Gentrification or FOBT nation? The only nailed-on bet is the march of tech

At 10am on Thursday #FOBT was trending fourth on Twitter, one place above #WeAreTechNation.

Just a coincidence, but the proximity paints a picture of two modern nations – one brightly announcing that UK tech is growing 2.6 times faster than the wider economy, the other dutifully shovelling food money into banks of high-street hell machines. But they promised us jet packs! Look who got involved in both.

Looking to the future Sky Bet, so far uninvolved in the furious FOBT row, tried for a new furious row: "Any increase in Remote Gaming Duty is a tax on hi-tech Yorkshire jobs . . . the government should focus on getting a fairer tax contribution from other tech companies who, unlike us, don’t already pay sufficient taxes on their UK activities."