please empty your brain below

When I was a child we took our Summer Holidays at Ramsgate and I always looked forward to a ride on the miniature railway to Dumpton Park, I went back to visit Ramsgate a couple of years ago and was saddened to see that the Merrie England funfair had gone but after reading todays post I now know what happened to it, thank you DG.
That lot are out of order associating UKIP with racism. Is it wise to get into politics DG?
I took my own visit to Ramsgate at the end of February and, passing the same UKIP office, wondered if they'd shut the shop and given up. Not so: I later came across their current office about half a mile away. This one is mine, hopefully with a more concise link than yesterday's:- https://www.flickr.com/photos/32293736@N04/16627246396/
There seem to be three big questions. First, where will the 7,000 LD votes from the 2010 election go? Will they stay with LD? Unlikely, given Clegg's poor performance / selling out. Second, will the conservatives maintain the large swing that saw them get elected last time? Again, unlikely. And the hardest question, which is a two-parter - (i) Will LD voters from 2010 choose the Tories, Labour UKIP or one of the independents and (ii) have any of the candidates / parties managed to lure new voters? DG is hinting that they likely have not, although I've heard reports that Askew may be mobilising some. I don't know the situation well enough to say whether Farage is a racist or not, but it seems he might be perceived as one, which may draw in new young voters (a small minority may be BNP types, more are likely to be lefties) and 'minority' voters, those from groups traditionally excluded from the prevailing party ideologies. At the same time, UKIP may be luring Daily Mail readers who don't currently vote. What interests me is the general surge in independents / minor parties. In a FPTP system, this is bad news generally / historically for the left, because independents / minor parties (leaving aside the BNP and its historical precedents) have traditionally been lefties, however, the candidates in 2015 seem to be more generally split. What this signals for me is first that the UK, in the spirits of democratic renewal and what the people seem to be wanting, really should consider institutional alternatives such as mixed member constituencies, and, second, moving to a system of preferential voting. In the wash, I'm predicting a very narrow conservative win, with increased votes for UKIP. The best the left, er sorry, I meant Labour, could do would be to convince Al Murray he has made a big mistake and Nigel Askew that they'll do deals with him if elected, whilst at the same time doing leaflet drops for UKIP in the hope that they will split the vote enough to let them through the door.
Someone has made a somewhat predictable political comment (graphically) on the upper lip of the photo of the Conservative (formerly UKIP) candidate.
I spent a lot of time in Ramsgate as a kid (and did my A-Levels there) so the thought of having Farage as local MP is an awful thought. So I went down yesterday for the day to canvass for Labour. Was out knocking doors for about seven hours and it seems to be an exceptionally close race, think it felt pretty close to a three-way tie, and most locals seem to know that, there was barely a mention of a minor party all day. What was most interesting was both Labour & Conservative voters both considering whether to switch to the other to keep UKIP out - which is the problem in a three way race, with one polarising candidate, no-one knows what the sensible 'tactical' vote would be.
fascinating - I knew about the railway tunnel, but not the extra ones built in anticipation of war. Sadly, I suspect any such project now would have taken longer than the length of WW2 to get to the shovels-in-the-ground stage, but thankfully it is unlikely the need for any civil engineering project to have quite that urgency will arise in the near future

Anything to do with the history of railways in Kent gets complicated, but it is misleading to describe the Ramsgate Harbour line as a spur off the line to Ramsgate Town. They were built and operated by different companies - deadly rivals: the Kent Coast Railway (later to become part of the London Chatham & Dover Railway) and the South Eastern Railway. They operated over entirely separate routes from London - a branch at Faversham off the LCDR's Victoria - Dover main line, and a branch at Ashford off the SER's Charing Cross to Dover main line.
(the lucrative continental traffic at Dover - wealthy travellers and mail - was the original raison d'etre of both companies).
The new 1926 connection at Ramsgate was one of the first projects of the Southern Railway after it was formed by the 1923 merger. It bypassed both termini on a new surface-level alignment, running inland of the built up area. Here is a map showing the arrangements c 1923.
http://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/maps/index.php?view=ramsgate&gr=51.35884,1.41902&map=BartMap&zoom=13&layer=2&markers=51.34085,1.40559,

and after
http://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/maps/index.php?view=ramsgate&gr=51.33980,1.41632&map=NPEMap&zoom=15&layer=3&markers=51.34085,1.40559,:51.34192,1.43846,

Note that the current (through) station is actually further from the seafront than either of the earlier termini, being built roughly where the junction with the SER branch to Margate had been.
I traveled several times on the HoverCraft to France. You could get an "Express" coach service from London to Paris which used them instead of the ships for speed. Very noisy inside, and you got bounced about a lot. Any rough weather and the service did not run.
Of course there was no channel tunnel back then.
Nice that the Portsmouth to Isle of Wight hovercraft still runs, although much smaller craft.
When we stayed in Broadstairs back in the late 60s we used to enjoy a ride on the bus to Pegwell Bay to see the Viking ship and the new-fangled hovercraft.
The place on Pegwell Bay where Hengist and Horsa landed is called Ebbsfleet - now rather overshadowed by a new upstart namesake somewhat further east - from where international travel is still possible.
Great that you enjoyed Ramsgate, dg. And gave it a very good write-up.

In response to the second comment here, I would like to point out that you did not say whether UKIP is or is not racist (which would be clearly a matter of opinion, though one you could express if you wished, of course). You said that UKIP is perceived by some of its opponents to be racist: that is a matter of fact.

In correction of timbo's last comment, the new Ebbsfleet is of course further /West/ than the Ramsgate one.
Did you book to go round The Grange this time? Another alternative would be to stay there for a few days with the Landmark Trust.
Way back in the 1970's I used to take Geology students to look at those cliffs in Pegwell Bay. The nearby hoverport was active and the first sign of an approaching craft was a plume of spray which seemed to be miles out to sea and took ages to arrive.
In the other direction the view included the towers and chimney of Richborough Power Station-all gone now.
We had frequent family holidays in Broadstairs in the late 60s and early 70s, and often went to Ramsgate for a "day out". Is the Model Village still there?

dg writes: Alas, it closed in 2003.

In 1972, my girlfriend accompanied us and I proposed to her there (in Broadstairs).

My fiance (still my wife) and I then celebrated by going to Calais for the day on a hovercraft from Pegwell Bay! We used the one-day passports that were then available. I think we had to catch a very early bus and we came back quite late (possibly having to use a taxi); or it may have been the other way round (taxi there and bus back).

I agree with (another) John's earlier post about it being a very noisy and very bumpy way to travel! Fortunately for us, it was a lovely sunny, and relatively calm, day.

Memories, memories!
Pegwell Bay.
J. Caesar (silly old geezer, caught his nose in a lemon squeezer) arrived 55BC and 54BC. The more substantial invasion in 43 AD was under Claudius.
Post updated to counteract minor pedantry, thanks.
In response to Malcolms comment above, I would like to point out that no-one said DG called UKIP racist in the second comment. What it did say that the people in the picture (that lot) are out of order associating UKIP with racists - not proven.

UKIP are not just percieved by oponents as racists they are deliberatly announced as such by these opponents to discredit them - a nasty game politics.

It was also said that was it wise to get into politics? There is already people above using the comments as vehicles for party promotion.
According to local legend, Ramsgate's 'Merrie England' funfair was one of many amusement facilities and other buildings in the Thanet area which mysteriously caught fire, some surprisingly on wet winter nights, when they became an impediment to development.










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