Thanet District

No, so before I started, um, in the police itself, I went out on, um, a, a day where I was just allowed to go out in a job car with, um, with a copper, you know, out on patrol.

Um, and I was just 18, and I can remember it was a car chase, right, around the streets of Thanet that lasted, I shit you not, about an hour and a half, honestly.

And it just, it was like it was doing loops.

So Thanet is where I live, Margate, Broadstairs, Ramsgate, and the villages, and it was like it was doing a loop of, um, of Thanet.

And I was like, "This is the best thing ever." Like, "Oh my God, this must happen every single day." Spoiler, it doesn't happen every single day.

Like, everyone at the end of that chase was absolutely buzzing, all the coppers involved.

So he was immediately obviously therefore treated as a high-risk misper as well as being wanted for the offenses.

Um, and his car pinged ANPR.

surprisedOr, or White House talking points these days.

I mean, I think one of the stories of the week is D- Donald Trump's disgraceful position on Russia, and in the debate in the Commons, Sir Roger Gale, uh, MP for Thanet, an area that, uh, is, is fertile Reform territory, called him a traitor and asked for Burnham to denounce him.

I think the, uh, the fuel deal, uh, and the, uh, the announcement of a ceasefire that Russia [chuckles] very quickly ignored, um, shows that Trump is, is, is no longer very interested in defending Ukraine.

And for all Burnham's talk about, uh, supporting Zelensky, he met him today, um, I, I think actually it's clear America is not on that side.

Last weekend...

I went over to the Thanet, and while I was over there, I filled up my car, and it was 11 pence a litre cheaper at the Tesco store in Thanet than it is the Tesco store in Dover.

How do Tescos justify an 11 pence a litre difference when really Dover and Thanet are basically equidistant to the delivery lorry?

The only justification I can think of is that the rent that Tesco have to pay on their site in Dover would be much higher than the one in Thanet.

Right, OK.

And you see, that's why if you go into an M&S food store in, say, Paddock Wood, near where I live, you'll pay £2.70 for a punnet of strawberries.

That same punnet of strawberries in M&S in Charing Cross Station will cost you £3.20. I'm making these sums up, but there's always a difference depending on the site because there are higher overheads if you rent a shop in London than there would be in Paddock Wood.

Right, okay.

Yeah, so she was really actively involved in trade u- trade unionist movement.

Uh, so after moving to Broadstairs in, uh, 1949, she became a member for many years of the Thanet Trades Council.

Um, in 1956, she was knocked down by a police horse during a mass lobby of Parliament over sewers, so really, really actively involved in, you know, lots of political moments.

Um, in the 1950s and 60s, she was involved in the Ban the Bomb campaign for peace and nuclear disarmament, um, and she flew to Paris in 1964 as part of the National Council for Nuclear Disarmament.

Um, and then in 1975, she was elected as a delegate to the Co-operative Congress, um, which was reported in the East Kent Times and Mail, um, and she was a member of the Broadstairs and then the Ramsgate Co-operative Women's Guilds.

Um, she was a founding member of the Committee of 100 against poll tax, um, so it organized a group in Thanet to campaign against the tax and resolutely refused to pay it.

Um, and then in her 70s, she took part in the Days of Support for the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp.

So this is, like-

It's, it's not Bill Clinton playing the saxophone, is it?

That, that might be her most dangerous, uh, social media post since she went to Thanet and posted that picture of that house covered in, uh, St George's Cross flags.

[laughs]

And said, "The view from Thanet." You know, looking down on the working classes, which of course is what middle class Labor does these days, right, Candice?

[singing] 100%.

I, I can't help but think that whoever the brand ambassador for-

But yeah, that's really important that we have both of those.

And I think one thing that I have identified though, which is a massive, I think, issue across Thanet actually, As I said, we're very much run by volunteers.

And I've become increasingly aware that...

We are, as a volunteer-led population in Thanet, an ageing volunteer population.

Yeah.

And that really concerns me because going forward, I think, you know, who's going to replace me and who's going to replace all these volunteers to keep these events running for free and give their time? Because

I

think

The Ingoldsby Legends, Second Series by Richard Harris Barham.

It is to my excellent and erudite friend Simkinson that I am indebted for his graphic description of the well-known chalk pit between Akol and Minster in the Isle of Thanet, known by the name of the Smuggler's Leap.

The substance of the true history attached to it he picked up while visiting that admirable institution, the sea-bathing infirmary, of which he is a life governor, and enjoying his ossium cum dignitate last summer at the least aristocratic of all possible watering places.

Before I proceed to detail it, however, I cannot in conscience fail to bespeak for him the reader's sympathy in one of his own misadventures at Margate, a legend of Jarvis's Jetty.

The Ingoldsby Legends, Second Series by Richard Harris Barham.

And now for his legend, which, if the facts took place rather beyond the memory of the oldest inhabitant, are yet well known to have occurred in the neighborhood once on a time, and the scene of them will be readily pointed out by any one of the 50 intelligent fly-drivers who ply upon the pier and who will convey you safely to the spot for a guerdon which they term three bob.

The Smuggler's Leap, A Legend of Thanet.

Near this hamlet, Acole, is a long-disused chalk pit of formidable depth known by the name of The Smuggler's Leap.