Goodwood races allowing spectators again

[Fambo Number Mive]

5,000 people for the final day of racing.

https://twitter.com/richardgaisford/status/1289090435625955328

Baffling, considering how much the Cheltenham racing spread the virus. The GMB report is very one-sided at a time when we are seeing hundreds of cases a day still in England. No screens between spectators it seems. People love to shout/cheer when watching horses race so it'll be a major spreader of the virus.

I'm sure Hancock's racing links are just a coincidence;

.

..But Hancock, along with other senior Conservatives, has nurtured a close relationship with the industry. Hancock is the MP for Newmarket, flat horse racing's headquarters and seat of the Jockey Club, and he receives tens of thousands of pounds in donations from wealthy racehorse owners, trainers and other members of the sport's establishment.

The Jockey Club, the historic organisation that owns racecourses at Newmarket and around the country, has two prominent Conservative figures on its board: Dido Harding, the former TalkTalk chief executive and Tory peer who has been put in charge of the government's crucial Covid-19 test-and-trace operation; and Rose Paterson, the wife of the senior backbench MP Owen Paterson. Rose Paterson is also chair of Aintree racecourse, whose signature race, the Grand National, is sponsored by Randox Health, the diagnostics company advised by her husband that has been given a £133 million (€155m) contract to produce testing kits – without any other firms being given the opportunity to bid for the work.

A source close to the Jockey Club said Harding and Rose Paterson had played no part in the process of racing being given the go-ahead to restart, which was managed by the governing body, the British Horseracing Association, to meet safety protocols set out by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. A spokesperson for Hancock said he had not taken part in any of the discussions, nor in the decision for the Cheltenham festival to go ahead on March 10th-13th as the virus was spreading...

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/racing/matt-hancock-funded-by-leading-figures-of-wonderful-uk-racing-1.4280397

[Sebastian Cobb]

It's really hard to reconcile this bollocks with what appears to be targeted restrictions in areas with high asian communities during Eid. Which will also have the side effect of stopping people meeting in gardens for drinks during a heatwave, presumably increasing people in pubs.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Looks like Johnson has announced this is no longer happening.

[Cuellar]

haha great bantz

[idunnosomename]

i was saying booris johnson