Now I have to admit I don’t usually vote. Frown all you want but the way I look at it is; who ever is running the country it will be run badly. That’s my reason and I’m sticking to it. However things may change if my vote can help the traditional coin-op sector, read on….
Last week Britain’s Conservative party pledged to amend the
Gambling Act to remedy the harmful effects it has had upon the arcade sector.
Tobias Ellwood MP, Conservative Shadow Minister for Culture, Media and Sport, wrote to Conservative MPs, encouraging them to back a campaign to save the UK’s traditional coin-operated gaming industry by signing an Early Day Motion (EDM 840) in support of the amendments. A statement of support was also given by Roger Gale MP, who met with BACTA CEO Leslie Mecleod-Miller to discuss ways to persuade the Government to help.
“We welcome this support from the Conservative Party. There is now significant support from all sides of the House for the campaign to save Britain’s arcades,’ said BACTA president Nick Harding.
“With cross-party support the Government can act quickly and decisively to reverse these unintended consequences of the Gambling Act. It is not a moment too soon, something has to be done urgently as businesses are going bust now.”
It seems like it will be hard to avoid anything political this year, either in the UK or US. 🙂 So I guess I’ll just rant about it now and get it off my chest.
I do agree with you – it doesn’t seem to matter who is in charge of a country anymore, they just work on making things worse. For me I try to vote for someone who looks like they will support small business or has supported it in the past, not just because I’m going into small biz, but also because small business is a very important part of the economy. As such I can’t support either of the democrats running for prez in the US – Clinton wants to take profits away from big business so it’s only one small step to start stealing from small businesses and Obama has that crazy idea of tying the minimum wage to inflation – that will cause arcades (well, many small businesses) to have to raise prices constantly or skim the staff to make up for it. Both will raise taxes on people who produce products or services and definently on small businesses and that is something that’s hard to get excited about. McCain, I have no idea what he’ll do with small biz other than not raise taxes but I have some issues with a few other things he’s been behind. At this point I’m thinking of a 3rd party, Wayne Allen Root for the Libertarians seems to be the one guy I can find that understands small biz and would support it. I know a 3rd party won’t go anywhere in a general election but it’s my way of voicing discontent with the major parties.
Hopefully the conservatives in the UK can make some positive changes!
As I’m currently studying for a degree in politics, I’m quite content to avoid the entire thorny issue of voting. However, I will say that it’s nice to see a desire among politicians to remedy the unintended consequences of this law, especially given the problems that the law has caused for arcades elsewhere in the world (Germany, for example). I only hope that this will be as readily adopted among members of the government.