People in Dover complain that however bad things get in the rest of the UK, they are always that bit worse in their town. They respond with sour amusement to Dover being portrayed in the media as the direst example of some UK-wide political or economic failing. “I tell people that I am from Dover and then leave it up to them to make some joke about the place,” says retired railwayman and long-time resident Mike Sargent.
For instance, many British towns and cities have their traffic problems, but few can be as bad as in Dover, where on one day in May vehicles queued for five hours to get on the cross-Channel ferries , leading to gridlock throughout the town. This congestion is even gaining an international reputation. “My grandparents who live in France get worried and ring me up to ask if I am okay,” says Nicolas Deshayes, an artist living in a house below the great 12 th century castle of Henry II that towers over Dover.
Though a small town with a population of 40,000, Dover has repeatedly provided extreme examples of UK problems far more serious than stationary traffic. Inequality has risen in Britain in the last 40 years, but in Dover it takes a physical form in the stark contrast between a rich and ultra-modern port and a poor and largely moribund town. The two are only a 100 yards apart, divided by the A20 dual carriageway down which streams 10,000 lorries a day.
National supply lines Dover is Europe’s busiest ferry port, handling £144bn, or 33 per cent, of th.
