Chapter 29. How gambling is ruining lives
If you are concerned about the way those suffering from gambling addiction, then please email your MP and ask him/her to introduce a Private Members’ Bill to pass a new laws to introduce a betting tax and with the money raised to provide counselling for addicts. State in your email that you have just finished reading a crime and fiction novel entitled The Bedford Heist where in chapter 29 it states that there should be a tax of 20% levied on any betting. This way, the William Hills of this world would have to declare their UK income and pay the 20% to the tax office. Punters would then know that if they were gambling a pound then only 80 pence would be staked, or they could pre-pay the tax when placing their bet. For £1 bet they would need to part with £1.20. Any overseas gambling websites should be blocked or follow the Australian way that requires overseas companies to collect goods and services tax (GST). This GST is different to VAT and will be placed on luxury items such as gambling, booze, cigarettes, etc. The USA introduced the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006 to give more weight to the Federal Wire Act of 1961. The overarching purpose of the law was to prevent gambling companies from partaking in “restricted transactions,” which means they cannot accept payments related to wagers using the internet from overseas players and if they did they would run afoul of any federal or state laws already extant. The chapter went on to state according to the Guardian newspaper the Bet365 boss netted £323 million in a single year. The 2018/2019 year saw Bet365 customers stake £64.49bn on sports over the 12-month period, a 22.7% improvement on the prior year. Just think what good the government could do with 20% of £64 billion every year.
If you feel strongly about any of the above then why not start a petition with either https://home.38degrees.org.uk/ or https://www.change.org/ which offer you a free way to start your campaign. I have used both of these in the past but prefer 38 degrees as Change.org is difficult to contact if you have a problem. In your message and you can copy & paste any part of the book providing you mention The Bedford Heist is available from Amazon Books.
Afterword’s Chapter 12. UK Housing Crisis
I asked James what he felt should be done to try and ease the housing shortage as if nothing happened there would hundreds of future James knocking at my door. James said that his brother John belonged to the young farmers group and the problem of rural housing had been raised at one of the annual conferences he had attended. He said that his brother spoke at the conference and pointed out the pioneering work done in the villages of Hawes in Upper Wensleydale and the village of Toller Portcorum, Dorset. In both cases locals had got together and with the help of the community land trust had managed to get several affordable new homes for locals built.
The NFU said that they were aware of the problem, but nothing was being done to resolve the situation. I listened to what James had to say on the matter and I suggested that he should write to his MP with his ideas and ask that he pass it on to the Minister of State for Housing and Planning. He could use my laptop and printer and I would post the letter for him rather than it be checked by the postal room. The letter to James MP went like this…
Mr Norman Lamb MP for North Norfolk
House of Commons
Palace of Westminster
London SW1A 0AA
Dear Sir,
You may already be aware of my name as my sad situation was in the papers and on regional TV last year. My name is James Pringell from Wells and I’m currently serving a 3 years sentence passed down by the Norwich Crown court last year. I’m not writing to you about my case or length of sentence but I’m writing to you on behalf of all the other young adults in the vain hope that something can be done, so that they don’t take the silly route I did. The housing shortage, that was partly to blame for my situation is a problem that faces young people in every small village and town throughout Great Britain. My brother John is a member of the young farmers group and the problem of housing had been raised several times. He was asked to set up a group that would try and find an answer to the crisis. After a year of digging around and climbing a few brick walls John came up with this suggestion, which could work. Touristy villages such as Wells could set up a system whereas when a property is placed on the market it should have a local price and a non-local price. The local price would only be for people who have been living within 5 miles of the home for the last 3 years or have a very close relative already living within 5 miles or an outsider who was taking up a key job such as teacher, GP or any service provider. If however the home was to be sold to an outside source then a local levy of £100,000 would be added to the sale price and this would then be passed on to a local housing trust whose job was to provide affordable homes for locals. . The above could work well in touristy towns and villages like Wells but the problem is a nationwide problem across the country. If no one is getting on the property ladder then nobody is moving up it and, in the end, when people die, there will be nobody able to buy the vacant property and prices will crash leaving millions of home owners with a negative mortgage. With around half a million people dying each year in the UK, children will be inheriting a house that they don’t need and will have to keep dropping the price to force a sale. This drop in price will have a ripple effect and draw prices down across the board. If there isn’t a way to get people on to the property ladder soon, then sometime during the 2020’s prices will start to fall and banks and building societies will soon realize that they have been lending out money that can never be repaid. The answer wasn’t to build more new cities like Milton Keynes but to spread the housing build across the land to save many of our dying villages and towns. What we feel would work (but it wouldn’t be liked by the farming community) was for a regional housing association to pinpoint certain villages that could do well with gaining an influx of residents. Many villages that have an infant or junior school are screaming out for children as a School must have a certain number of pupils for it to be viable. The same goes for other village services such as the church, the pub, the village store, post office, etc. I urge the government to build starter homes, even if these are for rent only, as many of the current private sector homeowners started their married life in rented accommodation. The lower rent charged meant that the young couple could save up for a 