There still may be time. According to the BBC, the decision to confirm the licensing of 16 regional casinos has been taken. But the announcement has not been made.

Abandoning the scheme now would attract - though not justify - the tired old accusation of dithering. But that would be far less damaging to ministers' reputations than an admission that they propose to promote gambling. Once it was agreed that advertising restrictions would be relaxed, to enable the roulette and blackjack moguls to tout their trade, the Government ceased to be neutral. Unless the whole tawdry idea is abandoned, slot machines - no less than full employment and comprehensive education - become Labour policy.

When it became clear that the Manchester “mega-casino” would never be built, it seemed that Gordon Brown was sending a signal that the worst feature of Blairism - the worship of money and material success - had been repudiated. I cannot believe that the son of the manse who is now Prime Minister feels anything but distaste for the view of life represented by the picture of Tessa Jowell promoting the Government's gambling policy by pretending - appropriately enough - to shoot crap. Nor can he possibly discount the social problems that casinos cause.

To make casinos profitable, new gamblers have to be attracted to their tables. It will be gullible local citizens from Wolverhampton and Hull, not Hong Kong millionaires and the Las Vegas super-rich, whose money the casino owners take home. The Government knows it. That is why it attempts to obscure its shame by introducing “safeguards” that objective observers agree will be largely ineffective. At a time when the Home Office proposes another “crackdown on serious crime”, the casinos would undoubtedly attract an international army of undesirables.

And who would benefit? Not the citizens of Sutton Coldfield, Bath, Dumfries or any of the other chosen locations. Only the gambling tycoons have anything to gain. Does Mr Brown really want to be on their side? When he vetoed Manchester, the Prime Minister said that “there must be a better way of reinvigorating the inner cities”. That sounded like a return to the belief that human progress is not solely dependent on the profit motive.

He is right to reassert Labour's support for private enterprise and independent initiative. But there must be a better way of making that point than licensing casinos. And there is certainly a better way of demonstrating what the Prime Minister really stands for - the principles we know he holds but, for some reason, is reluctant to proclaim.

Lord Hattersley was deputy leader of the Labour Party 1983-92

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