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THIS year the ‘Harley Medical Group poll finds many UK adults confess that a politician's appearance influences the way they vote, and Brown comes out bottom of the pile for style.’

The countries Politicians need to worry more about how they look, as our modern age society has decided that all three could benefit from plastic surgery, especially on the bags under their eyes.

Liz Dale, director at the Harley Medical Group, commented: "With so little between the candidates, everything counts at this stage and the visual impression they convey is key. We all know experience carries a certain weight but today's results show people like a youthful face, with 43% of respondents saying this is important to them.

She later added: “Famously when Nixon and Kennedy went head to head in their presidential debate, Kennedy's tanned, boyish looks helped him win the day and ultimately the election, despite Nixon taking the debate."

With David Cameron and his wife Samantha being voted the politician and politician’s wife the public would most like to have an affair with, it comes as no surprise that in years to come politicians may start thinking about getting a personal stylist.

WITH the results out, the country is in its first hung parliament since 1974. We spoke to students at Canterbury Christ Church to see weather they voted, what they think of the results, and the thought of a future with a coalition government.

Beci Keys and Jamie Smith

MP for Canterbury Julian Brazier




No surprise after yesterday's elections

Canterbury remains a faithful region for conservatives as Julian Brazier keeps his seat in the House of Commons. The electorate in Canterbury showed once again its political preference and voted in consequence. As in all the constituencies throughout the country, in Canterbury was no time for anything else than counting votes. And, after a white night the results put Conservatives at the top, with 44.8 per cent of the votes. Liberal Democrats came second with 32.5 per cent while by now former government party, Labour are third with a share of just 16.1 per cent.

Even if Julian Brazier, MP for Canterbury since 1992 won with a secure margin, receiving an impressive number of 22,050 votes, the conservatives lost 5,4 per cent to Lib Dems' Guy Voizey who was voted by 16,000 people. Click here to see a detailed situation over Canterbury elections.

Kent map is entirely blue

The same conservative victory could be seen in all Kent. In fact, every seat in the next Parliament is now held by the Conservative Party. In Dartford, the electoral battle has been won by Gareth Johnson with over 10,000 votes. Sittingbourne and Sheppey saw the biggest swing to the Conservatives in Kent at 12.7 per cent, which had been listed as Labour's top target seat. Therefore, Tory candidate Gordon Henderson has been attributed with 50 per cent of the votes, while the Labour Angela Harrison was down by more than a half, 24.6 per cent.

The Tories also seized power from Labour in Chatham and Aylesford, where Labour's Minister for the South East Jonathan Shaw was ousted by Tory candidate Tracey Crouch in a 11.05 per cent swing to the Conservatives.
Ms Crouch said: "It shows that people desperately want change in Chatham and Aylesford and across Kent. Kent has turned entirely Conservative, so it is a good result."

Julian Brazier clashes with tuition fees in his new parliamentary term

Conservative MP for Canterbury in the last four Parliaments, Julian Brazier declared in March that he stands for the students in Canterbury, but suggested calm and balance in tackling the expected rise in tuition fees, in what meant one of the hottest topics of the electoral campaign:

MEDIA students at Canterbury Christ Church University were used to help BBC Radio Kent conduct a political experiment. The experiment was to see whether Visual performances by the candidates in the first live television debates in the UK, made more of an impact on the audience rather then what they said.

Second years Caroline Elvin, 20, Jamie Harris, 20 and Samuel Francis, 19 studying Multimedia Journalism were asked to watch the live debate whilst first years Dan, and Katie also Journalism students were asked to listen to the debate.

The trial was based on the first ever television political debate in 1960 between Richard Nixon and John F Kennedy where the outcome saw those who watched the debate support Kennedy, whilst those who listened on the radio backed Nixon.

Jamie Harris explained his involvement in the visual trial;

"It was a lot of fun actually. It was interesting to see all the changes but its important to state that we have the internet now".

To hear the outcome of BBC's experiement play the following video.

With Election day coming close we ask a few of you who you will be supporting:

WITH the football season finishing around Kent, there were still massive prizes to play for. Dover Athletic had the chance for a play-off final, whilst Herne Bay and Sevenoaks Town contested the Premier Division Cup in the Kent League.

Dover Athletic failed to gain promotion from the Blue Square South despite gaining a favourable draw in the play-offs. Dover suffered a shock defeat away to Woking in the first leg of the tie and failed to overturn the deficit with a painfully tense 0-0 draw in the second leg at the crabble. The 'Whites' pushed for a result and were unlucky to hit the woodwork four times in a one sided affair.

