the world gone mad and Pleasurama in Ramsgate

Last time work started on Ramsgate's Pleasurama site it was pretty obvious that something strange was going on. Building was going on, but in a very strange and random way. To me it looked like steps to bend the planning laws to stop the planning consent from expiring. This time it’s totally different and looks to me like serious developers starting on a construction project.

This Ramsgate photo was taken in 1957, you may recognise the brick pillar, top right,

this picture from 2010 shows what happened when it sprouted a small tree. So what are the 1950s firemen in the black and white photo doing? You guessed – or perhaps you didn’t, they are digging through the rubble where the cliff had just collapsed to see if anyone is buried in it.

The main issue with the cliff facade behind the site is that it isn't a support structure, although it looks like one.

Good for a funfair, but not so good to live under perhaps.

A few out and about photos here is the link

I have been trying to come up with ways of getting Michael’s Bookshop, where I normally work in Ramsgate, open again. The main problem is the UK seems to have blown it, the statistics apart from excess deaths per capita are easy to manipulate, there are various articles about this, here is a link to the Financial Timesfree to read article 

I don’t think the problem is particularly the government, neither the opposition nor the media seem to have grasped the problem, which is that we have used up the time and the money that could have contained the virus. Most days there are more deaths in the UK than the rest of Europe put together.  

The key to the issue would be giving up civil liberties to save lives and the economy, here is a link to a BBC article about the situation in Taiwan 

One thing that surprised me was that the virus would live for much longer on plastic than it would on paper.

Cilip, the UK's library and information association, gives guidance on its website about the possible coronavirus risks to handling books for staff and the public.

Quoting Public Health England advice, it says “the risk of picking up a paper hardback book handled by someone with the virus is negligible after 24 hours.  A book covered in plastic has a negligible risk after 72 hours.”

We can sort of see a way forward by insisting our customers wear masks and disposable gloves, but for us to put on PPE to look through people’s books in their houses and cars is a limiting factor and not something we would be allowed to do at the moment anyway.

The biggest problem for us is that our main customers are either individuals of families visiting the bookshop as a social event, rather like people who are interested in food and drink go to various venues