Bloody Mary

So Margate near me is one of the most deprived towns in the UK with one of the highest level of empty shops (34%). Everyone in the town was very excited to have been chosen as the beneficiary of £100,000 of government funding for regeneration together with Mary Portas' advice on regenerating the town.

 But now it turns out there is a massive catch - unless the retailers agree to appear on a reality show, they won't get the money and Portas will choose a different town.


http://www.retail-week.com/property...rticle?blocktitle=Most-commented&contentID=-1


http://margateneverruns.com/post/24976748215/mary-portas-talks-to-margate

urban 75, UK politics current affairs and news forum

I will just try and give my vision, try and give little in-roads, try and get some of the big players who I know, try and use my big mouth, try and use my contacts, I’ll try and use everything, but one thing I will not do is: I won’t trip you up, and believe that from me. So we either let the cameras in with me, or I go back on the train and some other town gets it.

Mary Portas (link to YouTube recording of her speech here)

If we help to rebuild your community, we own you, so dance for us, peasants!

In times gone by, the comfortably-off could entertain themselves by being let into the Bedlam asylum to giggle at the antics of the mentally ill, or gawp at the hilarious specatacle of desperate Thames mudlarks scrambling after a tossed coin. We've now progressed to the stage where we can enjoy the spectacle of desperate small business people being forced to participate in some trashy reality TV show without even having to move our bottoms off the sofa.

Shopworkers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your dignity!