Lonely planet guide
- 21 May 2009 12:3521737I thought that someone would have picked up on the story re:the sorry state of dover in the above mentioned guide.Are they right or wrong? Your views please. Personally I think that they have got it right.
- 21 May 2009 13:0821738Hi Phil,
With a very heavy heart I believe Lonely Planet have got it right too.
Dover town in 2009 is a living (well, just) embodiment of terrible town planning, inertia, petty politicking, amateurism and parochialism.
Such a terrible shame when you look at the huge potential, our unique position plus the historical and cultural riches etc at our disposal. Half the time, thinking about what's slipped through our fingers over the years and what continues to, it makes me too depressed to get angry.
Wake up Dover! - 21 May 2009 18:2621753i thought that they let us off lightly.
their report on our country was pretty damning. - 21 May 2009 18:4121755Links, anyone? I would like to see this.
I am glad if they have torn into this sleepwalking country. I am convinced we are so far gone socially and culturally that we need outsiders to show us who we are and tell us how we are going wrong. One of the disadvantages of being an island is perhaps the lack of reference points and ready comparison with other cultures, so that we are unaware of our own idiosyncracies. And perhaps lack ready access to models of how to get it right.
For example, France is an example of a better balance of tolerance and integration with a healthy sense of identity and cultural self assertion. The English seem to think anything less than bleak, vacuous national self-negation represents a form of racism and await the fate their ludicrous spinelessness deserves. - Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
21 May 2009 19:3821763try the hitch hikers guide to the galaxy much more dover friendly. - 21 May 2009 19:4621766andrew
there is a link on another thread by the other andrew on the same subject. - 22 May 2009 07:0921789And that's the one I've replied to.
I've also commented on the web-link provided.
If you keep talking Dover down (unfairly in my view), how the hell do you expect it to rise ?
Roger - Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
22 May 2009 07:1221791like a phonix rising from ashes. - 22 May 2009 08:0421796Dover Athletic supporters are discussing this article and the Lonely Planet assessment of the town on their Dovorian forum - http://www.dovorian.co.uk
http://www.dovorian.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=8884&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
Some very insightful and thoughtful views. But there again, as a fellow believer, I'm not surprised: in 2009 Crabble is Dover's cathedral, the true beating heart of the Dovorian.
PS: And by the way, Andy Stucken hit the nail right on the head once again in his posting above. Especially when you look at France. Take Boulogne for instance...my God, it was going through a down at heel phase until very recently (after the loss of the ferries in the '90s). But now: wow! Vibrant and commercially booming, with a contagious and tangible civic pride. The powers-that-be there are really working imaginatively for the town.
Makes me proud to be part Boulonnais. Meanwhile in blighted Blighty, we fester, bicker and flounder. - 22 May 2009 19:1121837on the bbc local programme earlier they had two people rattling on how good dover was.
one was the manager at walletts court hotel another from the bay trust.
pics of st magarets in the background.