Question: how do you stop yourself being sued for libel? Answer: put "in my humble opinion" before your critique. I'm only half-joking here. When the consumer magazine "Which" launched many years ago, the (then) Prime Minister - Harold Wilson - famously declared it would surely fail as no company would stand to see any criticism of their products in print. What happened? Which has become an extremely successful magazine, even more remarkable for the fact they have no paid advertisers and are funded entirely by subscriptions only.

There is so much hype and spin in the racing industry (and in the so called "biz opp" community too, btw) people sometimes forget that opinions are just that: opinions. The Internet is great in that we can now trawl through legion blogs and forums to get a consensus view of any product or gambling system, but always remember what glistens is not always gold.

I write about products and services that I use myself. My income is derived from using these very products and services. So when some bright spark tells me I got a race result from 1989 wrong, or suggests that I've made a bunch of data conveniently "fit" a system I'm reviewing, I can only say this: "look, it works for me!". What possible gain is there in me spinning a line simply to sell some duff system? Does anyone ever stop to think how catastrophic that would be for business?

So, it used to really bother me when some twonk or other bad-mouthed me all over some bedroom-created bulletin board. Nowadays I am reminded of the homily (cleaned up here for good taste): "Opinions are like backsides. Every body's got one".