to four in each high street betting shop. The so-called B2 machines made bookmakers £1.55billion last year - around half their annual profits -- with up to £1.2 billion of that coming from the fixed odds games.
Ed Miliband has announced that a future Labour government would give councils the power to ban high-stakes roulette machines from bookmakers’ shops if they pose problems in their communities.
Labour also plan to change the law so the time between plays is doubled from 20 to 40 seconds and put betting shops in a separate planning class so that councils can use planning powers to control the number opening in their area.
That last idea was endorsed by the Liberal Democrats at their party conference last September.
Shadow Sports Minister Clive Efford challenged the Lib Dems to back Labour’s motion in the Commons today: ‘Across the country, traditional bookies are being turned into mini-casinos, where people can gamble up to £300-a-minute.
Saturday's Mail: We went to get a first-hand view of the crippling effects of fixed-odds betting terminals
The next Labour government will give powers to local communities to ban high stakes gambling machines from high streets.
‘Over recent months, we’ve seen the Tories and Lib Dems posturing on fixed odds betting machines, but totally failing to act.
‘If the Tories and Lib Dems refuse to back Labour’s proposals they’ll have to answer why they are standing up for the large betting companies rather than communities across the country.’
But former Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy made clear that his party would not back Labour’s motion because they are waiting for the review to conclude.
Charles Kennedy: ‘I just think this is pre-emptive and premature. I have every sympathy with Tom’s argument and I hope the review will endorse it up this is putting the cart before the horse. It’s procedural not principled.’
Peter Craske, of the Association of British Bookmakers, said: ‘Gaming machines in betting shops are not new, they have been enjoyed by our customers for over 12 years.
‘This motion is just playing politics with the livelihoods of 40,000 staff and the enjoyment of eight million people.
‘Our new code for responsible gambling introduces new measures that will reduce harm, letting players set their own limits on the time they play or the amount they spend.
‘Banning a product for a political punch line does nothing to help problem gambler.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2535591/We-dropped-ball-gambling-says-Labour-MP-Tom-Watson-believes-party-never-licenced-fixed-odds-machines.html#ixzz2pmeF73wZ
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Today's post
Jesus Christ, The Same Yesterday, Today and Forever
I had the privilege to be raised in a Christian Home and had the input of my parents and grandparents into my life, they were ...
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Living a Life without Limits. I’m going to ask you to think about this question and I would like you to pray abou...
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2 Corinthians 3:12-18English Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK) 12 Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, 13 not like ...
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I had the privilege to be raised in a Christian Home and had the input of my parents and grandparents into my life, they were ...
