Mediterranean Living

Sleaze and the sorry saga of the dome

Daily Mail Comment
29th August 2006

The rotten stench surrounding the future of the wretched Millennium Dome grows worse every day.

At the weekend, photographs were published showing work already well advanced on building a supercasino at the site, owned by John Prescott's generous American host, the billionaire Philip Anschutz.

So confident is he of winning a licence for his casino - the size of two football pitches - that he has already spent many millions on construction, right down to the electrics and tiling.

With breathtaking presumption, his AEG company has even distributed plans among steelworkers on the site, headed: 'Casino Roof'.

Yet there are still months to go before a decision on which of the seven bidders - from Glasgow to Greenwich - will win the supercasino licence. Public hearings don't even begin until tomorrow.

Isn't it highly unsettling when a hardheaded businessman is prepared to stake such a massive bet on a seven-horse race - particularly when he is on such matey terms with the Deputy Prime Minister that he gives him a cowboy outfit and hospitality at his Colorado ranch?

To make matters worse, the chairman of the group set up to advise the Government now says Mr Anschutz's company is leading the field.

And why? Because building work has already started at the Dome, says Professor Stephen Crow, chairman of the Casino Advisory Panel. 'It's something we have to take into account.'

What an outrageous statement. Would Prof Crow award a gold medal to an athlete who set off on the marathon an hour before the starting gun?

No wonder Mr Anschutz's competitors are crying 'fix!' Before it has even begun, the entire public consultation process is looking like a cynical sham.

But even that is not the end of it. Today we learn AEG has been forced to apologise to the Reverend Malcolm Torry, of the Greenwich Peninsular Chaplaincy, for concocting a document under his address, favourable in tone to the casino project - and then forwarding it to the Culture Department as if it had been written by the chaplain himself.

'Much of the document has been simply made up,' says Mr Torry, accusing AEG of a 'serious breach of trust'.

What a great deal the sorry saga of the Dome tells us about this Government's descent into moral bankruptcy: developed as a grandiose celebration of New Labour's 'Cool Britannia'; then piously justified as a project to regenerate a run-down area; now the focus of a squalid scramble to bring big-time gambling to the vulnerable.

Instead of giving Mr Anschutz a head start in the race, isn't there a growing case for disqualifying him altogether - whether or not he happens to be a friend of the preposterous Prezza?

Pat for the postman

Postman roger Annies thought he was doing a public service by telling residents on his round how to avoid receiving unaddressed junk mail. He was right.

Isn't unsolicited advertising material one of the major irritants of modern life?

But his bosses at the Royal Mail - which makes a fortune from unwanted post - don't see it like that.

When Mr Annies distributed his own leaflets, explaining how his customers could opt out of the mailshots, he was promptly suspended.

Now, after ten years as a postman, he is facing the sack.

But Mr Annies can already claim the last laugh on his heavy-handed bosses. His inexcusable suspension has drawn nationwide attention to the fact that any of us can sign up to the opt-out scheme.

Apply to the Post Office for details