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Can Ukip conquer this stronghold of nightingales and Labour? Can Ukip conquer this stronghold of nightingales and Labour?
(2 days later)
It’s hard to have a bad time on a Sunday afternoon stroll round Rochester. But Mark Reckless and Nigel Farage managed it. Their itinerary was sound enough – pint in a pub, pose for pictures outside the spectacular castle-and-cathedral combo. Yet the local MP and the Ukip leader met such an uncharacteristically frosty welcome last weekend (“beer-swigging racists!”), they cut their constitutional short.It’s hard to have a bad time on a Sunday afternoon stroll round Rochester. But Mark Reckless and Nigel Farage managed it. Their itinerary was sound enough – pint in a pub, pose for pictures outside the spectacular castle-and-cathedral combo. Yet the local MP and the Ukip leader met such an uncharacteristically frosty welcome last weekend (“beer-swigging racists!”), they cut their constitutional short.
Still, it’s not the cathedral city or surrounding villages that hold the key to that byelection. Their voters will likely have already decided whether to betray their ancestral party. It’s across the Medway, in less photogenic Strood, where the Kippers must hoover up votes that may have been Labour. That’s where I was on Sunday afternoon, on account of family there and it being a lovely, scruffy, fascinating place of great friendliness and solidarity, despite myriad pressures – pressures exerted by Westminster cuts and local decisions.Still, it’s not the cathedral city or surrounding villages that hold the key to that byelection. Their voters will likely have already decided whether to betray their ancestral party. It’s across the Medway, in less photogenic Strood, where the Kippers must hoover up votes that may have been Labour. That’s where I was on Sunday afternoon, on account of family there and it being a lovely, scruffy, fascinating place of great friendliness and solidarity, despite myriad pressures – pressures exerted by Westminster cuts and local decisions.
No one I talked to seemed especially het up about immigrants, or even Europe. Reckless’s defection seemed indicative of a lack of engagement with local concerns. Strood is home to 34,000 people, 96% white, and 39% with no qualifications. Only 11% went further than A-levels. This is not leafy Surrey or hectoring Berkshire. The locals (average annual income: £23,000) don’t have the letter-writing sense of entitlement of the home counties. This makes Strood’s scarce public spaces an easy target for council-encouraged developers. No one I talked to seemed especially het up about immigrants, or even Europe. Reckless’s defection seemed indicative of a lack of engagement with local concerns. Strood is home to 34,000 people, 96% white, and 39% with no qualifications. Only 11% went further than A-levels. This is not leafy Surrey or hectoring Berkshire. The locals (average annual income: £23,000) don’t have the letter-writing sense of entitlement of the home counties. This makes Strood’s scarce public spaces an easy target for council-encouraged developers.
The prospect of Boris’s estuary airport may have faded, but Lodge Hill – the country’s top site for nightingales – is still threatened, despite its protected status. The biggest early medieval barn in the country sits on a cliff overlooking the Medway, railings round it, beams crumbling within. Alongside is a wildlife-rich disused chalk quarry fated to be stuffed with industrial landfill. When locals do protest, they don’t get far anyway. Many marched in vain against the downsizing of the purpose-built Strood library into premises then occupied by the Strood Community Project (food bank, job club, advice centre). It’s a move partly funded by Medway council diverting £2m from the housing budget. Some 20,000 people are currently on its social housing register.The prospect of Boris’s estuary airport may have faded, but Lodge Hill – the country’s top site for nightingales – is still threatened, despite its protected status. The biggest early medieval barn in the country sits on a cliff overlooking the Medway, railings round it, beams crumbling within. Alongside is a wildlife-rich disused chalk quarry fated to be stuffed with industrial landfill. When locals do protest, they don’t get far anyway. Many marched in vain against the downsizing of the purpose-built Strood library into premises then occupied by the Strood Community Project (food bank, job club, advice centre). It’s a move partly funded by Medway council diverting £2m from the housing budget. Some 20,000 people are currently on its social housing register.
Reckless is correct to gauge a restlessness among his former constituents. But he’s wrong to try to scapegoat outsiders. The people of Strood have been let down by those much closer to home.Reckless is correct to gauge a restlessness among his former constituents. But he’s wrong to try to scapegoat outsiders. The people of Strood have been let down by those much closer to home.
Short memories in RamsgateShort memories in Ramsgate
I first properly clocked Ukip a decade ago, eye caught by some striking branded towelling dressing gowns in the window of their Ramsgate shop. That’s where my family are from originally, and it’s another Ukip target, accounting for two-thirds of the population of Farage’s target constituency, South Thanet.I first properly clocked Ukip a decade ago, eye caught by some striking branded towelling dressing gowns in the window of their Ramsgate shop. That’s where my family are from originally, and it’s another Ukip target, accounting for two-thirds of the population of Farage’s target constituency, South Thanet.
Strood and Ramsgate aren’t superficially so different. But a good result for Ukip in Thanet would be more explicable – if it weren’t for its history. Later this month marks the 140th anniversary of the birth of Moses Montefiore, the great Jewish benefactor who built Bevis Marks synagogue in London before decamping for his last 50 years to Ramsgate, where he lavished cash on the town (and his wife, Judith, published the first English-language Jewish cookbook). Today you can come off the prom and into the grounds of their house, now a public park; and from there into a town whose buildings still bear the legacy of his investment. That Ukip’s best hope is a place that prospered through the generosity of an incomer may be worth remembering. Strood and Ramsgate aren’t superficially so different. But a good result for Ukip in Thanet would be more explicable – if it weren’t for its history. Later this month marks the 140th anniversary of the birth of Moses Montefiore, the great Jewish benefactor who was a leading member of the congregation at Bevis Marks synagogue in London before decamping for his last 50 years to Ramsgate, where he lavished cash on the town (and his wife, Judith, published the first English-language Jewish cookbook). Today you can come off the prom and into the grounds of their house, now a public park; and from there into a town whose buildings still bear the legacy of his investment. That Ukip’s best hope is a place that prospered through the generosity of an incomer may be worth remembering.
Choosing sides at Gone GirlChoosing sides at Gone Girl
Team Nick or Team Amy? If you’ve read Gillian Flynn’s bestseller, this should not be a serious question. Yet many people seem to persist in blaming societal constructs for bunny-boiling vitriol, to identify with people whose monstrous actions are, they claim, just symptomatic of the ways in which we try to force people into boxes. Read the novel, or watch David Fincher’s movie version, out this Friday. Both are brilliant, slick, trashy entertainment. Do you really still want to pick a team? Then I’m not playing.Team Nick or Team Amy? If you’ve read Gillian Flynn’s bestseller, this should not be a serious question. Yet many people seem to persist in blaming societal constructs for bunny-boiling vitriol, to identify with people whose monstrous actions are, they claim, just symptomatic of the ways in which we try to force people into boxes. Read the novel, or watch David Fincher’s movie version, out this Friday. Both are brilliant, slick, trashy entertainment. Do you really still want to pick a team? Then I’m not playing.
• This article was amended on 2 October 2014. An earlier version said incorrectly that Moses Montefiore had built Bevis Marks synagogue in London.