The previous Labour Council put all its eggs in the casino basket – only for the Labour Government to turn its back on Blackpool when it came to the final decision. We are now back at square one – no direction from the Government, just vague ideas without cash to back them up. We have had years of work, and £400,000 spent, on the deliberations of the Casino Advisory Panel, addressing the very questions of the social consequences of gambling Gordon Brown now wants to look at again. What we need now is a sense of direction not months of inaction.

Gordon Brown clearly dislikes gambling – and Blackpool, for that matter. He has already tried to tax Blackpool’s smaller amusement arcades out of existence. Now he has turned his back on the whole idea of supercasinos. Instead, he tells us to invest in the trams – but he has had 10 years to provide that investment whilst the the network has teetered on the brink of collapse. He tells us to put our hopes in a theatre museum – but the old Labour council made no progress on that front either. He tells us we need a new conference centre, but anyone in Blackpool could have told him that. It was his Labour Council that wouldn’t talk to Storm City and just stood by whilst the Winter Gardens fell into a steep decline.