5 or 10 % deposit on a new home whilst still living and working in their hometown or village. Recent figures showed that just over 160,000 new homes were started in 2018/2019 but only a small portion would be for rent. The government said that its target was 300,000 home by the mid 2020’s but when this figure was last achieved half of the new homes built were for rent either by the council or housing associations. When the current government took over from Labour new social homes built in 2010-11 was 39,570 however in 2016-17 it had dropped to just 5,380. If the country is to ever solve the housing crisis then it must build more social housing for rent. If it doesn’t then one day there will be such a crash in house sales it would make the 2007-2008 money crisis seem like a picnic in the park. The government must get the current generation moving up the property ladder but with a vast number of university leavers already having to repay their university tuition fee’s they stand very little hope of ever saving enough for a deposit. The housing association should be set up and initially financed by the state to start them off. They alone will select either a low yielding field at the edge of the village or an unused site in the village, which would then be compulsory purchased by the association at agricultural land rate. The association will bring together all the village and regional council bodies and submit plans to the local planning office and contract all the various elements to get the new homes built. The site should have a combination of higher priced homes that have been adapted for people with mobility issues and starter homes or flats suitable for first time buyers who have either a close relative or have been living in or around the village for the past three years. The starter homes could be either sold outright, as 50/50 homes or rented out by the housing association. Each villag
e via its parish council should state what type of new homes are needed and the association to bring all the loose ends together. Now, to try and put a smile on the poor old farmers face. Once all the new homes have been sold or rented out then the monies raised should be split three ways between the housing association, local council and the poor old farmer/landowner. Because the land was compulsory purchased the association can fix the selling price of the new homes on the site. The better houses should only be sold at market or near-market levels but the starter homes for locals can have a price reduction. To stop the hungry home grabbers from getting hold of any resells the resale the price would be fixed at 5% plus inflation to any new owner that fits the “local” requirement. If there are no buyers, then the property owner can sell it back to the housing association who would then rent it out or sell it on at market rate. Needless to say, that housing associations should be run as a non-profit making venture (like that of a community land trust) and any senior positions within the association will be paid a salary, set by the government. The project should be for the betterment of the community and not a way for any official of the housing association or contractors involved with the build to line their own pockets. Another option would be to source the building site and then build two dozen homes on the site. Half of these could be sold to outsiders wishing to purchase a second holiday home and the money raised from selling the twelve holiday homes could finance the building of the twelve homes for local folk which could be sold at a reduced rate, sold as a 50/50 deal or rented out. Any new homes built should also be fitted with solar panels and any other energy saving items so that these would help the government reach its “Green” target by 2040. I do hope that you will pass this letter on to the Minister of State for Housing and Planning and that the government can start to tackle this ever-growing problem. I should make it clear that I’m not doing this for myself as I have been lucky (apart from breaking the law) as my fiancée has stood by me and because of all the publicity a wonderful lady has offered us a home to rent when we get married and to place a cherry on top another local bookmakers has offered me a job but I think they may get somebody else to cash up. Apparently, the local community are treating this as a crime of passion, and I could never thank them enough. So please do what you can to help other young couples the breadth of the country get a step on the housing ladder as in the long run it would be cheaper to help them than to keep paying out £43,000 every year to keep some of them in prison.
Yours sincerely,
James Pringell
I posted this for James and did get a standard reply from his MP who thanked him and his brother for their input and confirmed that he had passed on his letter to the Minister of State for Housing and Planning. He would write again if he made any progress. James is still waiting for a follow up letter from his MP. I really felt sorry for James, but his problem was a massive one and can only end with a price drop for homes that will make the 2007/08 saga seem like a picnic in the park. Recent figures released from the Institute for Fiscal Studies stated that “the biggest decline in home ownership in the last 20 years has been among middle-income 25 to 34-year-olds. In 2017, 35% of 25- to 34-year-olds were homeowners, down from 55% in 1997. If nobody is moving up the property ladder there will be no buyers in a few years’ time to buy the homes vacated by people who have died. With housing prices spiralling downwards even those with a mortgage will end up with a negative mortgage, which is a repeat of 2008. Something must be done quickly and the current government’s promise of 300,000 homes by 2025 will be far too late.
Afterword’s Chapter 15. Covid-19
As the virus spread across China and many western companies who had moved their production to China so that they could benefit from cheap labour and less health and safety measures were now worried about getting their products out of China.
Dr. Martens boots & shoes is a brand that my friend in Northamptonshire loved. His father and mother had worked in the companies Rushden factory but in 2004 production was moved to China and Thailand. He said that it was a way of life for the community and with Max Griggs at the helm they even had built a football stadium for the Rushden and Diamonds team. In 2005 owner Max Griggs sold the Club to the Supporters Trust for a nominal £1. However, without its wealthy backer the football club struggled and eventually went of business in 2011. In what seemed a rather bizarre move at the time, Kettering Town moved into the ground, but left in 2012, after which the ground became unused.
