It is quite possible that a super casino has been lost, not just for Manchester, but Blackpool too. Jim Hancock.

I reach that conclusion partly because of the tactics of that reckless gambler, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell. But she may soon be history. No, the real threat to anywhere in the North West securing this prize, comes from the Man From the Manse. Gordon Brown was raised on the stern values of the Kirk. It’s reported he doesn’t share the worldlier Tony Blair’s enthusiasm for casinos.

The Commons debate largely focused on whether Manchester or Blackpool should get the super casino. But more significantly, many peers reopened the whole question of whether gambling was a good way to regenerate areas with a high level of social problems.

With her green visor on and head down, Tessa Jowell insists she will be back with fresh proposals. They don’t have clocks in many casinos, but there are plenty on the walls in Whitehall and they are all ticking down on Tony Blair’s time in office and, I venture to suggest, on Ms Jowell’s too.

This is a second (or even third) order issue for government at the best of times. The policy of allowing a big increase in casinos was in no manifesto, was in response to no public demand. It has been a long, drawn out and embarrassing shambles for the Government. I will be surprised if a new plan emerges for a number of reasons.

The local elections are coming up, then the whole government policy making machinery will come to a halt waiting for a new Prime Minister. If, as seems likely, it is Gordon Brown, I have severe doubts if he will give the spread of gambling any priority at all. After all, he has just slapped a £100 million tax on the industry in the budget.

So where does that leave us here in the North West?

Manchester will feel bruised as it did over the BBC decision to choose Salford for its new developments. But it is leading a city-region economy that has become the model on which the Government is shaping its thoughts for future regeneration structures.

For Blackpool, the position is more problematic, and a wider question is posed. Can Central Lancashire provide a powerful economic counterweight to the arc of prosperity that is developing to its south in Manchester and North Cheshire?

Sir Howard Bernstein, the Chief Executive of Manchester City Council, firmly believes that cities are the real drivers of a region’s prosperity. He is wary of spreading the available regeneration butter too thinly.

But it is likely that city regions are going to be the favoured structure for delivering economic regeneration. Therefore it is vital that a central Lancashire city region gets its act together to provide a ribbon of prosperity along the M55-M65 corridor. Blackpool needs to get behind Doug Garrett, the inspirational leader of the resort’s regeneration company ReBlackpool, to prove there’s more to life than a roulette wheel.

At the other end of the corridor, East Lancashire is showing signs of revival, but the main focus will be on Blackburn and Preston. The old rivals need to work together. Blackburn is an all purpose council, Preston has again just been denied a similar status.

But five years ago Preston was made a city. Has that brought it the confidence to look other cities like Liverpool and Manchester in the eye?

One man who thinks not is Frank McKenna. He was once a major political figure in Preston as deputy leader of Lancashire County Council.

He now heads up Downtown Liverpool In Business. McKenna has just launched Downtown Preston In Business because he says there is a frustration within the business community that nothing has happened since the ink dried on the new city’s charter.

That view would be contested by the council which is determined to be the centre of a third city region in the North West. More power to all their elbows, I say. It is essential that jobs and prosperity come to the whole of the North West, but that will only happen if our other city regions in Lancashire and on Merseyside show the same determination to succeed that has so far brought so many winning chips to Manchester – the super casino excepted.

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