Dover boss Andy Hessenthaler was disappointed with the result but looked at the positives;

“I’m disappointed that we have lost in the play-offs but now we have got to go and try to win the league next season”.

So despite Dover’s disappointment in the play-offs, it has been a terrific season at the Crabble and Kent will look forward to an exciting season next time around.

The Kent League finished last week with only a few loose ends to tie up in the league, but a massive cup final between Sevenoaks Town and league runners up Herne Bay.

Pre-season favourites Faversham Town strolled to success in the League with captain and centre-back Lee Shearer, the player of the season, finishing with 15 goals.

With the Premier Division Cup still up for grabs both teams were looking for a glamorous end of the season.

In a thrilling encounter between two evenly matched teams, Herne Bay relied on a late equalliser and extra-time to lift the Premier Division Cup. Stuart King was the hero for ‘Bay’ who claimed their only silverware of the season.

King gave the away side the lead on 24 minutes, only to be cancelled out 10 minutes later by ‘Oaks’ striker Billy Shinners. Sevenoaks hat-trick hero from last week Alfred Keroma, gave the home side a shock lead with 15 minutes remaining in normal time only for King to level with eight minutes to go. Sevenoaks were further disappointed as captain Ward was shown a second yellow with seconds remaining, giving Herne Bay a clear advantage going into extra time. Match winner King, scored the winning goal just after half-time in extra-time as the pressure finally paid off.

For many it’s unsurprising that Faversham Town and Herne Bay finished the season as the top two teams in the league. Deal Town manager Derek Hares said;

“It does not surprise me that Herne Bay and Faversham finished up there, they have a strong base at their clubs and have solid support from the Chairman and the two boards”.

The preparations and friendly’s for next season will begin in August and Kent League managers are already looking towards next season. Hares added;

“It’s important that we get a good pre-season under our belts to make sure that we can keep pace in the league. We have not got the finances that other clubs like Faversham have got, so it will be hard to attract players here, but we have a fantastic squad and if we keep them altogether we can do well”.

Dover Athletic manager Andy Hessenthaler has faced disappointment for his first time as manager, with his side failing to win promotion at the first time of asking. There is constant speculation linking Hessenthaler with the Gillingham job and next season is not so certain for the Crabble club.

ORIGINALLY only two were meant to win the event but with so many showing a ‘talent for story telling’ Andrew McGuinness and Danny Rhodes, the mentors for this event, decided to pick two winners each rather then one.

Emmi Itaranta, Rebecca Seery, Chris Bennett and Denny Flowers, are the four lucky winners who will receive the one-to-one critical and professional support during 2010.

The deadline for the Competition was on 26th February 2010. Andrew McGuinness said;

“The standard of writing was generally so good that choosing the mentees for the scheme proved extremely difficult.

The Kilkenny County and Borough Councils member then said;

“We received complete short stories and opening excerpts from novellas and novels in many genres, including science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, romance, thriller, comedy and stories for children. Some writers were relatively new to writing and others were more experienced, but all showed a talent for storytelling".

He later added; “It’s uplifting to know that so many across the district are putting pen to paper and fingers to keyboards, and we wish all the writers the very best for their continued work.”

As well as the winners there were six runner up authors whose works were highly recommended. They were Matthew Carbery, Katie Jane Hogben, Tracy Kelly, Charlotte Matthews, Kaz Russell and Richard Turney.

The Scheme is funded by Canterbury City Council and managed by the Canterbury Festival, Kent’s International Arts Festival that takes place later this year.

If you want any more information on this visit the Write Directions website: http://www.write-here.net/main.cfm?objectid=16

For any more information on the Canterbury Councils Arts Festival click here: http://www.canterburyfestival.co.uk/home.asp

Christ Church University is planning to build more accommodation for its students. The massive building will be called St George’s place and will cater for 650 students in Canterbury. The university already have accommodation spots around town. Lanfranc, Parham, Pin Hill and accommodation on campus. But the new proposal will also be used to accommodate low-income families and benefit local people.

The site will be close to the university’s new library, Augustine house. If it gets planning permission, the housing will have 24- hour warden supervision and take over Netto, Planet lazer (which turns into a club at night called soap) and Bamboo Tiger are now. Mixed reactions have been felt about the university’s proposal

Amy Lodge, Manager in retail shop Office in the town said;

“Canterbury doesn’t have many night clubs, and the ones they do have are more for students. Soap is where I go weekly so it’s a shame that this will have to go just to provide more student accommodation. A real shame”.

