It is great news that the Government was defeated over the supercasino, and that Blackpool’s hopes live again, even if only tenuously. But I wonder whether, even if Blackpool were to get the final nod, companies would be willing to invest in a supercasino after Gordon Brown’s body-blow to the casino industry?

I just can’t
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… that there has been a 27% increase in tuberculosis in the North West between 2003 and 2005?

I was at an exhibition earlier this week at the Barbican on the work of the Finnish modernist architect Alvar Aalto, one of my all-time heroes. One of his greatest works is the tuberculosis sanatorium he built
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As is always the case with Gordon Brown’s budgets the devil is in the detail, so here’s some of what we missed yesterday:

Anyone earning £5-15,000 pounds a year will now have to pay tax at 20p in the pound rather than just 10p;
Gaming duty in casinos will go up to 50% for big casinos, and
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Well there we are. Gordon’s last budget. A 2 pence cut in the standard rate of income tax … … paid for by abolishing the 10p rate and pushing up NICs for higher earners. So we all suffer somehow – hitting Blackpool and Cleveleys especially hard, since incomes in these parts tend to be below
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I see an interesting news story today about school uniforms. Collegiate High School have apparently introduced a new ‘summer’ polo shirt with a ‘football’ style neckline and toggle waist. This will apparently make life easier for students tired of being told to tuck their shirt in … The uniforms modelled look like what most children
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I have just had a real treat and been given a tour of Blackpool’s tramsheds on Rigby Road, looking at the antique trams – some as many as 100 years old.
I was accompanied by our Shadow Transport Secretary Chris Grayling. We heard all about how the trams are teetering on the brink of collapse thanks
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There was an incendiary report from a House of Commons Committee this week. They really had a go at the Government, saying that the ‘Government has no specific policy or initiatives for coastal towns’ and that there was no real commitment to the tourist industry from the Government – and anyone who knows
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Today is the 50th Anniversary of Ghana’s independence – an example of an African nation very firmly on the up. Why though do I bring it up in a blog which is supposed to be about goings-on in Blackpool North & Cleveleys? Well, not only is this a special time for the people of Ghana,
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