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Somewhat relevant article from the woke lefty snowflake tofu eaters at the MSM Guardian.
It’s a fair point that people may be cutting back on things like holidays so can therefore still afford a few gigs, or indeed some racedays here and there.
Judging by the amount of expensive fireworks that were let off round my way it seems the cost of living crisis has ended,so it will soon be back to the covid crisis storys on The BBC.
I really don’t want to start to push this thread down a political route. This is a horse racing forum after all.
But I hope people aren’t genuinely suggesting that there haven’t been hundreds of thousands of people negatively seriously impacted by the rate of inflation hitting 11 or 12 percent last year?
If you could afford a day at the races last year you can probably afford it this year. But there will be some who’ve decided that they’re not that bothered about it and it’s an expense they can simply do without as well.
But if you’re a single parent or a family on low income with a couple of kids then life must be really ******* miserable right now. To suggest otherwise is stupid, naive and in very bad taste.
I’ve seen a few people comment in here before chastising the various political parties. However the Tory governments I’ve lived through absolutely sicken me with the way they treat the lower classes with such blatant disdain.
My attempt at trying to not turn the thread political went well then!
Collective financial hard times will affect individuals according to their circumstances.
The affluent or even wealthy are unaffected, there are also those less well off for who belt tightening is anathema – they make sacrifices in other areas, or even max out credit cards, to still be able to do the things that, for them, make life worth living.
For others further down the socio-economic ladder, life’s “day-out” luxuries might already have been out of reach, certainly on a regular basis, and there’s now no question of them going to events as every day at the moment is a choice between eating and heating.
Then there’s Chezza – a man whose financial circumstances are irrelevant because, whatever Chezza has in the bank, he refuses to spend any of it.
Except on hob nobs.
Moreover, Chezza takes great delight in calculating how much he saves every day by being, to borrow a truly gross quote from the late Harry Heymer, once Racing Editor of The Guardian, “as tight as a cow’s **** in autumn.”
It’s a line that becomes more disturbing, and on an ever greater number of levels, the more you think about it – even 35 years later, Chezza is still traumatised.
Chezza hopes this gets the thread back on track before it becomes a Mrs Mertonesque “heated debate!”
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"I haven’t seen any official figures but I have never seen Plumpton as busy as it was today. It’s always a well supported fixture but I am sure it must have been one of their best attendances. Lots of families, for whom I imagine the free entrance for accompanied children makes it a more affordable day out than many competing events. Decent fields and the only sunshine of the entire holiday period will hopefully mean everyone enjoyed their day and will come back. Whatever their circumstances, people do like to do something different at Christmas and get out in the air after days of eating, drinking and staring at the TV and each other.
My point was simply that if, say, 50,000 people go racing on Boxing Day that’s proof that 50,000 have decided to go racing on Boxing Day and that it’s worth their time and money doing so. Nothing more to it than that.
We can and do have in depth political discussion elsewhere but my other point was that it’s an oversimplification to declare the cost of living crisis to be exaggerated or over based on a few days racing attendance figures, especially at a time of year that is a statistical outlier anyway.
Even keeping the discussion within racing, are the food and drink outlets at the courses doing the same business as usual? How much are people punting, is it more or less than previously? How are overall attendances across the year? Too early to tell yet and we’re only really just getting to the point where the impact of the dreaded c-word is properly fading. Yes, I understand that some are still concerned but I think we’re finally at the point where it doesn’t even enter the thinking of the vast majority when heading out of the front door.
The mentions of people cutting back on holidays, but continuing to enjoy days out etc can only bode well for the country if people are still spending money, and helping the economy.
It’ll be a couple of months before Bank of England stats on credit card spending are provided for Dec and Jan, but it’ll be interesting to see how much debt has been taken on recently and if we are living above means.
“Then there’s Chezza – a man whose financial circumstances are irrelevant because, whatever Chezza has in the bank, he refuses to spend any of it.
Except on hob nobs.
Moreover, Chezza takes great delight in calculating how much he saves every day by being, to borrow a truly gross quote from the late Harry Heymer, once Racing Editor of The Guardian, “as tight as a cow’s **** in autumn.””
What a guy! God your a hero. I’d have voted for you twice if I could have!
Thank you, sir – you’ve made Chezza’s year already, and it’s only 3rd January!
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"‘It’ll be a couple of months before Bank of England stats on credit card spending are provided for Dec and Jan, but it’ll be interesting to see how much debt has been taken on recently and if we are living above means.’
I suspect yes, people are hooked on cheap credit and are now accustomed to a higher standard of living than they can necessarily afford. It’s difficult to get out of that habit overnight but many will find they need to.
‘Then there’s Chezza – a man whose financial circumstances are irrelevant because, whatever Chezza has in the bank, he refuses to spend any of it.’
This is the other side of it. I am reasonably, if not spectacularly, well off. I can afford to buy a few pints at the races for five, six even seven quid if I want to but that’s just it. Do I want to? It’s not a ‘value bet’. In fact you might say it’s a bloody rip off.
Go on Ian, help Britain and the economy and spend, spend, spend!
You can’t take it with you!Back OT, be interesting how attendances in January pan out compared to last year, though with weather, starting to come out of covid etc it’s by no means an exact science comparing year on year.
“Go on Ian, help Britain and the economy and spend, spend, spend! You can’t take it with you!”
Chezza wasn’t put on this Earth to “help Britain” – Chezza just about manages to vote for a Party that would tax him more heavily once every five years and inbetween elections Chezza does a passable impression of a Tory voter in the way he conducts himself.
“Can’t take it with you?”
We’ll see about THAT – Chezza intends to try!
Perhaps like Richard, Chezza refuses to pay for things he can afford on a point of general principle – usually because the mark up is just too high compared with what he’d pay in a supermarket.
Chezza enjoyed a splendid £4 meal from Iceland’s Chiquito range recently – the exact same meal (Chezza checked) right down to the weight of the ingredients would have been £12.95p in a Chiquito restaurant, which Chezza would have burned fuel to get to and from, and felt under pressure to buy similarly overpriced drinks at plus leave a tip.
For £4 Chezza enjoyed a meal at home, away from all those random riff raff GSP wants him to help!
No brainer for TRF’s leading self-centred narcissist (a tautology if ever there was one!)
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Picking up on the point Mr Davies made earlier in the thread about the racing being rubbish. Take a look at tomorrow’s fare:
Ludlow
Kempton (all weather)
Southwell (all weather)
Dundalk (all weather)Remind me, it is the jumps season, isn’t it?
It’s the inconsistency that annoys me. One minute they’re insisting that premier courses race on Fridays, even if that means the main feature day on Saturday has to be abandoned because the course can’t take it, next we have this. Meanwhile the last bank holiday of the Christmas period had but 2 jump fixtures (Plumpton & Ayr) and 2 AW (Newcastle & Lingfield). Barely better than an average Monday. It seems that whoever decides these things doesn’t think anyone lives in the Midlands, East or West. They obviously also think people shouldn’t be going to the races on Sundays either but that’s another discussion.
“it’s an oversimplification to declare the cost of living crisis to be exaggerated or over based on a few days racing attendance figures, especially at a time of year that is a statistical outlier anyway”
BTW @Richard88 exactly this too. My (very poorly expressed) point was that racing represents a good value day out for families and therefore courses which work to maximise family attendance on premium days and weekends may benefit. This doesn’t mean that the cost of living crisis isn’t happening or that it won’t have a disastrous effect on racing through reduction in betting, sponsorship, ownership, trainers’ costs etc. We won’t really see the worst effects until people get their fuel and credit card bills.
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