I would have thought there was a greater likelihood of me boiling my testicles in chip fat than agreeing with Melanie Phillips on anything. But it just goes to show how wrong you can be.

The notion that, as Phillips says, a Labour Government, yes a Labour Government can be so irresponsible and morally corrupt to encourage people to gamble at a time when we are plunging into economic recession almost defies belief.

According to this report Culture (?) Secretary Andy Burnham is doing this because... "many operators across the gambling industry are finding trading conditions very difficult in the present economic climate" Absolutely mind boggling. I don't suppose it has occurred to Burnham that the hundreds of thousands of victims of problem gambling might also "find things difficult" too.

I know there will be those libertarians who will say people have got a right to throw their money away if they want to, and that trying to restrict how much people win or lose should not be anything to do with the state. But given the number of illiberal measures that have come out of this government over the last 10 years I hardly think that Burnham is doing this because of his love for individual liberty.

The notion that it is being done because "the industry is finding it difficult" is frankly ridiculous. It is an argument against banning the possession of knives because shares in companies that manufacturer lethal daggers might take a hit.

So why has the Labour Government been so friendly to the gambling industry? Is it corruption through the "dubious links between the gambling industry and Labour funding" that Phillips refers to? When trying to promote super casinos they hid behind the masquerade of regeneration, with all sorts of nonsense about regenerating inner city areas by sucking the wages out of working people into the casinos (Ok, I accept, they didn't quite phrase it like that). But fruit machines in pubs??? No great regeneration gains from that, although I did hear some slick salesman for the slot machine industry saying it would help to save some inner city pubs. You see, people who aren't going down the pub because of the recession will suddenly feel compelled to go down and buy a couple of pints because they've installed a bright new flashing fruit machine to.... errrm.... take your money off you.

Now I'm not opposed to people having a bet (although I can add to my 'never having done' list the fact that I wouldn't even know how to buy a lottery ticket) because I have put money in fruit machines in the past, and I confess to having visited Las Vegas. But the liberalisation of our drinking laws and gambling laws strike me as extremely unhealthy for the country at any time, and during a recession, even more dangerous.

And if I was asked to say why I thought the Government had done so much to promote the liberalisation of both, I think I could sum it up in one word.

Taxation!

So... Mel, start boiling the chip fat!

Update: if you doubt my conclusion... look no further!