The Apprentice effect - Holiday bookings up

Least that is probably the likely effect for those who endured last nights Apprentice and before anything else I reckon Mona was robbed.

Just imagine you’ve not been to Margate for while or ever, looking at last nights episode of the Apprentice, the chances are, you’d rather consider selling a kidney and having in a week in Magaluf, than a day trip to Margate as portrayed last night.

Still its not easy to promote Margate at the moment for reasons we all know Turner Contemporary would have been opened this summer but for Kent Council’s crazy choice to build a gallery in the north sea, Sandy “culture” Ezekiel council’s condemning the local museums to the pages of history.

I foolishly rang BBC Radio Kent’s, John Warnett & Julia George, to give my opinions on the Margate makeover, as you might expect I managed to come up with some hardcore waffle, and was getting pretty pleased with myself with some easy questioning from John Warnett and had a near panic attack when put on the spot by Julia George with her question about selling Margate to her and suggesting what is there for a couple in their mid thirties with a toddler.

Lets be honest what is there for a young family after the beaches, I suppose theirs the a couple of above average parks Northdown and Dane Park plus the new quarter million play area on the Cliff probably about as much entertainment as a toddler needs.

Anyhow if you still feel strong enough to endure another cringe making opinion, listen to my earlier radio effort.

Crikey! How would “the Apprentice” promote Margate

Well we’ve already had the story in the papers and every other blog telling us about the BBC’s Apprentice show, which focuses on Margate tonight, and since I have Margate in the title of my blog I ought to comment.

In common others, I’m prepared to cringe at whatever comes our way, surely they couldn't do worse than our Sandy, his cohorts, the bankrupt Waterbridge company (Dreamland), the arts council, Seeda and not least KCC who managed to **** up the Turner Contemporary by choosing to build a gallery in the sea (a worlds first) rather than on the land which was how the other hundred odd architects' read the brief.

This week’s Thanet Times, itself in need of a bit of promotion, judging by the shrinking size, gives us a fairly comprehensive report from Thom Morris, apparently the two teams are assessed by some local worthies including Derek Harding who has some good ideas himself, Victoria Pomery who seems to know a bit about “Selling culture to Margate” click here also Phil Thorley (pubs), Sarah Vickery (Grotto), Jayne Bishop Hotel/Museum, Brian Sullivan Mayor, Thomas Reeves (flowers).

Still as an avid fan of the Apprentice shows, I think it unlikely there will be any inspirational ideas, from the pre-publicity, the best you might hope for is a well worked cliché one option I understand is pretty much the bulk standard bucket and spade family angle, the other slightly more inventive, is to market Margate as a niche product for gays, a sort of weird retro idea which would have been brilliant in the 1970’s when mainstream society was adjusting to the fact that being gay wasn’t actually anything other than something you are or aren’t.

Still more interesting than anything to do with Margate will be how the BBC edit the row which we were told was quite heated when idea of a gay resort was originally by Howard Ebison mooted, click here for earlier post.

The way I see Margate is that although spiv developers and arsonists have done their best to drag Margate down, there are still assets and things to promote Margate, not least its historic assets the Old Town, the Theatre Royal, Tudor House, Harbour Arm shortly the Turner Contemporary and even another worlds first, Dreamland, reincarnated as a theme park Museum (probably run by office wallahs who will put on a cloth cap and a boiler suit at the weekends to restore ancient fair ground rides)