ed and matt's spat.

​As it is with Matt Chapman, I am not good at diplomacy. But I hope his plea from the heart on today’s racing from Newmarket does not get him in hot water with his bosses. Anyone who cares for this sport, as Matt obviously does, must sympathise with his frustration that in public, at least, the B.H.A. and its stakeholders twiddle their thumbs and plough their own furrows, while as time passes, the sport we all love drifts ever closer to freefall.
I must admit I had fallen asleep by the time the interview with Mr. Delmonte of the Jockey Club was broadcast, though Richard Hoiles’ delight at the crumbs of comfort he apparently offered is very much in line with papering over the cracks. The Levy may get us through the six-months of soulless racing but what of the six-months that follow? There is no promise of spectators in March or April, is there? If the government don’t get their vaccine by the spring this nonsense might go on into summer and beyond.
Of course, Matt’s big faux-pas today was in claiming, rightly, as it happens, and full marks for his courage and honesty, that we all know Covid is not the reason the government is refusing to allow spectators into racecourses, while allowing lower league football grounds (I hope this remains the situation) to have spectators and having allowed 2,400 people to attend the World Snooker Final.
As I have commented before, the reason it benefits the government to have empty racecourses and football stadia is it re-enforces its strategy of spreading fear and stress to the viewing public – empty stands equals, in the programmed minds of the masses, the deadly nature of the virus, a virus official data confirms has gone away, of course. But when has true science played a part in what is being perpetrated on us all?
As I.T.V.’s anchor, the face of televised racing, Ed Chamberlain, who also obviously loves this sport and wants the best for it, his brief is to be measured in tone, he must ask the questions his interviewees, especially people of the ilk of Nick Rust, expect to be asked. He is the voice of reason, if you like. And when the plug was pulled on Doncaster recently, he was undeniably peeved. You could see and sense his frustration as he could not understand why, even though he trotted out the tired old line ‘public safety must be prioritised’, the sport was yet again stabbed in the back. 
In these blogs, against good judgement, I suspect, I rant and rave about the c-word situation. I do not sit on the fence with my views. I believe to the depths of my soul that we are being lied to by our government and to my relief more and more the general public are also questioning the official narrative. My nature would be to storm the barricades or at least, and I have fleetingly considered this, to chain myself to some relevant railings and go on hunger strike to show the public how uncaring the Johnson Gang really are. After all, as with every other country, remember 62% of Covid (of, with or involving) deaths in Ireland were in care homes, they sacrificed the elderly to boost the death toll in the early months of the Plandemic.
When Nick Rust claimed it was the B.H.A.’s good relations with government that allowed racing to be the first sport to return he was being disingenuous as at that stage the Johnson Gang were desperate to get as much money flowing into the Exchequer as they could and they really needed the betting duty. If we are not allowed spectators back in very short order, if whatever plan is cobbled together to present to government is given short shrift, I believe the B.H.A. should consider suspending race for a week, to put a stop to the betting duty, to give the sport a bit of leverage. It may be cutting off a nose to spite a face but desperate times require desperate measures.
Matt Chapman was correct to air his frustration and I applaud him whole-heartedly for his candour. If diplomacy and common-sense win us no favours then storming the barricades might be the only option left to us in our God-given right to save the sport from financial ruin.
One final note: as much as owners are vital, in the short term, if we are allowed the return of spectators, those who come through the turnstiles should be paying spectators. It will be small pickings for racecourses for however long a period this nonsense goes on for, they should be allowed to earn as much money as they can. Our racecourses must be given every opportunity to survive these turbulent times.