‘Please drink/bet responsibly’

• IT is all a bit reminiscent of that excellent system whereby you could behave in the most excessive way, secure in the knowledge that absolute forgiveness would be available upon payment of a fee to a pardoner.

The modern version applies to the big betting and alcoholic drinks companies who put out ads and devise ways of encouraging punters to hand over their hard-earned cash, thereby landing the most frail of us with bankruptcy or serious illness.

But then they imagine they exonerate themselves in the small print with: “Please drink/ bet responsibly.”

Aah, so no harm done there then!

R WARD,
NW6