Gordon Brown yesterday tore up Blairite plans for a supercasino based in Manchester, breaking with his predecessor and reasserting Labour's moral stance in the face of the Conservative focus on family values and the "broken society".
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Yesterday it became clear that Mr Brown intends to drop the largest venue, while proceeding with the other 16. He has never been an enthusiast for gambling and raised the top rate of gaming duty to 50% in the budget...
But the timing of Mr Brown's remarks raised eyebrows in Westminster. His spokesman said the prime minister had not discussed it with the cabinet, but had agreed a position with the new culture secretary, James Purnell...
Whitehall sources said there was virtually no prospect of the regional casino going ahead.
What happened to the new regime of cabinet government? And is this the new way of making government announcements - to slip them out in a response to a government backbencher during Prime Minister's Questions?
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