Carly Scott, 22 also explained “I lived in Parham in my first year. It was great. It was like a village filled with student housing and was near 24 Hour Asda. This new proposal however I don’t think will be good. It’s based on a busy main road. Surely this is dangerous”.

“The only benefit to this new site is its close to the library ".

Rebecca Hunt, 20, however supports the new accommodation:

“Because of the rise in students coming to Canterbury Christ Church University, I had nowhere to live when I came here last September. The university had to go to the estate agents and rent out a house for me and others as they simply didn’t have enough accommodation. It wasn’t good because I felt very much out the loop in terms of the social side.

The new proposal to build more houses is a brilliant idea .Its needed if they want to attract prospectus students to Canterbury.”

Another site where accommodation will be built is Rhodaus town, on the site of the Robins and day Peugeot garage. 449 student rooms will be built here along with shops.

The university has grown since 13 years ago where one campus catered for 5,000 students.

Lee Soden, director of Facilities management said;

"This is about responding to the fact that we will need to improve the quality of accommodation. It is also about reducing the number of student residences we have so we can manage the activity better in more controlled locations, and reduce impact on local residents".

The development is expected to be ready by September 2012, subject to planning approval.

THE Lord Mayor of Canterbury Councillor Harry Cragg, has praised the work done by volunteers at Whitstable’s Royal National Lifeboat Station.

During a visit to the station, Councillor Cragg said: “We are pleased to have been able to come and meet the station’s volunteers and thank them for the great service and support they give and to see the lifeboat launch on an exercise”.

His visit coincides with the end of his term in office and was warmly received by the station’s crew, personnel and fundraisers. Councillor Cragg said;

KENT Police are questioning whether three fires involving major DIY stores in Kent are linked. The three incidents all occurred over the bank holiday weekend, 1-3 May and were all located within B&Q or Homebase stores.

Kent Fire and Rescue Services extinguished two fires over the weekend and were called to a B&Q store in Maidstone where the preparations of a blaze were found in an aisle of the store.

On Saturday 1 May, rescue services were called two separate fires, just an hour apart. The first incident came from a Homebase store in Aylesford after a fire broke out at around midday. Fire and Police officers remained at the scene until Monday, when the building was declared structurally unsafe, but the forensic team has yet been allowed access to the retail park.

Eighty firefighters from across the county tackled the blaze at the Quarry Wood industrial estate, which forced neighbouring stores and houses to be evacuated and the A20 to be closed. Police were treating the fire as suspicious, but are now reportedly looking at a link with a second fire.

A B&Q store in Larkfield reported a fire just one hour after the Aylesford blaze. Fortunately the incident was not as serious and the situation was controlled with the fire extinguished shortly after Firefighters arrived at the scene.

Two days later a third incident caused more concern, as the preparations of a fire were found in a wood aisle of another B&Q store, this time in Maidstone. The fire had not been started and the rescue services were quickly on hand to prevent any serious damage.

Kent Police’s Detective Superintendent Mick Judge said;

"We would like to hear from anyone who was at any of these stores who may have seen anything suspicious, around the time of the three incidents, over the bank holiday weekend. Please contact the incident room with any information you may have as it may prove vital to our investigation."

One man has been charged in connection with the incident at the B&Q store in Maidstone, but Police are still looking for further information and are looking into a possible link between the three incidents.

Anyone with any information can contact the incident room on 01622 654841. Alternatively contact Kent Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111

CANTERBURY Christ Church University new flagship, the Libary, provides student support facilities learning resource and conference and exhibition areas.

ADULTS unable to swim will be able to benefit from a new scheme in Canterbury and surrounding villages.

Canterbury City Council has teamed up with Active Life to provide free swimming lessons for adults over the age of 40. The lessons are aimed to 'increase water skills and confidence for adults who would like to swim but have never learnt how to'.

Mel Lea helps organise the scheme and believes swimming should be an accessible sport to anyone regardless of their age or skill level.

“Swimming is a skill most people take for granted, but for those who have never learnt it can be disheartening. Swimming is an excellent way to improve overall fitness and these lessons will help people gain confidence in the water,” she said.

Lessons will be carried out by qualified instructors with class sizes limited to a maximum of 12 people. They will take place at Kingsmead Leisure Centre in Canterbury, Whitstable Swimming Pool and Herons swimming pool in Herne Bay.

The free lessons are also available to adults with learning disabilities. Places are limited so it is best to book early to avoid disappointment.

More information can be found at the Active Canterbury website. To book lessons call Mel Lea on 01227 812 486 or email mel.lea@activelifeltd.co.uk.