The only debate in Essex…

Some 200 people turned up at the Ursuline Convent School in Brentwood for the Essex Book Festival's debate on What Next for Essex? with the spiritual father of Essex Man, the Daily Mail's Simon Heffer (who actually intended his 1990 Essex Man profile as a compliment) and several other Essex luminaries including Vic Goddard from Educating Essex. Read the Brentwood Gazette's review here. Even if Towie is past its vajazzle-by date, I tend to agree with Gazette editor Neville Wilson that if Essex can laugh at itself it's no bad thing. It's a county of contrasts, Estuary Essex, Towie Essex, coastal Essex, Posh Essex, Anglian Essex... Should it all turn into a Balkans-style conflict then at least there's a precedent — Oliver Cromwell once had his headquarters in Saffron Walden. And we could just annexe Bishops Stortford anyway, as it's really part of Essex.