Gove's latest gaffe

Lord Michael Gove is infamous for his comment, 'I think this country has had enough of experts.'  Arguably the experts weren't so wrong about the economic costs of Brexit.

Yet the editorial in the latest Spectator refers to 'the dreary beachfronts of Jaywick and Frinton.'

Jaywick is admittedly the most economically and socially deprived location in England.  Yet Frinton always thought of itself as rather exclusive, perhaps less so these days.    There is now a fish and chip shop there which was banned for a long time.

Back in the 1950s, Frinton was a favourite destination for a summer day out, even more so when we moved to Essex.   There was just one road into the town controlled by a level crossing.

The front road leads on to the Greensward.   Admittedly, the predominantly Edwardian and inter war developments were marred by the construction of some off plan tower blocks in the 1960s.

The sandy beach was patrolled by 'beach inspectors' to ensure that there was no impropriety.   Our day always finished with a walk into Walton on the Naze where the pier offered traditional entertaiments.

Some years ago I took two of my then 18 year old granddaughers with the mum of one of them to stay in Walton.  They were thrilled to see the flat roofed Art Deco houses in one part of Frinton.

I had great difficulty in finding a local restaurant that would meet the up market tastes of my eldest granddaughter anywhere in Nigel Farage's constituency.  Eventually I located one in Frinton.

It was rather crowded and I was puzzled by the next door table constantly referring to 'going out'.  I thought this perhaps referred to the old slogan 'Harwich for the continent, Frinton for the incontinent.'

In fact they were talking about Brexit.

I visit Brexit Central

The pier at Walton-on-the-Naze is the second longest in England. It has traditional rides and amusements.

The Clacton constituency is the only one to have returned a UKIP MP in a general election. The Tendring local authority area voted 74 per cent Brexit in the referendum. The largest party on Frinton and Walton local council is the Tendring First party: they also obtained a respectable vote in the county council elections. They originated in a split among local Conservatives, but are concerned about domination by the county council in Chelmsford: Tendring First

I used to know Essex fairly well as I went to secondary school in Chelmsford. However, this was my first visit to the area since I collected fossils from the cliffs at Walton-on-the-Naze during an October half term holiday in 1963. Walton, by the way, is the driest spot in England and if the evaporation rate was higher, the countryside would be desert. As it is, it presents farmers with challenges.

On the end of Walton Pier

It is no longer possible to take a miniature train to end of Walton Pier, but we walked out there where we met a very friendly fisherman from Chelmsford. Indeed, I have to say that everyone we encountered was very friendly. I am, of course, a white elderly male so the assumption would be that I am on the same page. I don't have an Estuary accent, though. By the way the old Essex rural dialect seems to have finally disappeared. (For a treatment of this subject, see the book by my old school friend Richard Thomas which actually sold quite well despite its current price on Amazon: Larn Yarsel)

We had dinner on Saturday evening in Frinton which is not quite as genteel and exclusive as it used to be (no longer any beach inspectors enforcing public decency), but still has some amazing houses from the Edwardian period and the 1930s. The big tower blocks facing the Greensward do spoil the overall effect. The lines of beach huts are still there, but some of them have recently been vandalised. Radio Caroline is no longer offshore, but I was able to buy a book about it at the Walton Carnival fete after I had managed to rouse the two stallholders from their slumbers.

The tables were rather close and one could not help but overhear a conversation between two elderly gentlemen (with their partners) about 'going outside'. It turned out this did not mean that their disagreement was going to be settled in a manly fashion, but it was a euphemism for Brexit.

On our way home on Monday we went to a factory outlet on the outskirts of Clacton. I went into the M & S outlet to buy clothes that would cost me two to three times as much in Leamington. The three other family members went to a shop where they were told that everyone on the site was exceptionally friendly with the exception of the M & S staff who were 'stuck up' and thought themselves 'a cut above everyone else'.

Quite how the people of Tendring will react to the possible consequences of the Labour U-turn on Brexit remains to be seen. It was interesting that when the BBC sought reactions to the Government's leaked migration paper they went to Clacton.