We'd rather be here (From Clacton and Frinton Gazette)

We'd rather be here

12:25pm Thursday 29th January 2009

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IT’S a hard life.

It seems in Tendring we are always up against it.

The number crunchers are always putting us down.

Apparently, a third of us are overweight, one of our schools is the third worst in the country, parts of our district are the third worst in the country in economic terms. The heart attack rate in some wards is so high it’s a surprise there is anyone left standing.

To outsiders it must sometimes seem as if parts of Tendring are like some hovels from the Middle Ages where people lumber about covered in boils, eating mud.

In the words of Delia Smith, “let’s be ‘avin yer.”

This area is great and we don’t need endless skinny vanilla mocha drinking suits from the Home Counties preaching to us about how we are all doomed.

Sure, we have problems but things could be a lot worse.

We could all be living in some Northern hellhole for a start where it never stops raining.

The North has its merits, of course – one of them being that it is quite far away.

The media has a lot to answer for.

Think Essex and you get girls in big heels, corpses in a Range Rover and gangsters.

Think Yorkshire and you get gentle scenic images like All Creatures Great and Small and Heartbeat.

Even on Emmerdale the murders, plane crashes and other soap fodder take place in an idyllic village.

Who are these people trying to kid? Have they ever been to Yorkshire?

There is no sun glinting off the limestone in huge swathes of Bradford and Dewsbury and the sun setting over the roof of the Keighley Cougars stadium can’t really compete with it setting over the sea off Jaywick.

Lancashire? If you want to know about seaside deprivation visit Morecambe. You would be among the first tourists to do so for about ten years.

Apparently, however, it is getting millions of pounds of European aid pumped into it. Sounds about right. When do we get our share?

And don’t even get us started on the North East with all its canny “why aye lad” character.

Of course bits of it are nice. For example, watching the sun set over the chemical factories at Middlesbrough is always awe-inspiring.

We are, of course, only having a playful pop and the North is great, but more seriously, our part of the country has far more blessings and community spirit than can ever be reflected in mere statistics and dry reports.

Sure we have problems, but let’s never forget, Tendring is a great place – and we love it.

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