A conversation the other day set me off searching the archives of the Telegraph. Back in 2002 it had the following headline

Addicts turn ‘genteel’ Tunbridge Wells into the heroin capital of Kent

Now I was once told there are real problems in Calverley Park with needles and people using it to urm ‘chill out’ at night. I was also told the millennium Clock is the cheapest place to buy dope. Maybe I’m starting to associate with the wrong people. Alas not these are mothers who are really worried about kids and the effects on the town.

Seems middle class kids have a greater exposure to drugs. Its always been that way and drugs in some schools were always seen as a small problem. But the recent decimalising of certain drugs has helped to drop the price allowing a much greater access. Seems if the risk of being caught is lower you can a) Get more people to sell b) Your legal costs are lower.

So in the present Market driven economy this means lower prices and a larger market exposure…. Great for the drug barons – not so good for the easily led. This has had a knock on effect on higher priced drugs too – they are now cheaper because they have also been seeing more trade from people stepping up a level.

So where is this all going – well good point. At the moment the Town is on a big development high – interest rates are starting to rise – brands are being hit by the net – local jobs are being removed. If or perhaps when the recession comes – are we going to be able to cope if we are still the “heroin capital of Kent”?

While researching the local libraries history I found an interesting snippet. Seems that while the rest of England was outraged by the Lolita book with laws about to be changed to protect us from such urm ‘pornography’. Our library had a copy for over 3 years which was available to all to borrow Suddenly explains a lot about how things just slip by our local council – its in our blood and a Tradition.

From the Time Life Archives:-

As the sounds of quarreling literati filled the air, Lolita continued to be freely available to the public at one place in Britain: the public library of the sedate spa town of Tunbridge Wells, which had simply ordered a copy three years ago from Paris. Nobody has tried to stop circulation of the Tunbridge Wells treasure, but there was not much of a queue for Lolita. Said the assistant librarian: “Demand has never been particularly high . . . Our top favorites at present are Doctor Zhivago, Monty’s memoirs and the life of King George VI.”

Read it in full here Lolita secret past in Tunbridge Wells Library.

You Tube has become an amazing resource on local views and campaigns across the world. I’ve been a bit low at the moment with a cold and so have been surfing to cheer me up. I came across this amazing video which in the end got featured on “Good Morning America”. Why is that amazing I hear you say – well it was about a man in Australia giving away “Free Hugs”. Yep Hugs for Free – while we give away free broadband those clever guys down under must know something we don’t.

Juan Mann – returned to Sidney and thought people were a bit down. So he decided to do something about it. He decided to spend each Monday at his local Mall (shopping centre to us) giving away Free Hugs. Now I know here schools have banned Hugs because it’s a secret form of Bullying – but that doesn’t seem to be the case in Sidney. Nope hugging is still something nice and doesn’t involve a hoody in either a good or bad way.

Well all was going well until the council got involved. They closed down the campaign, demanding that unless he had 25 million Aus Dollars Public Liability insurance he couldn’t continue. I hope Tunbridge Wells Borough Council don’t read this – may give them some ideas. Well I won’t spoil the story – it’s worth seeing the video to see what happened next.

Once you have watched the Video – have a looka round You Tube and see how the ripples have spread out 

Anke has survived the one year Bloggiversary :-0

Just in case you didn’t know – blogs have a very low success rate. No not in readership that is always on the increase – but in up keep. But perhaps like Tunbridge Wells Borough Council promises – many blogs are started with good intentions and left abandoned . So well done Anke for not being another blog stat left in the digital waste land. Keep up the good work.

Hip Hip Horay.