What went wrong with Dr. Martens
An article in The Guardian on the 30th of November 2019 stated that “it was just a small question in our regular Consumer Champions column. Why, a reader asked, had her £170 Dr Martens boots fallen apart after just six months? The response was huge, with readers accusing the bootmaker of sacrificing quality, offshoring production and chasing profits. Another reader stated that the leather which was sourced in Asia was a lot thinner than that used in the UK. Under the new ownership of a London-based private equity company a long way from its roots in Northamptonshire”. Wikipedia state that Dr. Martens AirWair International's revenue fell from US $412 million in 1999 to $127 million in 2006. In 2003, the Dr. Martens company came close to bankruptcy. On 1 April that year, under pressure from declining sales, the company ceased making shoes in the United Kingdom, and moved all production to China and Thailand.
I told Lewis that when my wife and I went on holiday to Orlando, my wife wanted to look around the shopping malls and I noticed that one particular shop was busier than most, so being nosy, I had to find out why. It was a shoe shop and in the window was a big stack of trainers but what caught my eye was the big Union flag on one side of the shoe box. I asked one of the shop staff why they were flying off the shelves and she said that people liked to buy British as it was always good quality. Pity Dr. Martens and the hundreds of UK companies who moved production to China wasn’t there to see this simple example of why satisfied customers are more important than cheap labour.
Afterword’s Chapter 29. How gambling is ruining lives
In the main pages I wrote about Pete Griffith’s becoming addicted to gambling. I also want to mention about Henry Mathews who was a happily married man until he became hooked on 'crack cocaine' slot machines in betting shops. It started in 2015 when he had made his usual bet for the Grand National which was the only time he actually placed a bet apart from Derby day and this was due to his father inviting all of the family around for a fish & chip lunch, followed by the greatest steeple chase in the word. He never usually had any luck but this time he had backed Many Clouds the 25 to 1 winner and his wife had an each-way bet on t Saint Are who finished second at a starting price of 25 to 1. He told me he was so excited about his win that he had stopped at the betting shop on his way back from his fathers to pick up his winnings. What he didn’t realise was that with the race being so popular, hundreds of people had placed a bet on the national and checking all the betting slips by the bookmaker took a long time. While he was waiting to pick up his winnings, he had a go one of the slot machines to see if he could continue his winning run.
The machine with all its flashing lights said that you could win thousands of pounds with stakes from £10 up to £100. He decided to have a punt and put in £50 of his winnings and he won a few times but just before he was to go home he won £320. Great, he thought at the time and he was back the next available Saturday to try his luck again. This time he wasn’t so lucky and, in the end,, he had lost £200 on the day. He wasn’t put off and decided to try again in the week as the shop was open well into the evening. This time he won a further £300 just missing out on a £30,000 win. He gambled all the money back and some more besides, but he kept just missing out on the big prize. He then went to use his debit card and drew £200 out and gambled the lot with no luck. He went home and the misses asked where he had been, and he told her that he had a problem with the car, but a chap fixed at a cost of £200.00.
He kept going back to try for the big money, but h
e kept losing. He had a joint bank account with his wife, and she had noticed that he had been withdrawing large sums of money and asked him to explain why the money they were saving for a dream second honeymoon had gone. He couldn’t think of any other answer but to come clean and tell her the truth. His relationship had hit a difficult patch and she had set it in her mind that the second honeymoon would solve any problems and get the candle burning again. After sleeping on the couch for a few nights she made him promise that he wouldn’t ever gamble again, and he agreed. However, he was having a tough time at work and wasn’t reaching his sales target and he was drawn back to the machine as all he needed was one big win and all would be hunky dory. He couldn’t get money from his joint bank account, so he had to keep his stakes low. When he was nearly down to his last tenner, he noticed some punters approaching a man who sat near the door and he was giving money out to people who had approached him. I asked one of his visitors what the man was up to and he said that he offered what they call Pay-day-loans. You could borrow money from him and if you paid him back within a week it would only cost you a few pound’s in interest. However, he and others kept going back and borrowed more as they all believed that they were going to hit the jackpot and all their problems would be solved.
Henry got into debt with the money lender and obviously couldn’t pay him back within seven days, so he borrowed more to cover his debt and to give him money to put into the machine. After a month he was in real debt and he had to offer some security and all he had was his home. Well you’ve probably guessed the outcome and when he had to tell his wife how stupid he had been she left him. The interest on the pay-day-loans worked out at 1,472 per cent interest rate and in the end, he was forced to sell the home to clear his debt and give the balance to his former wife. Since he had been taught a hard lesson there were rumours that the government was going to deal with the problem by the Treasury opposed the drastic cut, warning it could slash tax receipts. These machines alone rake in about £1.8 billion every year, contributing more than £400million to the Exchequer. The government never considered what damage was being done to families of addicts who put in the £1.8billion. Obviously, the betting shops didn’t want to get rid of these as they make £1.4 billion from them every year. There were also more rumours that the government would bring in a rule to reduce the maximum bet to a much lower level to £2 per bet which came into force at the end of March 2019.
The Bedford Heist Page 25