Off the Record

Kent MPs appear to have a strong literary streak even if they are not quite on the scale of J.K. Rowling. The Folkestone and Hythe MP, Damian Collins, penned a wellreceived biography of the wealthy aesthete Philip Sassoon last year.

Meanwhile, Canterbury MP Julian Brazier has received modest rewards for his own novel, Viking Storm, about Alfred the Great.

Well received by the critics and with an endorsement by none other than Boris Johnson, who described it as “a pacy and suspenseful blockbuster”, it has not made its author a fortune.

According to the latest MPs register of interests, the MP received royalties of £613.03 in 2016, which leaves the former Maidstone MP, Ann Widdecombe, as the most successful author of past and present Kent MPs. KCC has produced a freight action plan setting out how it intends to deal with rising numbers of HGVs trundling through the county.

There’s not a great deal new – it largely consists of steps already taken and policies already published.

Still, at least it introduces a new entry into the lexicon of local authority waffle – describing the report as a “daughter document” to a previous transport strategy.

As opposed to a brother document