Just buck off politicians

Whose sick idea was it to put politicians in charge of the affairs of state?

If we needed proof that they're a repellent bunch of no-marks, it was the parliamentary debate on a vote of no confidence in the speaker. Said speaker has a falsified drivers' licence yet has announced her readiness to take over the steering wheel of government as soon as the current pilot has put our jalopy off the road and over a cliff.

Watching the "Honourables" debate gave the sensation that we were already off the edge of the cliff and, safely strapped in, tumbling into the ravine.

Imagine my dismay when I read that horseracing was under threat of being taken over by government.

The government can't run a park, or a post office, or my electricity meter. Skittish horseracing would buck it off, into a puddle, and gallop off never to be seen again.

The bottom line is that no - or diminished - racing would mean tens of thousands fewer jobs, less revenue and a lot less colour in our country.

Racing equals excitement, challenge, bravery, intellect, industry, silliness, redistribution of money and fun. Government equals death by suffocation - not to mention negligence, stupidity and thievery.

Administration of racing is far from perfect and many people loudly advocate change in a sincere effort to improve and grow the game. Some of them should be listened to.

Even cheerful, easy-going I have gripes.

But there's also a lot of twaddle peddled about the game - often in articles by reporters who have zero knowledge of it. Sometimes quoted in these pieces is a Phindi Kema, described as a thoroughbred breeder although that stretches the truth.

Kema, having had appeals for a dismantling of the racing status quo chucked out by competition board investigations, recently took herself off to the public protector and the trade minister, who made tut-tutting noises.

The latter, Rob Davies, appears to inhabit an economic universe light years from reality, and I imagine he might be swayed by talk of lowly workers being exploited by the rich.

Horse grooms and farmworkers should have better working conditions, but these are better than in many industries - including those under government custodianship. And a working balance must always be found between profit and entitlement. It is a complex business and cheap opportunism and lazy sloganeering doesn't help.

Horsemanship education and skills programmes have made heartening, sometimes sensational, progress - all of them initiated by private enterprise, with government tagging along on the coat tails.

Questions of operator monopolies and gambling levies are inevitably raised in calls for politicians to step in and fix things - again usually against a background of poor context and misinformation.

All these things must be openly debated and one hopes it can be done sensibly with a good grasp of the issues at play. The parliamentary clown show proves that any involvement of politicos won't provide that.

May I say, one hint of cheer for me in this long grumble was the mind's image of a frisky horse dumping a self-important cabinet minister into the mud.