Brit news

Blogging is most erratic lately, but there are couple of things in British politics I couldn't totally let pass:

Boris Johnson for Mayor. Boris Johnson is a colourful Tory MP who is considering running for Mayor of London. And when I say colourful, I'm employing British understatement. He's got one of the key characteristics I think any London Mayor should have - a larger than life personality. Dude is a card. Plus he represents a constituency that's seriously underrepresented in modern day politics.

The hair care impaired.

Folks who know me well recognise that I'll see this a major step forward for people (like me) who have more on their minds than brushes and combs.


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Supercasino!!!

The Blair Government wanted to reform gambling in Britain and took the opportunity to license some smallish number (around 10?) of "Las Vegas style" super casinos. These were more less gonna be scattered about the country - one per government region.

But then some people thought that was too much gambling, so the number of proposed supercasinos fell from 10 to 1 (with some greater number of smaller casinos again scattered hither and yon). I thought this was lame, lame, lame -'cause the whole point of the Vegas model is multiple competing casinos (or at least giving the illusion of competition). Vegas became a destination.

Well, there was a big competition on between various locales and apparently one of the key criteria for determining the winner was the regeneration potential of the area selected. Basically, the crapper your application the more likely you were to win. Oh sure, there was an application for a location in an abandoned quarry in some forgotten part of London, but in terms of crap locations the hands-down winner was Manchester.

Blackpool, in particular, felt particularly aggrieved. After all, Blackpool was the fading flower of British internal tourism (like one of those really tacky flowers with fake droplets of dew glued on the petals). Blackpool is probably the kitchest nook of England and if the independent commission had had FUN as a key policy determinant - Blackpool would have won. And I would have totally gone up to Blackpool and gambled and taken in all the fabulous sights of the Pleasure Beach. As it is, going to the Manchester casino the biggest gamble is whether you'll actually arrive at the casino with your wallet considering the "deprived" area they selected.

Well now Gordon Brown - as the new head honcho - has decided that they're not just going to reconsider the Manchester candidate but the whole dang thing. There won't be any supercasinos. And after all that blood, sweat, tears and political scandal. Damn.

Gordon Brown hates fun.