People assume that because Kent is in the South-East it is prosperous, but that is far from the case. During August I perchanced to visit Margate, which proclaims itself as Britain’s first seaside resort. The seafront was almost empty (yes, it was the middle of the holiday season), there was hardly a hotel in site, a third of the shops were boarded up and buildings were literally falling down because no-one would rent or buy them. The place is a ghost town. Dover and Deal are nowhere near as bad, but they can hardly be described as “vibrant”.

Kent was told that the Channel Tunnel would bring regeneration. It has certainly done something for Ashford, but the east and north of the county have been left untouched. Why so, Mr Brown?

I am wondering where the demand is for these 10,000 houses someone wants to build in the fields around Dover. The area has above average unemployment and those jobs that do get advertised tend to be for the kind of money that won’t get you a mortgage, even from a sub-prime lender.

Neither Brown nor Cameron has much to say on the matter, and no wonder. It is their parties that allowed this state of affairs to arise in the frist place.

Whatever happens to the Port of Dover, can someone please switch that tannoy off?

Hugh, are you suggesting that in these sort of marginal Tory-Labour scraps the Liberal Democrat shouldn’t bother?

It used to be like that…in the Jo Grimond era it was 6 per cent and lost deposit after lost deposit, no councillors, and the entire membership could meet in a kitchen.