Doing good doesn’t always work out as expected. A regular entering his local pub takes pity on an old lady seemingly fishing with a bent stick and string in a kerbside pool of rain. He invites her in for a drink. As she raises her gin and Dubonnet, he asks amiably: ‘So how many did you catch today?’ ‘You’re the eighth,’ she replies.
Imagine another pub scene. As lockdown is relaxed, a customer’s order of three pints of bitter and two G&Ts is refused by the landlord: ‘Sorry, Squire, but according to my government boozometer that takes you over your permitted weekly Alcoholic Spending Limit of £100. You signed for two rounds on Sunday. Records also show two bottles of Prosecco at Pedro’s Wine Bar with a companion last Thursday (did your wife know about that?) and a six-pack of Heineken from Sainsbury’s for Arsenal’s last game on TV.’
Gambling has become a politically fashionable target
With 7.5
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