Clearing up Hastings the Following Morning...

This morning, you'd expect the Pram Race would have left more debris, the worst cause now is the Herring Gull, our perpetual litterlout. Taken before Paul, our intrepid street cleaner, had even started on George Street, just after 06.00, so it was reasonably well cleared up after the pubs shut last night, and many £££s were raised for charity, nice one Hastings!

And what about the forecast trouble? Well, no doubt the Police handling and preparation, not to mention catching, charging and prosecuting rioters, and some already in prison, has made a big impact. So my thanks to local dignitaries, the Police and Courts is well deserved, the organs of State are now well prepared. But I also believe the good people of Hastings, East Sussex, and around the country made an impact too. Hundreds, thousands in some places, turning up to protect our town centres and local people, and to stand against violence. Indeed, in Brighton the handful of thugs present were hiding behind the Police they'd been battering elsewhere, and were happy to seek an exit in Police buses, which they've been setting on fire elsewhere! As you can see above, squeaky clean in Hastings Cambridge Road at 06.00 this morning.

And this image shows that many decent Hastings folk turned up, not the "busload of muslims" I was told by someone yesterday were coming (not necessarily a concern), but ordinary local people; I told him he shouldn't believe everything he hears in Wetherspoons! And this morning someone told me that hundreds of Palestinians were there last night, can anyone else see the hundreds of Palestinian flags she said were present? No, I can't either, I told her to not believe everything she hears or reads on the internet, as Socrates once wrote, "Don't believe everything you see on the internet." Indeed, the anti-hate counter movement followers, the Defenders of Hastings, shall we call them, stretched back to where the Post Office used to be; I know the Police asked people not to turn up, but well done fellow Hastings citizens, respect!

Nightstop Sussex

I heard about this on the radio Tuesday night, a service I was unaware of... Nightstop UK believes that "no young person should be homeless or have to sleep in an unsafe place" (website). The chap who was being interviewed explained how his family, and over 600 other volunteer homes countrywide, provide emergency safe homes for young people to stay short-term, having received appropriate training and vetting. 

I went on to look at the Nightstop Sussex page, where they include young people (16-25) and adults too (26+), however, the nearest place to Hastings is in Brighton, so not quite local, but worth knowing about all the same. Anyway, if you know of anyone requiring help, this could be well worth looking into. 

The Ragnar Relay gets to Hastings and beyond...

Ragnar Relay? What is this? Well. a Ragnar Relay arrived in Hastings, or should I say, many relay teams arrived in Hastings today, and left again for Bexhill! So, what is this about? Well, the event started as an overnight 24+ hour 188 miles relay race (each race 200 miles, give or take) across the mountains of Utah, USA, in 2004, and mostly these races are held in the USA (see website). However, this year, although many of the teams do come from the USA, there has been a Maidstone - Dover - Brighton event, which was also in aid of cancer research (website).

Support Vehicle

Much of the running is done in the dark, thankfully for the runners in this race, in Kent, before coming to the beauty of the Sussex coast 😉 and the following leg was from Hastings to Bexhill, a relatively easy leg! I trust the runners could appreciate this part of the race and the gentle seafront promenade during their 200 miles...

Nice one, well done the competitors and their support!