VIVA LAS VEGAS

It looks like the plan to build Gran Scala with all its casinos and hotels in the Monegros Desert, the only desert in Europe, will go ahead as planned. It's the usual story and opinions are mixed. If you have ever been there you will know there is nothing, just desert and any fauna and flora most people don't give a shit about anyway, they just pretend they do or there are about three who might protest. It was the same when they did up the small village of Panticosa and took away a delightful old casino and cafe and put a lovely new one but with less of the charm. Some friends complained and said the hotel was expensive and they could never stay there. I asked them how often they went before when it was cheap and the baths and spas were falling apart at the seams like most old buildings here and the answer was hardly ever but now it was for 'pijos' or rich people with no soul. The villagers in the area where Gran Scala will be built are chomping at the bit to sell their land or hiding away and refusing to comment. There is fear of the mafia although which one I am not sure. Drugs and prostitution are another worry but again, nobody seems concerned with the whorehouses that litter the motorways or the way prostitutes are treated here. Drugs are rife in this small town and every weekend for the past seven years I watch drug deals and drug taking along my street. My favourite was the boy who pissed over someone's car bonnet while his girlfriend snorted cocaine off the back of the car which was covered in pigeon shit. So bring it on in Aragon! Nobody will protest least of all me as even sitting down with a bag over my head I find myself muttering 'I've seen it all before'. Where to go though as it follows you?

Then I read there is going to be some other park built in Sabinanigo. I was asking myself the question that what with the crisis and all, 'what is Spain for?' It used to be cheap holidays and a place to escape to if you were a villain or fed up with your own country. Maybe like the Royal family it should be, the whole country, turned into one giant theme park.

I watch with dismay. I remember I felt I was the only person who thought Tony Blair was some kind of sociopath with everyone around me disagreeing and for quite a while Gordon Brown has struck me as a major manic depressive with probable bouts of genius, aggression, fantastic ideas and solutions. Great if you can get up just before twelve, scrape a living and have a few friends who will listen to these ideas but not so if you are either running the country or managing its finances. The man's a raving nutter and should retire to Spain.