Hypocricy

I could never be a politician, for so many reasons. For starters I am not a very good liar, I tend to speak my mind more often that would be healthy for a political career, and I abhor hypocrisy.

In the Guardian, is this article in which Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, speaking about the recent American ban on online gambling, said "America should have learnt the lessons of Prohibition". There was a "real danger" she says, that the US laws would create the modern-day equivalent of speakeasies - venues that illegally served alcohol - online.

The fact that a complete legal ban on something simply pushes trade in that substance or practice underground is not new. If there is sufficient demand for something - alcohol, online gambling, cigarettes or sex for money - making it illegal it will not stop people wanting it, nor supplying it. Britain's puritanical legislation on prostitution, for example, has not stopped the trade. Perhaps the Governor of Nevada should have a chat with the FT about the Bunny Ranch.