It may, as they say, lose in the translation – this article was written in Spanish.

The comedies of Laurel and Hardy (El Gordo y El Flaco) are about the escapades of the languid and exasperating partner of the jolly and outlandish Oliver Hardy, who always ended either bruised or covered in flour and saying, whilst fiddling with the ends of his tie, “That’s another fine mess you got me into, Stanley.”

In the tragicomedy of Prescott and Blair it is El Flaco (Stanley Laurel aka Blair) who should endlessly repeat, “Butt out, Johnny!” The fact is that porker Prescott has grown fat on his dodgy exploits, just as Napoleon did in the classic Animal Farm by George Orwell, who also wrote the futuristic ‘1984’. Like Napoleon, Prescott is no fool and is in the habit of anticipating the fallout before committing the act. A literary critic once commented that although Napoleon seemed a good leader at the start, eventually greed and power corrupted him.

Now, in typically hard-nosed manner, the Deputy Prime Minister of Britain has said he has no intention of resigning because of the criticism falling from all sides over his contacts with a businessman who wants to develop a super casino in London. Yesterday, in an interview with the BBC, Prescott denied that he had acted incorrectly or that there was a conflict of interest when meeting with US billionaire Philip Anschutz, who wants to put Britain’s first super casino in the failed Millennium Dome on the banks of the River Thames.

Prescott confirmed earlier this week that he met with Anschutz on seven occasions over a period of three years, pointedly refuting the allegation that he acted incorrectly. He also admitted visiting the Colorado ranch of the billionaire last July but denied discussing the casino plans. Is that how a second-hand vehicle was sold?

The infamous Dome, constructed under the Blair government, has been a complete failure, sucking everyone from politicians to thieves into the debacle. It is also a financial thorn in the flesh for Prime Minister Blair. If there is anyone who could revitalize the project it is a casino operator, and if Anschutz decided to buy the Dome it is because of the partnership with the legendary Sol Kerzner who developed Sun City, the casino founded in an extinct volcano in the middle of the South African bush.

If anyone could sell this second-hand vehicle to crafty Anschutz it would be Prescott, and the little trip to Colorado would not be to convince Anschutz but to satisfy his own voracious appetites that have already turned Tony Blair pale with the scandal over Prescott’s love affair with his secretary.

In the parody of Orwell, whose actual name coincidentally was Eric Blair, Napoleon led the conversion of the farmyard into a socialist republic that finally became a dictatorship. The story was written as a metaphor for Stalinist Russia. The socialist Prescott, converted to market socialism, is a sad caricature of our beloved Oliver and appears this time, in connecting the dead Dome to crafty Anschutz, to have trodden on the banana skin, also causing partner Tony to fall.

The ‘comedy’ in the situation is that if the lure to sell the Dome was the super casino then it follows that there was every chance that it would get the go-ahead. However, the final Gambling Law allowed for only one super casino in Britain, and this has left Anschutz, Prescott and other players wrong-footed.

It is true that Greenwich Council’s Dome project has been selected by the Casino Advisory Panel as one of eight short-listed locations for the super casino, and was probably one of the favourites to win, but Anschutz’s bet remains a 7 to 1 shot, which is not good. That is to say, unless porky Prescott throws his waning political weight behind the cowboy from Colorado.

The tragedy of all this is that if Prescott promised a casino to sweeten the Dome deal it is now time for him to go home, pulling along Stanley Laurel Tony Blair, before they get the country into yet another fine mess. (E-07.07.06)

© Copyright 2006 CasinoCompendium



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