One wonders why the government on the one hand forces through, against advice, its plans to permit the establishment of supercasinos, and on the other, via its quangocracy, attempts to prevent the existing ones from advertising.

Any student of state evil would naturally conclude that the supercasinos are being put in place to satisfy the needs of the Mafia, who have doubtless already made the appropriate ‘charitable donations’.

Poor Messrs. Ladbroke’s, the victims of this latest repression, even to a strictly non-betting man like myself, can hardly be viewed as the Mafia.

But before long, of course, they will be the Mafia’s competition.

I am relieved to see in the Independent that the supply of big scary cats has not yet dried up. The well-funded staff of the Forestry Commission, using thermal imagers to count deer at night, have seen two. As a cat owner person owned by cats I entirely approve of all felines, though I would prefer those actually trying to sleep on my bed to be, if possible, no larger than the present ones. The thought that the yappy and incontinent kick-dogs of Daily Mail-reading local councillors might provide nourishment (albeit inadequate and insanitary) for panthers (or, more topically, snow-leopards) quite warms the cockles, to be honest.

But the story says:

Under a Freedom of Information Act request, the government agency confirmed that two “reliable” sightings of large cats have taken place in the last seven years.

Why did it take an FoIA request to extract this hardly controversial information from the Forestry Commission? For what abstruse reason is state secrecy imposed by quangos on the zoology of this once happy land? Is the government afraid of mass panic and vigilantism? Or is it simply that, as it was once put (perhaps by Colonel Sir Vernon Kell), “If it is on an official file, then it is an official secret”?

Time & motion time. Case 1:

{phone rings}
“Forestry Commission; PR desk; good morning.”
“Good morning. My name’s Bloggins. Can you tell me, please, whether you know of any evidence of large cats ever being seen in your vast tracts of woodland?”
“Well, it doesn’t happen very often, you know, but I believe there have been a couple of sightings in the last few years. Let me just check… oh yes, the last one was quite recently. They even got a picture of it with a special camera they were using to look for deer. It’s actually on our website, if you’d like to have a look.”
“I’ll do that. Many thanks.”
“‘Bye then. Oh; do remember: never start fires!”
“I won’t. Thanks again. Bye.”

FC official’s time: 40 seconds. Phone calls: 1, paid for by information-seeker.

Case 2:

{phone rings}
“Forestry Commission; PR desk; good morning.”
“Good morning. My name’s Bloggins. Can you tell me, please, whether you know of any evidence of large cats ever being seen in your vast tracts of woodland?”
“I’m sorry, I can’t tell you that.”
“Really? You surprise me. I gather that there have been at least two sightings in the last few years.”
“We can neither confirm nor deny such allegations.”
“I think your caution is excessive. There is such a thing as the Freedom of Information Act, you know.”
“Freedom of Information Act requests are to be sent to our head office. Do you have the address?”
“No; perhaps you could let me have that…” [etc.]

FC officials’ time: 70 seconds (phone call); 4 hours (receiving and processing FoIA request); 3 days (referring request to higher authority); 6 weeks (seeking authorisation from government minister to release information); 2 months (preparing redacted version of information suitable for public release); 1 year (actually getting round to sending information to requestor).
Phone calls: 1, paid for by caller. Letters: eleven paid for by information-seeker (1 request, 2 chasing progress of request, 1 rebutting allegations of terrorist involvement in re thermal imagers, 1 rebutting allegations of bestiality in re deer, etc., 2 more chasing progress, 1 to MP, 1 bitter tirade accusing of gross inefficiency and notifying that MP has been informed; 1 to MP to acknowledge that there’s nothing he can do, 1 (sent per pro by psychiatric care worker) acknowledging final receipt of information) and one paid for by the taxpayer.

Imagine if you will the the shabby, despairing lines of hopeless unemployed resulting from the imposition upon a decent socialist society of the criminal capitalist-imperialist model represented by Case 1.