Back again

Right, haven't posted in a while and I'm in a foul mood. Who's worth venting a bit of spleen on?

Let's start with Ian Dale. Nice contribution to the Tory bid to get rid of Blackpool's pair of useless Labour MPs with his unfunny, and slightly pointless jab at the resort I'm (un) lucky enough to call home in his post on Aaah-nuld's scheduled visit. The unbelievable snobbery of the Dales of this world really takes the piss. Do they just want us to collapse into the sea or something?

Speaking of the seaside town they forgot to burn down, the pointless campaign to get Parliament to-sort-of-but-not-quite overturn the Casino Advisory Panel's decision to put the UK's one supercasino in Manchester and not Blackpool enjoyed a pyrrhic victory the other week when a couple of peers were asleep, rat-arsed or passed out in a pool of their own piss when they were supposed to be voting in the House on a 'rebel amendment.'

And doesn't that just smack of rebellion to you? What do we want? A review of the panel's decision? When do we want it? Whenever you can manage it, ta.

Anyway, I digress. The truth is that between the Chancellor and the British casino industry any chance of meaningful regeneration anywhere via a casino was scuppered a long time ago. Are you going to spend £300 million on a swish hotel and conference hall when the exchequer's going to take half the profits from your as-addictive-as-crack slot machines? Obviously not. Even less so if the rat-infested fleapit down the road is also going to be offering £1m a go slots.

But it won't stop the flat earth brigade - at least until the local election (in which all but about two of the candidates seems to be backing the casino spin) is out of the way next month.

That's quite enough for now. Back soon.