First of all , a very special thank you to the handful-or-so of people that donated to help fund my trip up to Liverpool, and also to GRASP-GROUP.ORG for funding my overnight accommodation, I couldn't have pulled it off without you.
I was really exited about doing the two radio shows, but due to me pretty much promoting this campaign on my own I had been up all night the night before and was was severely tired the next day.
Still it was an interesting time talking on Critical Mass Radio on the Thursday night, despite being severely tired I managed to get some good stuff into the conversation and still managed to let people know how the department of culture, media and sport were involved with the gambling industry and how there are a lot of conflicts of interests going on in regards to gambling laws in the UK.
After doing the Critical Mass Radio show I was worried about now waking up through my alarm but infact I just couldn't sleep for some reason so still I only managed to get a few hours sleep that night too before I went to Liverpool Community Radio to do the show at midday where I would be responding to statements from Liverpool MP Steve Rotheram.
Unfortunately things didn't quite go to plan as when the pre-recorded clip of Steve Rotheram was played I was trying so hard to listen but was unable to hear a lot of it because of the dynamics and conversations in the studio at the time, so I feel that I really messed up when responding to his comments.
I will however be doing an article or video response again to those comments as Steve Rotherham seems to be playing the same game with the public as MP John Whittingdale and MP Philip Davies, who are also closely connected with the gambling industry.
When asked what the government were doing to cut down on gambling advertising in the UK, he openly claimed that there wasn't any plans to, and in his own words he stated 'You can't put the genie back into the bottle'. But at the time of it being live on air I was unable to hear that due to conversation with the studio team.
This wasn't at all a maliciousness attempt to keep me distracted, it was just that the studio crew were running their first ever Friday Lunch show, and the presenter Ben Carpenter was airing his first show.
Ben did a brilliant job presenting the show and the rest of the team were a really friendly bunch, I highly recommend you to check out Liverpool Community Radio!!
He also gave the argument that putting up to 12 fixed odds betting terminals in each betting shop would help stop betting shop proliferation, the same argument used by industry-sponsored John Whittingdale....I hope the public will see through this agenda.
So lets get this right .... the select committee on the department for culture, media and sport don't think that there will be any reduction on gambling advertising, yet they think betting shops will close down once they are able to put 12 fixed odds betting terminals in each shop??? I think we can do better than this....wouldn't it be nice to have MP's fighting for the health and safety of their communities instead of lobbying for the gambling industry?
So I'm deeply sorry I was unable to give a proper argument on this case, luckily they were both quite small radio stations so I suppose it's no biggie, and I still managed to put a lot of good information across relating to how gambling affects the brain and gets manipulated by constant floods of dopamine.
Keep your eyes peeled for a video response to the select committee of the department of culture media and sport coming soon!!
Liverpool Community Radio
