You approach the pier at Clacton-on-Sea by passing under an elegant bridge, one which in Venice you would probably stop to admire. But this is Essex and the stonework is emblazoned with the town’s coat of arms and motto, Lux, salubritas et felicitas – light, health and happiness.
Here you can admire the turning blades of the 172-megawatt Gunfleet wind turbine array or the grey masses of distant container ships
Those familiar with this East Coast town will know that these qualities are in pretty short supply here – the constituency in which Nigel Farage hopes to be elected the next MP. Indeed, if George Orwell were chronicling Britain’s social failures today, this would be just the place to come. Clacton ranks in the country’s top 1 per cent of most deprived towns with only 51 per cent of the population deemed economically active, compared to an English average of 80 per cent.
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